Pensacola Quilt Show 2012

Today we did the intake for the Pensacola Quilt Show, and after that, I had lunch with my husband and took a long nap, the first one I can remember taking in months. Every afternoon I have had to make the best use of time during prime-time light!

I’ve hated leaving you for this long period, but I was working industriously to have entries worthy of the show!

Here are my entries.

The End of Innocence

I loved working on this quilt. It took a lot of hand work, appliqueing that snake and making sure the gauzy snakey net had bends at the right places, but it was so much fun! I also, for the first time, tried an art quilting technique on the arms and hands, and learned a whole lot about how to do it better – next time 🙂

Originally, the focus of this quilt was intended to be the pomegranate, and the tree of life. It was supposed to be a serious quilt, serious like the Dutch masters, but little Eve kept popping in, fresh, innocent, full of questions, and then that snake kept winding his way in and out, from his own depths into our own reality . . . and finding great snake-y fabrics provided a whole world of new learning experiences, LOL.

I actually hand quilted even more after I shot the photos, espeially in the center where the Tree of Life panel was. The fabric was so soft, and quilting it by hand was pure joy.

The quilt took forever, and I didn’t mind. I tried a lot of new things. I know where I need to improve. Meanwhile, it was fun taking an idea, letting it macerate and percolate, and then challenging myself to use some slithery fabrics for the execution. No regrets. 🙂

Tick Tack Tails

I love doing baby quilts, and I love the way little babies are mesmerized by black and white patterns. Our little grandbaby would stop crying to gaze at black and white zebra patterns and try to fathom their meaning.

Seaside Cottage

When I was still living in Kuwait, I was cutting out this quilt – or one just like it – when my sister called. As we talked, I described the quilt I was making and she loved it and asked me to make her one like it. Instead, I quickly cut out another, but finished the one I was making and sent it to her.

It took me five years to get around to finishing my own. I finished it the year we moved to Pensacola, but my husband kept going back. I quilted it during a bathroom renovation; it kept me sane. I appliqued it during the long evenings when I wished my husband was here in Pensacola. It is similar to my sister’s, but different. The central panels are made with the same fabrics, but I did different quilting and appliques for the seashells, etc.

The last entry is one you’ve seen before.

Jewel Box Life of Transitions

I was able to work on intake today, and was delighted to find that my quilts sink into the ‘filler’ category; there are some amazing quilts entered, and if you are any where near Pensacola, I urge you to make it a point to see this show.

Friday, March 16
Saturday, March 17
Pensacola Fairgrounds

Quilt Show Dilemma

Every quilter is different. I know many quilters make quilts exactly as the instructions say, some even buy quilts with all the fabrics provided. I’m just not wired that way. Sometimes I will see something I like, but I don’t want THAT exact quilt, I like some of the ideas, so I let it simmer for a while, and then incorporate an idea into something I want to do.

So I get inspiration from quilts. Right now, I am simmering a cheddar quilt. I’ll know it when I see it. I want to do a Hunter’s Star. I want to do several more quilts in blue and white; they soothe my soul.

Right now, I am readying quilts for a Pensacola quilt guild show coming up in Pensacola March 16 and 17 (9 am to 5 pm); the quilts are due on March 10th.

Two are finished. One top of the two remaining is finished, just needs to be sandwiched and quilted. One top I am still working on.

The one I am working on is not the quilt I planned. I have some gorgeous fabrics I bought years ago; they have been simmering. The are from Den Haan and Wagenmaker and I thought I was going to do a traditional Tree of Life quilt, but things have worked out very differently.

My problem is that I am having a lot of fun working on the quilt, and I have a deadline. What I know about myself is that I am not a person who works well under pressure. Yes, I can do it. No, I don’t like to do that to myself, and I don’t feel I do my best work that way. When I hurry, I make mistakes. I am having a great time, and I love what is coming out of all this, but lurking in the back of my mind is that I really, really, need to get these two quilts done.

I am doing some applique. I really love applique. I love it a lot more than I love quilting. I haven’t been in Pensacola long enough to know anyone I want to quilt my quilts for me, and I guess it is a little anal but there is a part of me that really won’t like what someone else does. I don’t always like what I do, and I can read my own mind! So part of what worries me is that while I am having fun with the applique part, I have the stinky quilting part in front of me, and it isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted.

I need to take a few days from the quilt I am having so much fun with and quilt the other top; that way I will have three quilts of the four I have promised. I keep meaning to do that. . . but I see a space I could work on, you know, the light is perfect, I’ll just take a few minutes . . . and another day and the good light for quilting is gone.

I still have a month. A month and a couple days. That’s a lot of time, if I use it wisely . . .

Pacific Northwest Quiltfest 2008

Oh what joy! I met up for the weekend with an old quilting buddy from the Rheinland-Pfalz Quilt Guild, where we met, and we went to the Pacific Northwest Quiltfest, sponsored by the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters.

Going to a quilt show is an art in itself; the secret is to find someone else whose style and timing is close to your own. This friend and I have been to numerous quilt shows together, mostly the European Quilt Shows because one or the other of us was living there at the time. My all time favorite quilt show has got to be the one at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, which will take place this year September 16 – 21, 2008.

My friend and I are systematic. She ordered the tickets ahead of time, so when we got to the show we cruised right up to Will Call and straight into the exhibit, which was held at the Seattle Convention Center. Oh! Nice, roomy location!

We start at the left, and go up and down each aisle, never skipping a quilt. I stopped photographing when I realized I could buy a complete collection CD, so I only have a few of my favorites to show to you. What a show!

These (mostly women) quilters are SO amazing. So creative. So inventive. It is simply awe inspiring to attend these shows.