As promised, here is more from our recent guild quilt show.
I didn't get many photos of the submitted quilts. I'm hoping that there are photos on the guild site so I can get them onto this blog or that I can refer you to look at. I'll see if I can do that tomorrow (fingers crossed).
In addition to my Double Wedding Ring, I submitted the large Asian wall hanging above. It was hard to stand back far enough to get a good photo, but you get the idea.
This is a picture of me standing in our booth. I had a lot of kits and patterns with me.... and some fun fat quarter assortments.
Unfortunately, we had "technical difficulties" with our sign. We have a nice "Alderwood Quilts" sign for vending. Ahhh... things never go exactly as planned, do they!?
Here are a few highlights of what I had at the show:
This beautiful quilt was made by my friend and fellow guild member, Bella Dvir. Bella is a gifted quilter and she generously allowed me to display her Strips n' Curves quilt. Sandy Pennington quilted this beauty for her. I used it as an example of what you can do using the Strips n' Curves books and templates by Louisa Smith.
I was thrilled that Susan Cranshaw sent me a trunk show of some of her quilts. These are some of her best selling patterns
This is one of the most frequently commented upon display I had. Susan added a 3-dimensional touch to this wall hanging. Her use of color and expert quilting is simply jaw-dropping!
Isn't this fun!?!? Susan combined 2 patterns- the Roadrunner and the Horned Toad, to create this wall hanging.
This is Susan's newest design. Hummingbirds are a favorite of mine. There just might be one of these on my sewing table one of these days. I just got a supply of these patterns and will be adding the Hummingbirds to my website soon.
This is a photo of a few samples I made for the show. The table runner is designed by Karla Alexander. I have the pattern as well as the kit on my website. This was so much fun to make! The background and border are very simple piecing. The pumpkins, leaves and crows are fusible appliques. (If you look closely- the crows have no beaks or feet- I ran out of time!).
The handbag is called the Veranda Tote. I also have it available as a pattern or as a kit. And there are some handy dandy acrylic inserts made to stiffen the base of fabric bags called bag-y-bottoms. All of this can be found in the handbags category on my website.
This is a wall hanging designed by Sheryl Mycroft of Random Threadz. It was a snap to make and is really eye-catching. The center tree piece is done by fusing the 2 trees on with fusible applique paper. Then you stitch lots of borders around the tree. The little diamond shapes are also fused on- with the exception of the shapes on the triangular flap, which are sewn in. I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but the triangle is stitched into that last border seam so it creates a flap. When I first saw the pattern, I thought it would be a nightmare to do the binding because of the shape... but not to worry- it's easy!. The final touch is to sew on the lovely black glass beads. The pattern, the beads, and the kit (which includes fabric, beads and pattern) are all on my website. You can even purchase the backing or extra fabric by the yard. Sheryl has a few other tree patterns and I am working on a different sample which will also be on the website soon. It will be in greens, browns and purples with some very interesting embellishments. I need to get busy with that sample.... but I think I'll put beaks and feet on the crows on the pumpkin table runner first!
It was a great show! The next one will be in 2 years. It takes the organizers a year to recover and another year to plan the next show! Kidding aside- I want to do a shout-out to Clara Mashek and her crew of dedicated and VERY hard working guild members who made this show possible. If I start naming them, I know I'll forget someone. So many people pitched in to help and about a dozen women worked very, very hard in recent months to make it all happen- all with Clara's leadership. I'll see if I can get photos of all of the winning quilts to show you in another post.
OK... now where did I put the beaks for the crows......
The Alderwood Quilts blog is for customers, friends and quilt enthusiasts. . Sue and her husband also own run a small lavender farm along with the quilt shop. You'll see lavender and other gardening topics, as well as knitting, recipes, photos of kids and pets.. and whatever else comes to mind.
Showing posts with label Strips N' Curves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strips N' Curves. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Louisa Smith's Swirl Quilt
Isn't this a show-stopper? I called Louisa Smith to order some templates and books, and we chatted about the "Swirl" template set. She offered to send me a photo of her sample for this template set.... isn't it gorgeous? This wall hanging is made of 16 blocks- 4 groups of 4 blocks each. Each block is made of 3 pieces, cut from the template set. If you just look at a group of 4 of the blocks (one of the swirls), one color, or color group, is used for the small piece on one block, the middle piece of the next block, and the outside piece of the next block. Once you see how it works, it's not tricky at all. Louisa really has an eye for creating amazing art quilts. Some of the pieces are cut from strip sets and some of the pieces are cut from fabric alone. Louisa says that she she shows this sample, the Swirl template sets just fly out the door. I can see why!
A tip I got from Louisa a while back: For the strip sets, Louisa often uses fabric she really doesn't care for by itself. Since you only see a small strip of the fabric, the print is much less important than the color. She looks for COLOR, not for the design the color makes. That's not the case with the focus fabrics- just for the strip sets. She finds focus fabrics she loves and then looks for fabrics that go with it based on COLOR.
I always enjoy chatting with Louisa- she's such a nice person. Check out her blog... I can't believe she has so few followers. Wouldn't it blow her away if all of you signed up to follow her blog (hint, hint)??? I don't know all of my suppliers personally, but I love marketing and highlighting products designed by really nice people like Louisa. Thanks so much for sharing this photo with me, Louisa!
A tip I got from Louisa a while back: For the strip sets, Louisa often uses fabric she really doesn't care for by itself. Since you only see a small strip of the fabric, the print is much less important than the color. She looks for COLOR, not for the design the color makes. That's not the case with the focus fabrics- just for the strip sets. She finds focus fabrics she loves and then looks for fabrics that go with it based on COLOR.
I always enjoy chatting with Louisa- she's such a nice person. Check out her blog... I can't believe she has so few followers. Wouldn't it blow her away if all of you signed up to follow her blog (hint, hint)??? I don't know all of my suppliers personally, but I love marketing and highlighting products designed by really nice people like Louisa. Thanks so much for sharing this photo with me, Louisa!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wanda's Christmas Quilt
Can you say, "GORGEOUS!!!!!!" Wanda Hanson (Exuberant Color) just posted her 999th post. Congrats, Wanda! I'm a regular reader of Wanda's blog. She is very prolific and her work is pure eye candy. This one especially caught my eye because she used Louisa Smith's Strips n' Curves templates. I recently started carrying all of the Strips n' Curves books and the complete line of Louisa's templates.... and Wanda even purchased one from me. Besides being a talented and prolific quilter, Wanda is a super nice lady.Wanda gets 2 entries in the current giveaway for allowing me to post this photo. I'll draw for the wave edge ruler and pattern giveaway on Dec 15th (there's still time to enter!). Here's a little "teaser"--- if you like the Strips n' Curves quilts--- be sure to check back between the 15th and the 31st---
Merry Christmas, Wanda. And here's to the next thousand posts on your fantastic blog!
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