We Went to a Quilt Show. Because I Said So.

Searching is half the fun; life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.
–Jimmy Buffett

{The Quilt Mobile, as seen at The Original Sewing and Quilting Expo}

Last week I mentioned that we were going to a quilt show. Unfortunately, it wasn't the show with The Quilt Mobile. I mean how cool is that? My dad is going to be asking for one for Christmas.

I planned a little Scavenger Hunt to keep the Not-So-Little Bugs interested while I looked at the quilts. The show was rather smaller than I remembered it was in past years, so I had my fill of looking at quilts before Grasshopper had finished his scavenger hunt. How's that for irony ? A little bribery motivation in the form of an apple pie from McDonald's was all it took.

In the end, I came up with a list of twenty different quilts to find while we were there. I wanted the Not-So-Little Bugs to relate the quilts to themselves, but I threw in a few technical items as well. I came up with most of the list, but a few are from suggestions left in the comments on my post about it last week.

Find a quilt that reminds you of Summer.
Find a quilt that reminds you of Spring.
Find a quilt that reminds you of Winter.
Find a quilt that reminds you of Fall.
Find a quilt made for a specific holiday.
Find a quilt with your favorite color in it.
Find a quilt that only has two colors in it.
Find a rainbow quilt.
Find a quilt that you would like to have on your bed.
Find your favorite quilt.
Find a quilt with a blue ribbon on it.
Find a wholecloth quilt.
Find a hand quilted quilt.
Find a quilt with pinwheels in it.
Find a quilt with stars in it.
Find an appliqué quilt.
Find a quilt with feathers quilted in it.
Find a quilt with a grey background.
Find a pictorial or art quilt.
Find a scrap quilt.

When we got home, there were a few more suggestions in the comments.

Find a quilt with a cat/dog/animal on it.
Find a quilt that has a movie/tv/book theme.
Find a quilt that most resembles Mr. Bug's personality.
Find the ugliest quilt.

If I do this again, I will probably take some of the technical things off the list, shorten it a bit and add in a few of these items. Probably not the ugliest quilt, because that's just not nice. And with my luck, the person who made the quilt one of us deemed "the ugliest" would be standing right behind us while we photographed and recorded it on the Scavenger Hunt list.

It was really fun to come home and look through the photos and see the quilt show through LadyBug's and Grasshopper's eyes. Some of their choices were pretty obvious, or even a little off the mark. But some of them really surprised me and I loved seeing the quilt show from their perspectives.

We'll start with one of the more obvious choices. Both Grasshopper and LadyBug picked the same hand quilted quilt and I thought it was the best of the half-a-dozen or so there. It is called Simply Card Tricks.

The detail was amazing. If you click on the larger picture above, you can see some of it, but here's a close-up of the quilting in the card trick blocks.

One of the surprising picks was the quilt that Grasshopper wants on his bed. It was part of a collection of spotlight quilts done by Sharon Wright. There is a picture of The Savior in the center of the quilt. You can see it best when the picture is smaller, but make sure to click on it so you can see the beautiful detail in the Celtic knots.

Grasshopper chose this Super Mario Brothers quilt, as seen at the Cut to Pieces QAL and featured at Fandom in Stitches, which has 3888 – 1" squares, as his favorite. The quilt is 3x4, but Grasshopper's photography class doesn't start until school gets back in .

LadyBug chose this quilt, which was the first one inside the door, as the quilt that reminded her of summer! It is such an adorable quilt. I would have picked it for the appliqué quilt, but doesn't this just sing Summer to you?

LadyBug picked this pretty quilt, called Stepping Into Spring, as her appliqué quilt. I love the pretty colors.

Here's a close-up of the appliqué, which also has some embroidery.

This quilt, also by Sharon Wright, reminded Grasshopper of Summer.

I found it interesting that this quilt reminded Grasshopper of Winter.

It was probably my favorite quilt {but that's really hard to say for certain}, and what drew me to it were the colors, the Dresdens and the quilting.

But once Grasshopper said it reminded him of winter, it reminded me of it too.

I hope the Not-So-Little Bugs don't hold it against me too much that I dragged them to a quilt show, because I'm probably going to do it again later this month .

We're Going to A Quilt Show. Because I Said So.

Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it. –Winnie the Pooh

One of my goals for this summer was to spend more time doing things with the Not-So-Little Bugs. The past two summers have been new territory for our family with me working, and to be honest, they've spent an embarrassingly large number of hours with the electronic babysitters. I adjusted my schedule and the number of hours I'm working, made charts of weekly chores and activities and have made myself most unpopular with the enforcement of time-limits on screen time and the near-constant stream of harassment encouragement to my children to complete their daily tasks and to branch out and do some new and different things. I've offered options and made suggestions of things I think they might like to do and they're pretty luke-warm about everything. Since there's nothing they want to do we're going to a quilt show. Because that's what I want to do.

The response to this news was less than enthusiastic.

So I'm giving them an assignment to complete while we're there. My purpose is two-fold. First, I want to be able to spend more than 5 minutes looking at the quilts before hearing, “I want to go home now.” Second, I want it to be fun for them too.

Their assignment is a Quilt Show Scavenger Hunt. I've never seen one and I'm not really sure if I'd heard of such a thing before deciding that's what I wanted to do to make it interesting for my kids. I looked on-line and it isn't an original idea, but I could only find announcements that there would be scavenger hunts for kids at certain shows, but not any actual lists. And since I haven't been to this show yet {and it closes tomorrow}, I'm making it up as I go, here. My list contains things that I think will help make the quilt show more relate-able to the Not-So-Little Bugs. But, I've also put a few "technical" things on the list, so they can learn a little. I'll have them take photos of the quilt they think fits an item on the list while we're there. When we get home we'll look at the photos together and I'll have them help me put together a post about the quilt show later this week.

I won't require them to find every item on the list, but I want the list to be long enough to keep them entertained so that I can enjoy the quilts.

Find a quilt that reminds you of Summer.
Find a quilt that reminds you of Spring.
Find a quilt that reminds you of Winter.
Find a quilt that reminds you of Fall.
Find a quilt made for a specific holiday.
Find a quilt with your favorite color in it.
Find a quilt that only has two colors in it.
Find a rainbow quilt.
Find a quilt that you would like to have on your bed.
Find your favorite quilt.
Find a wholecloth quilt.
Find a quilt with a blue ribbon on it.
Find a quilt with pinwheels in it.
Find an appliqué quilt.

It's a start, but I think I need a few more things on the list, so if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment! And if you've done a Quilt Show Scavenger Hunt, I'd also like to know what worked and what didn't.

HMQS: Youth Division Best of Show Spotlight

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
–Marianne Williamson

I volunteered as quilt monitor at the Home Machine Quilting Show at the beginning of this month. I entered a quilt in the show and volunteering was the best ticket price to get in to see the quilts, so I took the opportunity. One of the quilts I was most impressed with was shoved way back in the corner, about as far from the door as you could possibly get. As a matter of fact, there was a whole group of quilts back there that should have had a better spot for display. What initially impressed me about this particular quilt was how well all of the corners matched, so I started to read the description card attached to the quilt:

This quilt is made of 238 3" bowtie blocks, each from a different fabric. While I was working on the top, I read about prom in the teen section of the paper (even though I'm not a teen yet) and noticed that the guys wear ties to match the girls' dresses. The different bowtie colors dancing across the quilt made me think that Prom Night would be a perfect name.

When I read even though I'm not a teen yet, I did a double-take and then I realized that I'd accidentally stumbled upon the Youth Division quilts {note to self: send suggestion to HMQS to put the youth division quilts in a better spot next year}. When it dawned on me that the person who made this quilt was under the age of 13 {I later found out she was only 11!!!}, I was all the more impressed with the precision of the work, and the fact that she had pieced and quilted it herself. She definitely deserved her ribbon.

When the quilter's mom stopped by and left a comment on one of my posts about the show asking about my quilt and saying that her daughter entered as well, I e-mailed her back and asked her which quilt was her daughter's. When she told me it was Prom Night I told her how amazed I was with her daughter's work. I asked her if her daughter might be interested in answering a few questions so I could share with you her beautiful quilt and a little bit of insight into it. I hope you will enjoy my interview with Sparkle Jane as much as I did.

Elizabeth: Tell us about the quilt you entered in the HMQS.
Sparkle Jane: Prom Night is a lap sized quilt, made entirely of bowtie blocks. The squares started out at 2" and each {3" finished} block is a different fabric. I finished the quilt in about one month from the time I heard about the show until it had to be submitted. My favorite part of the quilt is probably the pieced binding. It was a last-minute idea, but worked really well.

Elizabeth: How old were you when you first started sewing?
Sparkle Jane: A neighbor, who helped my mom when she was learning to quilt, gave me a box of sewing pins when I was about 18 months old. I would stand on a chair next to the ironing board and stick the board full of pins in colored patterns. At three I would sew buttons all over scraps of fabric. I think Mom still has one or two of those works of art. At six I finished my first quilt.

Elizabeth: What was your first project?
Sparkle Jane: As I said before, at six I made a blue and yellow flannel lap quilt that I still use regularly. Mom cut and I pieced then she made the wrapped binding. I don't really like that type of binding. But for a first quilt it is OK.

Elizabeth: What interested you in getting started?
Sparkle Jane: My mom. I grew up watching her quilt. Also, when I was little I had a box of fabric scraps that I could do anything I wanted with. This helped me get used to being creative with fabric. I made a few hand pieced blankets for cats. Those might be around here somewhere, too.

Elizabeth: Who taught you how to sew?
Sparkle Jane: Once again, my mother. She introduced me to sewing early and kept me interested in it.

Elizabeth: What is your favorite project?
Sparkle Jane: My favorite project is probably a wall hanging that I made when I was eight. It has leaves blowing in the wind that are fused applique. I traced real leaves to get the shapes. Details on the leaves and the "wind" are chain stitched embroidery. It is the only applique project I have done so far, but I have another one planned.

Elizabeth: What project are you working on now?
Sparkle Jane: Which project out of the twenty are you referring to?

Elizabeth: Do you have a list of projects you’d like to do and what are they?
Sparkle Jane: Long list. I am making more baby/lap sized quilts for sale.

Elizabeth: What techniques would you like to learn?
Sparkle Jane: No idea. There are so many options out there.

Elizabeth:How often do you sew (every day, a few times a week, etc.)?
Sparkle Jane: I sew in most of my spare time when I am not playing with friends, harrassing the cats or reading. School, chores, church activity and ballet really eat into my sewing time. But, I do manage to get in some time with fabric almost every day.

Elizabeth: What else would you like to tell us about yourself?
Sparkle Jane: When I grow up I want to be a mom who makes her kids clothes and quilts. If that doesn't exactly work out, I plan to be an engineer or an architect.

So many people have helped me along the way. People have been sending me fabric scraps, helping me learn, giving suggestions, buying quilts and generally being amazing. Thank you to them all.

My new blog is: Sparkle Jane Please consider visiting.

Thanks for inviting me to be a guest on your blog.

Sparkle Jane.

It was really fun to have you Sparkle Jane! Thank you for taking time to answer my questions!

You can see the other neat projects Sparkle Jane has been working on at her blog, and you can see where she gets her talent at Wedding Dress Blue, which is her mom's blog. You can read about their experience at the HMQS here.

HMQS: Judge's Marks

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day. –Marian Wright Edelman

I got the judge's marks back on the quilt I entered in the HMQS today. My marks were mostly positive, but there were a few items in the “needs improvement” category. After I got past the initial reaction to protect myself from criticism {which only took about 30 seconds}, I found the judge's marks to be very helpful. In the quality of quilting, I need to work on better control of the curves, as well as backtracking. In the last year since I finished the quilt I think my curves have improved, but I'll definitely be more mindful when I next do curves. I'll agree with the judge on the backtracking. It's a tricky business to learn and I still need to improve that.

My other “needs improvement” notes were on finishing—the entire category: straight edges, binding filled & securely stitched, miters stitched closed and square corners. This was kind of a surprise to me because binding a quilt is one of the things I love best. But I'll definitely take the notes and use them for improvement. Learning is the name of the game and I already I know how to improve the binding. I've been cutting it at 2½”, which leaves it a little bit loose. I'll start cutting at 2¼”, which should help with the fill. And I'll start stitching the miters at the corners closed. I kind of like them open, but if the judges want them closed, I'll give them what they want.

There were lots of positive comments; integration of color and design, overall precision of work {piecing, seams, points, borders, sashing} and the back of my quilt were all marked “well done.” I was particularly pleased with the things that were marked well done in the quality of quilting cateogry; stitch length, tension, distribution of quilting, and quilting pattern enhances. The final comments from the judge were, “Use of fabrics to form unity in design well done.” I'm really glad I entered and can't wait for the next show!

I wanted to share a two more of my favorites from the show. This first one is called Wisteria and it was amazing! I love all the 3-D details, the little embellishments in the flowers and the scroll-work border. Amazing! If you right-click on the photo, you can open it in a new tab and see it close-up.

This next quilt is called His Light Reflected. I love things in rainbow order. When I'm working with fabrics for a scrappy quilt, I always stack them in rainbow order. I always admire rainbow quilts and someday I'll maybe do one of my own. This one is so beautiful. I love how certain elements are repeated throughout the quilt.

Here is the center of the quilt. The quilting is absolutely spectacular.

The quilter matched the gradations of fabric from the center of the quilt out to the edges and matched her thread to the fabrics. It is such a simple quilt, but it is so gorgeous!

It is quilt show season and I am definitely looking forward to seeing more beautiful work!

HMQS: Best of Show

I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be. –Ken Venturi, Success Secrets of Super Achievers

Attending the Home Machine Quilting Show was really fun. I didn't take any classes {see also; new dishwasher} but did volunteer as a quilt monitor. My ulterior motive for volunteering was to get to see the quilts without paying admission. My job was to walk around the quilt displays giving plastic gloves to anyone trying to touch the quilts. When I checked in the woman who marked me off told me that I could take pictures as I wandered. It was a pretty sweet gig.

My first mission, while looking out for quilt-touchers, was to find my quilt. It was exciting. Once that was done, I took pictures of quilting motifs I want to try. Then I started to feel overwhelmed at all the beautiful quilts at the show. My little daisy among all those roses was starting to look more and more like a wilted dandelion. I started thinking about all the quilts I would never have time to make and that I will probably never be a show-stopping quilter. I wished that I could quilt full-time. It was a little sad.

And then I met the Best of Show winner. Her quilt is called America, Let it Shine.

I don't even know her name, but she is a mom, just like me, fitting in her quilting time between kids and chores and whatever else that life throws at her. She likes to draw her quilt designs out, just like me. And just like me, she works with the things that are available to her. She pieced and quilted this beautiful tribute to America on her 20 year-old Bernina.

I realized that I don't have to better than everybody else. I remembered that someone else's successes don't make me a failure. I was happy just to be a quilter—a better quilter than I was two years ago, and a member of a world-wide quilting community.

Putting a quilt in the HMQS was on my list of 40 things to do before I turn 40. I've got a few days less than eight months to work on my list, which makes it good timing for a little update.

I've checked a few things off my list since I posted the finished version of it, I have a few more things in the works, and was actually glad to be reminded of what is on there.

I'd forgotten about the tutorials. Two of them are half-written.

I'm pretty sure Mr. Bug is on board for taking the Little Bugs to Disney World in the fall.

I might have to re-think my goal of reading 5 books I haven't already read. I love to read, but you can't multi-task while you do it unless you listen to an audio book, which is just not the same thing.

I've discovered, in my pursuit to learn to love mornings, that it isn't mornings that I dislike. It is the waking up that I dislike. And conversely, I dislike going to bed at night, even though I very often wish I could during the middle of the day.

Posts about most of the things I've checked off the list:
Entering a quilt in the HMQS
Finished Quilts: Polka Dot, Rooster Table Runner
The Tulip Festival
The Piano Guys Concert
Tutorials completed: FMQ Swirls

Various & Sundry Monday: Vol. 27

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land:

So the little minutes,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the heaven above.

–Julia Carney

More from the Home Machine Quilting Show
I've been picking up the HMQS catalogs every spring for probably the last 4 or 5 years, always admiring the quilts they show off and browsing the class lists. As I flipped through those pages I thought I'd never, ever, in a million years be quilting my own quilts. But last year when I was looking at the catalog, I was particularly interested in the quilt show because I'd started quilting my own quilts. I'd missed the entry deadline, which was OK because I didn't really have anything good enough to go in a show anyway. But I decided then that I would enter this year. I entered my Snowball Quilt. I knew it would be a daisy among the roses and didn't expect to win. I thought it would be fun to enter, though, because at the time I'd finished it {which was about 11 months after I started doing FMQ}, it was the best quilt I'd done. The show was last weekend in Salt Lake and here's my quilt hanging in the show.

Quilt shows are subjective and each person gets a unique experience when they attend, which is why, I think, it is hard to share them properly in a blog post. I mostly took close-up photos of quilting techniques that I liked and want to have as a reference. But there were a couple of quilts that I really liked and want to share them with you. I started yesterday with one of my favorites and I'll share another today. Maybe I'll show a couple of others in the next few days, or maybe not. I haven't decided yet. The lighting wasn't the best for taking photos. I alternated between using the flash and not using it. I used the flash on this quilt and should have gone with my gut and taken some without the flash. I did the best I could in editing.

These little embroidered dresses are so amazing! I love the bead details the quilter added. It is hard to pick a favorite!

Can You Tell Me How to Get {Back} to Sesame Street?
I've had to put my Sesame Street Quilt on the back burner for a little bit, because I had some prior sewing commitments that are a little time consuming, but not very interesting to post. Mostly, I'm participating in a half-square triangle swap that I signed up for in February, but that isn't due until the end of this month. I figured there was plenty of time, right? Right. Anyway, there's no set number of HST's you have to make. You just make however many you want, keep a few of each of your color combinations for yourself and send the rest to the coordinator. You get back the same number of HST's you sent in and then you can make something fabulous with them when they come back. I decided that I didn't want to be on top of the deadline for this one, so I've put the Sesame Street quilt on hold and have been working on getting them together. The HST's are 2" finished and I'll need 888 of them to make a nice lap-sized quilt. Picking and prepping the fabrics was fun, but sewing them together, even using a speed-piecing method, is killing me. Can you say snooze-fest?

My point is, 888 half-square triangles in the prep and sewing stages does not make for interesting blog fodder. I'm still looking for the balance between work, home, kids and me, so when I have a few free minutes and the choice is between sewing or blogging, sewing has been winning, even though it's not interesting enough to post about. When I get my swap triangles back and start sewing them together, then that will be interesting. And as soon as I get them wrapped up and in the mail, I'll be back to the Sesame Street quilt, racing for the deadline. The first quilt show is June 8^th and 9^th. If I miss that one, I have a few days before the entry period for the next quilt show. If I miss the second show, then I have three more weeks until the show here in town at the Art Museum, which is the show I really want to make it to. Hopefully, I'll be done with these HST's in the next few days and back to Sesame Street before mid-week {yeah, yeah. I know. Wishful thinking.}.

I was really inspired by Michelle's patterns and that's where this quilt started. As I've worked on blocks, I've also been working out all the details of the quilt, including how to quilt it. I wanted to do something other than my favorite swirls in the sashing and feathers in the border. Those didn't seem to really fit this quilt. I was inspired by a couple of things Lane is doing on his red silk quilt. I loved the pumpkin seed border and figured it would fit really nicely in the sashing of the Sesame Street quilt. Not so much.

The outer corners don't match up, and the intersections are kind of weird. So I asked Lane what he thought. He made some really great suggestions for making a motif work in your space. I revised. Lane {and everybody else}, what do you think? Do the little spacers work, or do I need to go back to the drawing board?

Monday Music Spot: A Thousand Years
The Piano Guys' latest release is an amazing! I don't think there is one thing they've done that I haven't like. But this one is extra cool because it also has a really great Twilight connection. They've put together an arrangement of Christina Perri's A Thousand Years from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack and it is beautiful.


Available for purchase from The Piano Guys or on iTunes

Story behind the song:
Our kids give us great inspiration for our music. When Jon's 17 year-old daughter said how much she loved this song, Jon decided to try it. He experienced a flood of inspiration. "Never has a piano part come together this fast" Jon says. Steve experienced similar inspiration while composing the cello parts. Since the lyrics suggest a bride walking towards the groom in a ceremony we thought we would include a quote from the Bridal Chorus by Wagner in the climax of the song (it is carefully disguised).

As it seems to always go, Paul and Tel didn't find the spot until they spent 9 hours driving around southern Utah the day before the shoot looking. After getting a little discouraged by not finding anything that great, they just happened to check out a little hidden spot right near Baker Dam and thought it was perfect for the song. The next morning we all loaded up the piano and headed out there to film, but after getting the Truck and Trailer stuck and waiting for the sun to move, we didn't get started filming until that evening having about 3 hours of light. It was so fun to film and play in the middle of the trees!

Credits
A Thousand Years written by CHRISTINA PERRI, DAVID HODGES
Published by SUMMIT BASE CAMP FILM MUSIC, EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC, CHRISTINA PERRI D/B/A MISS PERRI LANE PUBLISHING
Arrangement produced by Jon Schmidt
Arrangement written by Al van der Beek, Jon Schmidt, & Steven Sharp Nelson
Performed by
Jon Schmidt: piano
Steven Sharp Nelson: acoustic cello, & cello-percussion
Music recorded, mixed & mastered by Al van der Beek at TPG Studio
Video produced by Paul Anderson & Tel Stewart

HMQS: Their Mothers Knew It

stripling: [ˈstripliŋ] n. a boy or youth not yet fully grown

In The Book of Mormon, there is a story of 2000 young men who go to war to defend their families, their liberties and their beliefs. Years before this, their fathers had been a bloodthirsty people and were constantly at war. Killing had become a way of life and they did it just for the pleasure of it. When they came to know Jesus Christ, they swore an oath that never again would they shed any blood and they buried their weapons as a symbol of their commitment to obey to the commandments of God. However, they were about to break their covenant because an army of their enemies was on its way to to destroy their peaceful way of life and they saw that the army defending them needed more men to fight. When their sons saw this, they knew that they could not let their fathers break their covenant to God.

Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it. –Alma 56: 47-48

These 2000 Stripling Warriors went to battle, never having fought before but with great faith that God would protect them because their mothers had taught them to believe. These young men played a major role in saving their people and though many were wounded, not a single one of them was killed in battle.

Today, it is my sincere prayer that the young warriors I have been given charge over will not doubt that God will help and guide and protect them; that they will not doubt that their mother knows it.

---

On Friday, I volunteered as a quilt monitor at the Home Machine Quilting Show. One of the quilts that I loved most was called The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I loved the beautiful fabrics and colors the quilt maker used, and I was especially touched by the block that portrays the story of the 2000 Stripling Warriors from the perspective of the mother watching those young men depart for battle.

Request a free copy of The Book of Mormon.

More Family Fun

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. –Gertrude

Our second day of Art City celebrations started with the parade. Don't you just love a parade? My favorite are the Rodeo Queens riding their horses in fancy western gear. Love it! And pretty high up there on my list of what makes a great parade are the pageant royalty floats. Round it off with a good marching band and you're set. The Little Bugs and I had a great time at the parade this morning. I gave Grasshopper my old camera and let him loose on the floats as they came by. He really got into it. If this were the old days, he would have filled 5 rolls of film!

We also visited the car show. Local auto enthusiasts brought their collections and it was held at an auto body shop. My favorite is that little cream Porsche in the bottom right corner. I have about four pairs of shoes that would look great with that car. The green truck on the top center was also of particular interest, except it is the wrong color and year.

One of my favorite Art City Days activities is the Quilt Show, sponsored by the local quilt guild and my favorite LQS. It is very informal and not a judged show, except the guild picks two winners overall and two youth winners. A viewer's choice award is also given to the quilt that gets the most votes during the two days at the show. It is so fun to share quilts and see all the amazing things other quilters in the community have done. This year, I took Mr. Bug's T-Shirt quilt.

We ended our day with the fireworks display at just after 10:00 pm. We got a great parking spot and a great place to watch the show and it only took us about 20 minutes to get out of the tangle of traffic and back home. I think that this year's Art City Days was a success. We had lots of fun, used copious amounts of sunblock, and came out the other side tired but happy. Until next year!

Dance of the Dragonflies

You hail from Dream-land, Dragon-fly?
A stranger hither? So am I,
And (sooth to say) I wonder why
We either of us came!
–Agnes M.F.R. Darmesteter, To a Dragon-fly

I have this great big, empty, boring, white wall in my kitchen that I decided needed a little sprucing up. I thought it would be fun to have a seasonal quilt to hang for each month of the year. I put together a list of quilts I'd seen and liked or ideas of things I wanted to do and made them fit into the year. The first quilt I've finished for this little project of mine is called Dance of the Dragonflies {pattern available here}.

I started working on this quilt in June of 2008. I finished it at the end of the summer and took it to be quilted at my favorite LQS. Chantel, their long-arm quilter {who has since moved on to other things} did a seriously amazing job on the quilting. She added antennae to each dragonfly and then quilted a different design into the wings of each color dragonfly {all the red have the same design, all the turquoise have the same design, etc.}. Here is a close-up on one section of four dragonflies. You can see the beautiful job she did {click on the picture to enlarge}.

I got the quilt back from the quilter's in November, but I didn't put the binding on until spring of 2009 – quilt show time . The first quilt show was a small two-day show, sponsored by the local quilt guild and that favorite LQS of mine, during our city's festival days. There were 50 or 60 quilts in it, displayed during the last two days of the festival. The quilt guild gave out several awards, and during the show people who came in could vote for their favorite quilt. Mine received the most votes and I was awarded the Viewer's Choice, which came with a pretty purple ribbon and a $25 prize {which was quickly reinvested in the fabric arts}.

I picked the quilt up on Saturday night and the next Monday morning I took it to the next quilt show which was rather larger; sponsored by several quilt shops and a larger quilt guild. There were several different divisions and I entered in the wall hanging division {the obvious choice for a quilt that was made specifically to hang on the wall in my kitchen during the month of June}. There were perhaps a twenty or so other quilts in that division, and again I won the Viewer's Choice award. I got another pretty ribbon and a $15 gift certificate from one of the quilt shop sponsors {I still have that – I'm saving it to put towards machine quilting by the shop owner for my October quilt}. This show was a little bit longer than the last show and the Viewer's Choice awards were given out at the beginning of the last week, so I was able to get a picture of my quilt hanging at the show.

The third show I entered last summer was held at the Springville Museum of Art and is one of their yearly exhibits. The quilts entered are amazing, the competition is pretty stiff and the prizes are much higher. There are usually around 100 quilts in the show, with 20 prizes awarded. I didn't win a prize at this show, but it was really amazing to see my quilt displayed as a work of art in a gallery.

As I mentioned, the quilter, Chantel, did a fabulous job. Her work is what really makes this quilt amazing. Here are a couple of close-ups of some of the details she put into my quilt. This is along one of the borders:

This is in one of the corners:

Because this quilt will hang in the kitchen on the wall right next to the table, I wanted to have some matching place mats {which no one will ever eat off of} to put on the table. I improvised a bit, and had a hard time getting the sizing right for the curved borders along the edges with the small space I had to work in, but I wanted the theme to carry through from the quilt to the place mats. I made six place mats; two with red dragonflies, one with orange, one with turquoise and two with blues. The batik fabric varied in color, so I used the different tones to make each dragonfly a little bit different from the others. Here is the only placemat I have completely finished. I still need to do the hand stitching on the binding for the other five.

When I started the dragonfly quilt, I wasn't sure how I was going to hang my kitchen quilts. I've since decided to put loops across the top of all of them, so I'll need to go back and undo the hand stitching on the binding across the top of the quilt so I can put the loops in. I also need to sew the label on the back and get a pretty quilt hanger to put up on the wall in the kitchen. I'm thinking that if I tie up all the loose ends on the Dragonflies, it can be June year-round in my kitchen while I finish up the other months.

Piece, Love, Twilight: A Quilt for Stephenie Meyer

I've been a member of the Twilight Quilters Coven for more than a year. Our official anniversary is March 31, 2009, but we were talking about Twilight and quilting and working on our own Twilight themed quilts before we formed our group. We live scattered across the United States, Canada and even have a member in Australia. As we chatted about the books and quilting and quilting about the books we decided that we wanted to give something back to the woman who has inspired each of us in so many ways. Despite the geographical obstacles, we began work on a Twilight themed quilt that was eventually named Piece, Love, Twilight: A Quilt for Stepehnie Meyer.

When we began this quilt, we'd never met each other in person. We coordinated design and blocks on a thread at TwilightMOMS. Our starting point came from a member who has since left our group. She suggested a medallion for the center of the quilt with a representation of each of the book covers in the parts of the medallion. Because I'm bossy and opinionated, she and another of our group nominated me to be the project leader, and being bossy and opinionated, I took the job. I took the medallion idea and ran with it. I made a scale paper model of the medallion and then we began discussing ways to complete the rest of the quilt. We brainstormed for the best ways represent the books in quilt blocks and make it work with the medallion center. We decided to put a quote from each book in the four corners of the quilt and blocks representing characters and key parts of the books on all four sides. I had no experience with PhotoShop (still don't), or even Microsoft Paint, so I Mickey Moused another paper model, printing out pictures and a rough grid filled in with color so that we could have a layout to be getting on with.

Each of us signed up for blocks that interested us and when they were completed, everyone mailed them to me for assembly. My part of the quilt was the three outer layers of the medallion. I felt like the quilter who had come up with the medallion idea should have the honor of creating the center block. Here are a few shots of my blocks.

This is the parrot tulip from the New Moon cover. The Twilight and Breaking Dawn covers really make sense after you've read the books, but the parrot tulips on the New Moon cover have a lot of folks shaking their heads. In the weeks after I read the books, I read on-line somewhere that Stephenie Meyer didn't have a lot of say in the book covers until the later books.

My favorite paper piecing designer, Cat is responsible for no less than six of the designs in this quilt. But at the time, she didn't have a design for the Eclipse cover ribbon (another one that makes us wonder). So I decided to use real ribbon. This was a bit of a scary proposition, though, and so I sashed the center block, cut my setting triangles and moved on to making the Breaking Dawn chess board. I'd already modeled that out in about 12,472 1" paper squares, so I knew what I was up against there. I thought that if I had the Breaking Dawn portion of the medallion all ready to go, it would force me to come back to the ribbon and just do it.

I used the actual book cover as a model for the placement of the ribbon on the quilt. I snipped away a section of the selvage edge of the ribbon with my sharpest scissors and pulled out the cross threads. Then I hacked away the length-wise threads kind of the way the hairstylist does when she's texturizing your hair. I pinned it in place and sewed it down. It was kind of a group consensus to make it a continuous pattern through the four setting triangles, rather than repeating the ribbon break in each section. I think it worked out well.

This section was pretty smooth sailing, for the most part. I strip pieced as much as possible and only sewed individual 1½" blocks when absolutely necessary. I used the Breaking Dawn cover for the chess pieces — traced them onto paper and then reversed that over a light table and onto Heat 'n Bond Lite. The shadow details were added in by the marvelously talented quilter, Vivian of Quilts with Love.

Here is the complete center of the quilt. I find myself wondering if this quilt has any appeal greater than a niche market. But you kinda have to admit that the red, white and black really catches the eye, even if you have no clue what it is all about.

The blocks came in and as everyone else's work on the quilt was complete, I still had a bit to do. I arranged the blocks around the center and took photos of different layouts. We talked about it and may have even had a formal vote on it. The layout we ended up with was a general consensus among the group. When I finished the top, I mailed it to Vivian, who did a beautiful custom quilting job on it. She then hand-delivered the quilt back to me for binding and a label.

Elizabeth (l) and Vivian (r), July 8, 2009

When the quilt was finished, we entered it in the Springville Art Museum quilt show where it won Best Group Quilt with a $100 prize (which was donated to ALSF) and the Pacific International Quilt Festival. We were even featured in the February/March 2010 issue of Quilter's Home Magazine. We sent the quilt to Stephenie Meyer in January of 2010 as thanks for the inspiration she gives to each of us.

Here are some close-up shots of the individual blocks (place cursor in the right hand corner to bring up play options to pause, stop, etc. the slideshow):

Block credits
Medallion Center:
Twilight Book Cover: Forbidden Fruit pattern by Cat, piecing by Shannon
New Moon Book Cover: Broken Petals pattern by Cat, piecing by Elizabeth
Eclipse Book Cover: design and piecing by Elizabeth
Breaking Dawn Book Cover: design and piecing by Elizabeth

Miscellaneous:
Quilt layout, assembly and binding: by Elizabeth
Book Quotes: machine embroidery by Jerri Lynn
Machine Quilting: by Vivian

Top Row:
The Forks Forest: design and piecing by Wanda
Charlie: Two-Tone Star pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein, design and piecing by Jerri Lynn
Vampire Baseball: pattern by Elizabeth, piecing by Wanda
Bella's Truck: Red Truck pattern by Cat, piecing by Joyce
“My” Jacob: Paw Print pattern by Cat, piecing by Jean

Left Column:
Vegetarian Vampire Eyes: traditional jewel box pattern, piecing by Jean
Carlisle & Esme: Hardback Book pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein, layout and piecing by Iris
Emmett & Rosalie: Grizzly Bear pattern by Linda Hibbert at Silver Linings Originals, piecing by Shannon
Jasper & Alice: Crystal Ball pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein, Jasper fabric by Iris, piecing by Shannon
The Meadow: pattern and piecing by Iris

Right Column:
The “Other” Jacob: Howling Wolf pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein, piecing by Joyce
La Push: First Beach: La Push: First Beach pattern by Cat, piecing by Jerri Lynn
Bella's Bracelet: Charm Bracelet pattern by Cat, piecing by Joyce
Edward's Diamond Heart: pattern and piecing by Iris
The Volturi: Clock Tower at Volterra: pattern and piecing by Iris

Bottom Row:
And So the Lion Fell In Love With the Lamb: Lion pattern by Linda Hibbert, Lamb pattern by Four Twin Sisters, piecing by Shannon
Bella & Edward's Wedding Dance: Strike Up the Band part 1 and part 2 pattern by Liz Schwartz & Stephen Seifert, piecing by Shannon
Isle Esme: Quill pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein, layout and piecing by Iris
Renesmee's Locket: design and piecing by Joyce
Bella & Edward's Stone Cottage: pattern and piecing by Shannon

Our group also created a New Moon quilt for the release of the movie in November of 2009. The quilt was auctioned off for $850, all of which was donated to ALSF.

We are currently working on an Eclipse donation quilt, the proceeds of which will also go to ALSF.

Working with a geographically scattered group creates an interesting dynamic. You have to give up a certain amount of control and develop trust in your fellow quilters. The result is sometimes unexpected, but alway amazing. Thanks ladies for a wonderful year of quilting together. I'm looking forward to many more.

P.S. Although we really expected nothing in return, it was totally awesome to receive a personalized autographed New Moon collector's edition from Stephenie Meyer in the mail. Each of us got one. Pretty amazing!