Pacific West Quilt Show

I've finally recovered from the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma, Washington.  Many thanks to the Victoria Quilter's Guild who arranged the bus trip and kept us all on track.  Except for the little glitch at the border when you know who tried to get across with what she thought was an enhanced driver's licence.  Yes, me of course, but whew I made it.  (Passport in the making now).  Here are  the treasures I managed to secure and what fun it was.

Every quilt show I attend I'm more and more amazed at the talent displayed.  This one was no exception and I was in awe.  How do they do it? 

 For your enjoyment some of the quilts that caught my eye.

 Many hand appliqued quilts in the show.

 My colors for sure.

 This was a major winner and no need to ask why.

Front 

 The back

 I just love the colors in this quilt.

 Doesn't this just make you want to do a little hop, skip and jump?

 This is just me in front of what I call the Rickrack Quilt.  My Mom used Rickrack on everything when I was little.  Need I say more. No disrespect to the quilter who spent hours on the beauty.

 What little girl wouldn't fall in love with this quilt.  It says tea party all over.  Stunning.

 Done by a Calgary quilter. Front cover of a major quilt magazine.

 OK, so when I win the lottery I'm going to make a quick trip to Bernina.

Well folks I hope you enjoyed a little of what Tacoma had to offer.

Tacoma you put on a great show and I was very impressed with your friendliness and desire to make sure we all had fun.

Hole-In-One-Blocks

Here are a few of my blocks from the class Hole-In-One with Bettye Sheppard on Sunday. 

Amazing how theses blocks are so different.  

And just a few more to do but oh what fun.

Hope your day is full of quilty fun and a good cup of coffee.   I guess that's what I'm looking forward to.

Winners and more winners

K for Kathy-I wished.

This is the talented lady who constructed this quilt.

I thought this "hen" was so cute with the felted eggs around her.

A satin necktie crazy patch wall hanging.

This is our Miriam aka Rogue Quilter and she won a ribbon with this Dr Seuss quilt

Another winning crazy patch wall hanging from the  Rogue

This is in the center of Miriam's wall hanging.  It is a Sashiko dragon 

This was done in silks and was quite subtle in it's coloring but very effective. 

Done in wool  by Natasha aka Joy of Quilting.  This has special meaning for her and done with a few tears I'm sure.

Another Natasha marvel.  I so love the fabric in this quilt.

Aren't these fun colors too?!

This past weekend was filled with .....quilting, of course.  The Cloth Castle had their annual Quilter's Along the Avenue quilt challenge and though I didn't have anything entered I thoroughly enjoyed those who did.  The theme was Crazy Patch quilts and I have quilt envy again.

The next day I was back at Cloth Castle to take a class with a great teacher, Bettye Sheppard.  We are lucky that the USA lets us borrow her for several months of the year.  Her quilting knowledge is extensive and we learnt so many quilty things.  Her class is called Hole-In -One and is a type of Stack 'N Wack.  

This is Bettye's Hole-In-One quilt,  lovin' the flowers.

What a great weekend, hope yours was as quiltaculer as mine was. 

A Giveaway over at Jackie's Art Quilts

Head over to Jackie's Art Quilts as she has a great giveaway going on.  Good luck to everyone!  http://jabotquilt.blogspot.com/

Coming Clean

I took a little trip up island to Naniamo to visit a quilt shop called Snip and Stitch who had their annual tent sale on yesterday.  There was a lot less fabric left because Sweet P - aka Paulette had been there ahead of me.  No, I don't NEED anything she said.  Well head over to her blog and find out what she didn't need   !http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/.

I needed to be a good girl because near the end of August I am going to the APWQ ( Association of Pacific West Quilters ) Show in Tacoma, Washington with the Victoria Quilt Guild so I must save my quilting money for that.

I did buy some fat quarters which ranged from $1.59 to $1.99 that will work well for my Farmer's Wife project and because I had a coupon for 30% off of reg priced items I found a GO! die and rack that was calling my name.  I didn't overspend but came home pleased with my finds.

My quilting buddy found this book while there and purchased it for me for an early birthday gift.  I was so pleased as I love Scrappy!  It is the  All Time Favorite Scrappy Quilts book from That Patchwork Place.  Lucky me.  What a fun day and to add to your fun there is a giveaway going on at "Sew Fun Quilts" so take a peek and see what you could win.  http://sewfunquilts-sewmeow.blogspot.com/2011/08/heywanna-win-free-giveaway.html

Have a great Sunday everyone.

This how you save time using your GO!  At least that is what I hoped to do.  I wanted to make some 4 patches so I cut out a pile of  2 1/2'' lengths with my GO!  After sewing them in strips I was bemoaning having to cut the sewn strips for the four patches.  So here is where the laziness aka resourcefulness reared itself.

What if I took those strips and laid them on the GO! and cut them crosswise?
I drew a line parallel to the cutting blades at the top of the die with a Sharpie pen.


I lined up my first strip exactly on that new line then added another four strips underneath that. You can't rush this, take your time.  After all it's sink or swim now right.  Then the GO! did it's magic and my strips were cut once again.

I measured them to make sure they were accurate and of course they were.  After all I'm using the Go! remember.

Once sewn together they look like this.

Look how cute they are all pressed.

This was fast and precise so it doesn't get much better than that.



                                                         

I made the rule so I can break the rule.

After working on my scrappy Tumbler quilt I knew that I didn't have enough light scrappy pieces.  My thought was to only use scraps but I had to 'scrap' that rule and went to my stash and found these Batik pieces and with a quick roll of my Baby Go! it got me on the right track.  I love my Baby Go! because it takes no time at all to cut up these Tumbler pieces, less than a minute, no kidding it's that fast!

Also another couple of blocks from my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt. 

This is number 29 - Cut Glass Dish

Here is number 30 - End of Day

So I am off to whip up (Ha Ha) a few more blocks today for the FWSQ.  So wish me luck or at least wish me matching seams!

Not many days left for the Giveaway

Hurry over to Natasha at Joy of Quilting's blog.  She is giving away this cool Slice and you wouldn't want to miss getting in on the action.http://joyofquilting-natasha.blogspot.com/2011/06/oh-my-goodness-i-have-awesome-giveaway.html

What was I thinking.....

I had planned to get back to my Dresden Quilt but once I pressed the stitching and started the process of turning these little cuties I changed my mind.  I knew this was a job to be done while watching a boring show on TV so I quietly set it aside.

Once that decision was made I cleaned my sewing room, no picture of a before and after so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I then finished off a couple more FWQS blocks.  I put together #21 Contrary Wife (Does a contrary wife even exist?)

Skipped to #29 Economy

A shout out to a talented and generous quilter, Rachelle Quadros who is the gal sitting in the picture.  Once a month Rachelle gives our quilt group 10 blocks of  The Farmer's Wife Quilt Sampler she has already worked the kinks out of.  Yes, we are lucky to have someone do all the math and shortcuts for our joint project.  You rock Rachelle.

Only 8 more blocks left to do for this month so can't wait to get back to my Bernina.

I give a Hoot

Hoo wouldn't fall in love with these faces.  Time to save up my pennies so I can buy the dies from Accuquilt to make these sweeties.http://www.accuquilt.com/patterns/project-ideas/go-projects/home-decor/go-give-a-hoot-owl-pillows.html

Winner of the Baby Go!

Well, today is the big day and I decided to phone my mother who lives in a Senior's Lodge in LLoydminster, Ab to randomly choose a number from 1-467 and she choose #81. She had no clue as to why she was choosing this number so will have to phone back and explain later.  So that lucky person is a lady by the name of Sandy from Zach's Quilting Mom blog.  Congratulations Sandy.   I'm sure that winning a Baby Go! and 3 dies of her choice will make her day.  Thanks to all who participated in this giveaway.  I appreciate all your comments and can't wait to get to know everyone better through our love of quilting.  Keep your eyes open as there are a few Baby Go's being given away out in blog land lately.