Winning Ribbons

My local guild, Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild, hosts a biennial quilt show every other summer. This year eight quilts that I quilted for myself or others were entered in the show, and seven of them won ribbons! Here's a look:

First up is some bow ties from my Every Which Way pattern. It received Third Place in Professionally Quilted.

Next is my husband's Tonga Treats quilt. It is made from gorgeous bright batiks. I'll do another post later with more details about the quilting on this one. He won an Honorable Mention in the first time to show category.

Here is a 9-Patch created by one of my customers for her husband. Since she typically gives me pretty free-reign, she also got light custom quilting. I had fun working out a thread path to avoid stops and starts. I will do an individual post about this one, but there are also videos of me explaining the quilting on my YouTube channel.

Here is a wall hanging of yellow Tumblers with sashing. It's an unusual setting and won Third Place in Professionally Quilted Group, as my customer made it with her mother. It's quilted with a kind of all over vine with some bees mixed in.

Up next is my friends quilt that won a Third Place for Artisan Quilting (meaning I was involved with both the piecing and the quilting) made by a Group. My friend who doesn't sew and doesn’t enjoy pink, girly things, went with me on the Quilt Across Texas Shop Hop in 2011. I walked away for just a few minutes and came back to the cutting counter to find her purchasing this fabric for a king-sized quilt! True to her fun self, she ordered a cow print for the backing. A few months later, she came to my house and spent a few afternoons learning to rotary cut and re-learning to sew. She was frustrated at how slow it was going and put it aside. A few months ago I pulled it from the closet and was surprised at how much she had actually finished. I finished piecing the rows together and quilted it.

And here we have some Pretty, Pretty Pumpkins. It was in a display only category and did not with a ribbon. I loved how it turned out though and plan to do a full post on the custom quilting one day soon. This customer is also not into girly and pink and typically brings me cheerful oranges and yellows.

Next up are quilts I quilted for me. First is "Who Are You?" based on Great Horned Owl by Peggy Aare. Somehow I keep making quilts with equilateral triangles even though I swear every one is the last. It won Second Place in Artisan Modern.

And last is Captain Jack. It is based on the Jack in the Pulpit block and the pattern interpretation of Lisa Erlandson called Graphic Jack. It won an Honorable Mention in Artisan Pieced Medium. I quilted it with an all over swirls and hooks. The upper left corner begins with a royal blue that cascades down to a wider section at the bottom right. The outer areas are quilted in silver/gray. It wasn't as successful as I hoped because the patterns and fabric are pretty busy, and I chicken out on using metallic thread at the last minute.

All in all it was a great show with some beautiful quilts. I'm really looking forward to 2019 when our theme will be "Seeing 20-20, Looking to the Future." 2020 will be the guild's 40th anniversary.

Cruising Route 66

So my customer made this totally cute Route 66 quilt. It’s got some great novelty prints with notes from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles. I had a fun time quilting it, even though the sun was not out in central Oklahoma today.

The piecer chose a basic double-bubble (is that a thing?) meander for the main part of the quilt, but she asked me to break out the borders as something different. I like a challenge so here’s what I did:

You can see the center portion of the quilt is meandering around in a light oatmeal color. Then, I used the same double-bubble in the green border with a matching thread, and then she requested wishbones in the red border. I really prefer the textured look, rather than seeing the thread, so it was worth it to me to change the thread a few times.

Without much sun, I had to use the machine’s lights, as well as an add-on LED setup I have to light it up to work. My eyes are tired, but I think the results are worth it!

Getting Off Track

So, Cheryl Sleboda at muppin.com posted her yearly "blog for 31 days challenge." I'm a wee(k) bit behind, but better late than never I guess. I quilted this customer quilt last week and really like how it came out. The pattern itself is Off Track. My customer said she was good with something simple but I could quilt what I want. Y'all know I don't do simple, right?

Here it is!