My AVQA Quilt Guild’s annual show in Lancaster, California, just closed. It was a great show! I am posting pictures of some of the winning quilts, below, but the first picture is of the winner of my fundraiser quilt for Halfway to Home dog rescue. On the left is Beverly of Halfway to Home; on the right is my friend, Sue, who won the quilt.
Charlie’s Quilt Winner
Here are some winning quilts from the show:
Dargate Baskets by Barbara G. Goddard
Duck Tracks, quild group quilt, machine quilted by Sue Handley
“Loose Threads” group quilt (Bea Wheeler, Sue Hartman, June Brown, Linda Fraterman, Bobbie Edwards, Karen Stenback); Hand quilted by Bea Wheeler.
A Spring Bouquet by Barbara G. Goddard
My Dakota Quilt by Barbara Zamora-Athy
Pepper Dish by Barbara G. Goddard
Zebra by Cheryl Nieman
Night Owl by Karen Stenback
This beautiful quilt by Sue Jacobsen, featured in one of my earlier blogs, won four ribbons, including Best of Show and Viewer’s Choice. It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.
I took my Halfway to Home Dog Rescue fundraiser quilt, otherwise known as “Charlie’s Quilt”, to the Glendale Quilt Show last month. It was a cold rainy day, and show attendance was spotty, so I had a chance to talk with members from other guilds who were there showing their Opportunity Quilts.
This is a pic of the Big Bear Opportunity Quilt, and it is an absolutely stunning quilt. I asked if they could send me a good pic of the quilt, and I just received this from Loretta of their guild.
If you click on the quilts, you can see a larger version.
There were two Opportunity Quilts being shown by the two quilt guilds of the San Fernando Valley. One meets in the daytime; the other meets at night.
This is the quilt from the Valley Quiltmakers Guild called “Antique Romance”, with original design by Kim Diehl; machine quilted by Joyce Wilkinson of Quiltn’ For You Quilt Studio.
Below is the quilt from the San Fernando Valley Quilt Association called “The CornerFlower Shop”, original applique design by Margarete Heinisch and Zena Thorpe.
This next Opportunity Quilt is from the Orange Grove Quilters Guild, called “WoodlandCreatures, designed by Rosemary Makhan, quilted by Diane Beauchamp.
And here is the opportunity quilt from my Antelope Valley Quilt Association (AVQA).
Wonderful quilts! Of course I bought tickets for each, and I’ll let you know which one I win!
Last month talented Quilt Designer and Teacher, Lyn Mann, came and spoke to our guild. Lyn has taught quilters on land at places like Road to California, and at sea on 7 quilting cruises including Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, and a cruise from the West Coast of Africa to Barbados. To the left is one of Lyn’s quilt patterns. You can visit Lyn’s website at www.quiltsbylyn.com to see more of her beautiful quilts and purchase her patterns.
We asked Lyn to teach a class on her Birthday Quilt pattern.
With her Birthday Quilt pattern, the combination of the numbers of your birth month and day correspond to two sets of half-square triangles which, when combined, make up your own very special birthday quilt block, which you then use to design your very own special birthday quilt. The workshop was great fun, and we each came out of it with a very special quilt. As you can see, each of us has a different birthday!
This was Lyn’s sample quilt for us:
This pic shows us hard at work, designing our own birthday quilts:
Sandy is deep in thought:
Here is Lyn consulting with Joe about his quilt:
And here are the completed tops (before quilting) at the end of the day. Lyn says the secret to success with these quilts is to use two high-contrast fabrics. (Mine did not have enough contrast for me to really see the pattern, so I am in the process of making another.)
This quilt top is by “Anonymous”:
This is Patty’s top:
This is one of Donna’s blocks – it takes four to make a wallhanging.
This is Betty’s top:
Corinne’s top:
Several more tops by “Anonymous”:
And this is mine, held by Corinne – you can see why I am making another – difficult to see the pattern.
These are really fun to make, and would make a thoughtful gift for a friend, loved one, or even a wedding gift, using their special dates.
I took Charlie’s quilt this past weekend to the Glendale Quilt Show. The show was great, and best of all, Sue Jacobsen, a friend from my Antelope Valley Quilt Guild, took Best of Show for this beautiful hand appliqued, hand quilted quilt. She says she spent three years making this quilt, and the picture just does not do it justice!
Here is Sue showing her ribbon:
And it does not stop with this year’s quilt! Sue won a ribbon for Best Quilt from a First Time Entrant at the Road to California quilt show in 2010 for this quilt. If you could see this quilt in person, you would see that the ‘sparkly’ fabrics she used add to an overall stunning effect!
Sue also won the Best of Show award at our local AVQA quilt show for this quilt, several years ago, which was the first hand appliqued, hand quilted quilt she had ever made. Amazing quilts from an Amazing quilter!
In keeping with the animal theme, March has come into Southern California like a lion! The winds have been throwing my rose trellises around, daily, and giving me a good excuse to stay indoors and finish some projects. To the left is my dog, Charlie.
I have finished my owl quilt that I started in Marguerette’s workshop (see previous post).
I still have to add beaded fringe along the bottom and beaded highlights on the owl and background, but the basic quilt is finished. Whew! Now I am ready to have fun with the embellishments.
Now, about the “20 Dog Project”. It probably should be named “Charlie’s Quilt” because it all started with a small black dog I named Charlie because his mustache reminded me of Charlie Chaplin, who was sometimes referred to as the “Little Tramp”. My Charlie started out as a ‘little tramp’, as well. We found him sleeping in my daughter’s yard, where he had been for three days. Because I was going on my trip to Minnesota, I placed Charlie with an organization called “Halfway to Home Dog Rescue”, with the understanding that I might want to adopt him when I returned. I called to pick him up when I returned, and was told that Charlie had been sick with Parvo, but they had caught it in time, and the vet was able to miraculously pull him through. Charlie has been with me since September, and after finding quilt patterns, fabric, batting, and spools of thread in my back yard, I was not surprised to find out that Charlie was just a pup, at eight months old. Charlie is eager to please, and a great little guy to have around! I feel lucky to have him.
The place that helped Charlie, Halfway to Home, established and run by Suzanne Poth, is a wonderful dog rescue organization. The dogs they rescue are well loved and well cared for. Last fall they were in jeopardy of being closed by local authorities for some, what seemed like rather arbitrary, conditions not being met, like not having closed, heated cement runs for all of their dogs. There was a public outcry, so they were given several years to bring the facility into compliance. I wanted to do something to help them raise the $35,000 they need for upgrades, and realized that, as a quilter, I could make a quilt and hold an opportunity drawing for it. So that is what I am doing.
This is Charlie’s Quilt.
If any of you would like to make a donation to win this quilt, please contact me at kryn44@hotmail.com.
The dog appliques were fused and then hand embroidered and appliqued by me, and machine quilted by my friend, Bea Wheeler. The patterns came from books by Darcy Ashton, Big Beautiful Dogs, and DarlingLittle Dogs.
This is before the binding was on:
If you would like to find out more about Halfway to Home, below are several links:
This is their home page: http://www.halfwaytohome.net/featuredpet.html
The drawing for the quilt will be held /at the Antelope Valley Quilt Association spring quilt show, Lancaster, California, Sunday, May 20th, 2012. You do not need to be present to win.
In all the hoopla of my trip to Road to California, I forgot that the weekend before I went to Road, I took a workshop from Marguerette Tate of Redlands, California. Marguerette describes her quilts as being “…just a little outside the box”, and as a former schoolteacher of 35 years, she describes her mission as being to ‘inspire quilters to become more confident designers and quilt makers’. In her presentation to my local guild, she showed us some wonderfully embellished quilts. She teaches several different workshops. The one she taught us was on animal quilts, but we have asked her to come back to teach a workshop on her flower quilts, in April.
Marguerette’s technique involves creating the background for the quilt separately from the animal that goes on top of the background. This adds to the dimensionality of the quilt.
Marguerette had patterns and kits available for us, as well as beads and embellishments, and I chose to make the large owl, below, which is still ‘in process’.
Here is the muslin beginning of her rooster pattern:
Here are several more of her animal quilts:
And here is a pic of one of her flower quilts that she will be teaching us in April.
I cannot wait for her next class! Now to finish my owl….!
You can reach Marguerette at: (909) 794-9357, or mandmcreations@dslextreme.com .
If you have never experienced Cherrywood Fabrics, you are in for a Treat! The company is located in Brainerd, Minnesota and makes hand-dyed fabrics that have the look of suede, with a beautiful tone-on-tone texture that is created from their special dying process.
I first met Linda, from Cherrywood, at Road to California about five years ago, and during our conversation as fellow Minnesotans, we realized that she and her husband used to eat at my brother’s restaurant on Mille Lacs Lake. What a small world it is! I renewed my friendship with Linda this year at Road, and we have agreed that we have to ‘do lunch’ the next time I am in the state.
But back to fabric. The colors of Cherrywood are gorgeous. I have fallen in love with a yellow in their booth that I just have to have! It is part of a kit they sell, so that kit is now on my ‘to buy list’! Here is a pic that shows the yellow and blue quilt with that fabric, center back.
In the foreground you can see some of their fabric packs, and how their fabric looks when used in clothing.
Below is another pic of some of their patterns made with their fabric. I love the tree pattern, and since it was sold out at Road, plan to order it, soon.
Running Cherrywood are Karla Overland, Linda Arganbright, and Dorothy Cronin. Here is a pic of Linda at Road in the Cherrywood booth.
Here is another pic of their patterns and fabric (I couldn’t resist buying the green kit!)
This is a link to the Cherrywood website, where you can treat yourself to more views of this absolutely wonderful fabric: http://www.cherrywoodfabrics.com/news.asp
