Friday, September 25, 2015

Table Rock Quilt Guild Library Retreat

TRQG Library retreat started on Wednesday and although I missed most of the morning because I had a movie session with a couple of friends I made it to the Kimberling Area Library by about 3 p.m.  I threw some things together to work on for a few hours as I was dead dog tired from lack of sleep the two previous night.

I worked on the cute shoe lace kit I bought at Hip Stitch last month.  It was a quick little project and my tired brain could handle that.  I sewed them up and needed to get a darning needle to thread them through my shoes.  I was pretty  pleased and knew they were going to be so cute.

Next I started on a kit that I'd prepared for a retreat last April.  Very modern with some ombre like fabric.  I had cut about 4 strips when I realized I had screwed it up.  So I put it away and headed home.

On Wednesday, after a good 12 hour night sleep, I got up and cut a cape out for a witch I was wanted to finish.  I figured I would get it cut out at home so I wouldn't have to share a cutting table.

Once at the library I got to see some of the projects being completed.  Janet Winkelman finished the top of a quilt for her grandson.  She did the design herself and it is gorgeous.

Jan Prince got her Route 66 quilt back from the quilter, Deb Parks.  It turned out wonderfully.
There were so many talented women having a wonderful time.
We were treated to a hysterical fashion show thanks to Sharon Curtis.  The volunteers made hysterical costumes and Sharon's commentary was so funny.  

 



Even my mom participated.  The two gentlemen had dressed in a different room so she hadn't seen them before she came out and when she saw them, she cracked up. Had a problem finishing her walk she was laughing so hard.





 I have to say that I was so entertained by the guys that I tried to switch to video mode on my camera but I blew it so I didn't get any really good shots of them during the show.

Thanks ladies and gentleman for the great show.

I'm constantly amazed by the creativity and skill of all these women and we just live in a little area.  Loretta made this adorable sewing machine cover.
Roberta made this Frankenstein doll with yoyos.

Janet has this gorgeous neutral quilt she is finishing up.



Mom found this lovely pattern in her stash and whipped it out during her first day of the retreat.  She rocks.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Shell Knob Quilt Show 2015

Well I finally got to do another fun quilting activity on Saturday.  I went to the Shell Knob Quilt show with my mom, my aunt, Roberta and Connie.  I just love piling into a mini van and heading to a quilt store, quilt show, retreat, class any excuse to get a bunch of us together.  Lunch with the ladies is a pleasure but doing something quilty is so much more fun.

We started with lunch at this great place called Nonna's Nummies.  What a wonderful little treasure.  Shell Knob is so lucky to have a great place like this.  They had a delicious vegetarian sort of flat bread "sandwich" with avocado, cheese, tomato, cucumber, and onions all heated up.  Very tasty.  They had all kinds of choices for salads, sandwiches and a great selection of desserts.  We were all wishing Kimberling City had a wonderful little restaurant like it.

One fun thing about going to a quilt show in a small town is I ran into 3 or 4 women I recognized from quilting things around the area.   I'm terrible with names and was disappointed in myself that 2 women I ran into at Nonnie's called me by name and I didn't know their names.  Heck I had trouble remembering where I knew them from but I think it must have been from Sew in Heaven's Quilt Club.  I knew their faces and that they were really good quilters but I couldn't remember their names and they knew mine.  I guess I'm just mouthy enough to be a bit memorable.  I'm not sure if that is good or bad.

At the high school the quilt show was in full swing and right away I saw friends at the front table. The best of show quilt was hanging on the top floor in the place of honor.  Have to say the story of the quilt was touching but I really didn't think it was nearly as lovely as some of the others at the show.

I gave my viewers choice ribbon to Joyce River's four seasons quilt with it's amazing detail.  The outlines on many of the pieces really set it off and the hand applique was exquisite.  The detail was phenomenal and the children were adorable with the cutest hair.  I was informed this quilt won the Viewers Choice Award and rightfully so


I was also enamored with the quilt that won 1st Place in the theme category.  The flowers were mostly 3 dimensional and the quilting detail was astounding.  She had woven fabric for one of the sunflower centers, and there was a windmill quilted on one of the blocks.  Many of the blocks had theme related quilting and none of them were the same.  It must have taken her forever.  How talented is this lady to have done both the piecing and the quilting on this masterpiece.








My friend Gana Honn was there and we chatted a bit.  She had three or four gorgeous quilts in the show.  I've been drooling over her guitar quilt for a while and I thought her rose quilt was lovely as well.  Plus she too did the quilting on both of these quilts.  I loved the music themed quilting on the guitar quilt.  So creative.




Shell Knob Quilt Guild brought in the phenomenal Last Supper Quilt by Dr. Donald Locke which was breath taking.  It was made up of over 51,000 1/2 inch squares that were sewn together on a Singer Featherweight. WHAT?????    It was Dr. Locke's second quilt and it took him over 2 years to make.  What a amazing and gorgeous project.




My friend Karen Malnar was at the show so we talked for a few minutes before she headed off for her work shift.  Her quilts did very well in the show with good reason.  She is such a talented quilter.  She won the miniature quilt division and the micro stippling on it was mind boggling.


 I want to figure out how to do that.  She had another large quilt that got a third place ribbon which was lovely.  Plus her challenge quilt was my favorite even before I knew it was hers. 





Shell Knob always has interesting challenge quilts for their show.  This year each participant had two crayons and they had to use those two colors in their small quilts.  Karen had black and a dark blue, she was not very happy with her colors but gosh she rose to the challenge with this beautiful little hexie quilt.

I had a very great chat with the vendor from Miami OK, Cotton Pickin Quilts.  She was so
informative and nice.  I will definitely have to stop by her shop the next time I'm in the area.

I am constantly blown away by the quality of quilters in southwest Missouri.  There are so many top notch talents in the area and I'm lucky to call some of them my friends.   Later this week I'm headed to the Table Rock Quilt Guild retreat at the Kimberling Area Library so watch this blog for a write up or two on the shenanigans those ladies get up to.


Friday, September 4, 2015

Day 3 on the Road back to Missouri

I'm home, I'm home, I'm home!!!!!  My cat is still hiding under Mom's bed but that is a problem for tomorrow.  She always hates me when I come back after a long trip.

The final leg of the trip was good.  I'm really liking Sleep Inn.  All three I stayed in on the trip out and back were very nice.  I am definitely keeping them on the list of good ones although I did have one small problem Wednesday night.  I couldn't figure out how to get to the hotel.  I could see it but I couldn't get there because of all the construction.  I ended up back on the interstate and went 6 miles out of my way at 10 p.m. at night.  Ughhhhhh.  I finally had to call and get them to help me find the one convoluted way into the stinking place.  I was exhausted after driving almost 12 hours.

Due to the fact that I got in so late last night I overslept by about an hour  and got a late start but that's okay I didn't have as many miles to cover as day two of the trip and I'd even decided to go about an hour out of my way so I could check out "THE LARGEST QUILT SHOP IN OKLAHOMA" (echoing sound).  Yep, I'd never been to Prairie Quilts in Hennessey.  It was worth the extra hour.



When I walked in, I was greeted by about 6 women.  Turns out it was inventory day and about 20 of the 23 employees were on the premises so I had plenty of help since I was about the only one in the store.  It was a huge store, three large rooms deep and two levels with an elevator!!!!!

There were samples everywhere and kits to go along with many of them.  You know I love that.  There were wide ranges of fabric choices which were well organized and most of the samples had a pattern pinned to it making it easy to find what you wanted.

I checked out a couple of kits and the prices were reasonable but I didn't succumb.  There were three in particular I was checking out including a Halloween quilt that had a minky backing.   Plus I really liked this bright quilt but I passed on the kit but bought the pattern.

 I also really coveted the block of the month quilt "EIEIO" but at $48 per month it was out of my price range.  Heck even the pattern alone was $93 but then it was such an amazing quilt I get it.  I've been known to get some pretty expensive McKenna Ryan patterns.


While I rode the elevator up to the second floor I had time to check out the flyers hanging in it including information on retreats.  I talked to a very helpful woman and she explained all about the retreats as well as giving me a tour of the retreat center in the next building.  I am definitely interested in giving it a shot one of these days.



I bought several items including some Halloween fabric.  Cuz who doesn't love Halloween fabric!!!!


Next I was off to Stillwater OK which had two quilt shops, Quilting Post and Sew and Sews.  The Quilting Post shop was right on main street in a quaint little downtown area.



  It is an average size shop and has lots of quilts hanging on the walls.  Some even had kits.
 There was a good selection of fabric and patterns.  I was especially drawn to a couple of the samples including Zentangle Garden.
  

I did have one huge complaint about the shop especially after being treated so well at Prairie Quilts, I was completely ignored.  In fact, the young woman working the cash register was having trouble staying awake.  So disappointing.  I didn't stay very long and didn't get anything except the free Row by Row pattern which was really cute.

A few miles away was Sew by Sews in a strip mall.  It is mainly a Viking dealer with lots of machine, embroidery patterns, and thread but they did have some pretty fabric and some quilting/bag patterns as well.


The two ladies working at the shop greeted me and were very nice.  At the time they were on the internet trying to track down 2.5 inch buttons that you cover in your own fabric for a class that was coming up.  I did think the shop was a little dark for a sewing shop but there was a wall of windows if you needed to take the fabric over to good light.  Most of the shop samples were machine embroidery and a couple were really really cute but since I don't have an embroidery machine I tend to pass over those.

I really liked the jelly roll race quilt in the bathroom but their row by row pattern was less than impressive.



I grabbed a quick lunch across the street at Schlotsky's and started the remaining 4 and a half hour drive home.  I listened to some quilting podcasts on the drive.  The Lazy Daisy podcast was interesting but didn't cover as much quilting as I was hoping.  Sort of the same thing for the Off Kilter Quilter.  I guess I am spoiled by Pat Sloan's American Patchwork and Quilting which is all quilting all the time.  I love that podcast.  On one of her shows, I learned of a  product by Sulky, Sticky Fabri-Solvy, that I want to try.  You can run it through the printer for hand embroidery patterns, peel off the back, stick it on your fabric, and when you are done just wash it out with warm water.  No tracing.  That is a plus.

I'm glad to be home and as soon as I get the car unpacked I'm going to have to figure out what to start sewing.