Beautiful Quilts at a Guild Quilt Show

Steve and I attended the Bay Heritage Quilter's Guild Quilt Show in Bay City, MI last weekend. Once again their members did a beautiful job with their quilts and with displaying them. The show was held in an old building in downtown Bay City. Vendors set up shop in the upper level giving them a wonderful birds eye view of all of the beautiful quilts. It was so great to see friends from Elkton, Williamsburg, AuGres and Rose City. We also enjoyed seeing all of the quilts and the creativity. On our way home Steve and I discussed the fact that although we enjoyed our trip to Chicago for the International Quilt Festival we both preferred the quilts at the local show. Of course my love of hand quilting really comes to life at local shows. There are some hand quilted quilts at the big shows but you really have to look hard to find them.

I thought I would share a few pictures of quilts I saw at the show in Chicago. While we were there I re-discovered a few things about myself. I know that I am very traditional in my quilting world and that I am very pattern oriented. I am not very good at interpreting things and definitely not into making artsy quilts. I enjoy reading the signs on quilts at Quilt Shows and reading about the history of the quilt or the reason the maker chose to make a particular quilt. I do not have an eye for turning inspiration into quilts. But since the show I have been opening my eyes to my surroundings and seeing what could be interpreted as inspiration. But I am still going to hang on to my patterns, at least for the time being.

A Weekend Road Trip

Steve and I enjoyed a very fast pace road trip last weekend. We stayed in 3 different hotels in 3 different states. One of our destinations was the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. We spent all day Friday there and enjoyed visiting the vendors and seeing the beautiful quilts. My favorite part of the show was meeting Penny Haren and purchasing her Pieced Applique book. I have admired her work for a very long time. My friend, Nancy from St. Ignace made the quilt and it was absolutely beautiful. I have been studying the book and am anxious to start the quilt. I think Steve conveniently planned an overnight stay near a Bass Pro Shop so we made a visit there. I enjoyed wandering through the shop. I didn't mind the visit to Bass Pro at all, especially since Steve does so many "quilty" things with and for me.

I am throwing in the towel!!

Back in January I posted this picture after deciding that I needed to do some organizing in my sewing room. I asked you to help me "hold my feet to the fire" until I got this job done. Well, it is now 3 months later and I can not post any progress in the organizing department. I have just decided that it is not going to happen any time soon and I am ok with that. I don't get very much time in my sewing room, so when I am there I just want to sew. As long as I can find my sewing machine, my supplies and my projects I am a happy camper. I do try to sew every day but some days it is an hour or two of hand quilting in the evenings. During the weekend Steve helped me put my frame up and I sandwiched 2 quilts. One of the quilts will be machine quilted and the other one will be hand quilted, probably during the winter. Other than some hand quilting that was the closest I got to quilting but that is ok. I am confident that the time will come when I can spend boo-koo hours in my sewing room Until then I am happy to take whatever time I can get.

A Little Bit of Snow in Hillman

We woke up this morning to a scant covering of snow. It sure beats the 4 to 7 inches that were predicted. I feel bad for all of the spring flowers that decided to make an early appearance this year. The weather people are saying that it is supposed to be warming up early next week.

In the sewing department I haven't had much time this week. I did manage to piece a top for a birthday gift but will have to wait a few weeks to post a picture. I also started cutting out pieces for a quilt which is both pieced and appliqued. We have a little road trip planned and I needed something to work on in the car. I will try to post pictures next week.

The twins are doing great this week and I will be be leaving in a few minutes to spend the after noon with them.

Some of my Tiny Miracle Quilts

I thought I would share with you some of my recent projects. I have been machine quilting, binding and adding labels to some Tiny Miracle (preemie) quilts lately. I have been making these quilts for several years now and truly enjoy thinking about the precious little babies and their parents who will be using these quilts. I have been making them in honor of our great niece Amy but now will add our grandsons Gavin and Grady to the honors list.

A UFO Finished!!

This is a quilt that I started at MQN's Showcase in September of 2006. It was a mystery class that started at 9:00 p.m. and ran until mid-night or until the last quilter decided to call it a night. I think I managed to get 1 or 2 blocks finished during the class. And then it was put into a box and forgotten about for awhile. I pulled the box out last fall and finished the top. It is a throw size quilt. I am sorry that the picture looks so blah. It really is a very pretty quilt with bright purples and pinks.
Happy Easter to allmy blog friends.