Quilt Festival Pictures

So, I think I took a lot of pictures. Hhmmm....I know I took a lot of pictures. It's hard to not take them when the quilts are SO beautiful. Going to the Quilt Festival is like going to a Fine Arts Museum. Except it's more crowded at the Festival. Enjoy the pictures.

If I remember right, this pink and red one looked like the pink was painted on.

It was the sweetest softest shade.

This quilt is called Hurricane. Here, on the Gulf Coast, you get a few of those--sometimes all at once.

I like the rectangular court house steps in this and how it's used as a background.

One day I will make a colorful, black-and-white quilt.

This one looks like a sad guy wandering past doors. I wish he would just open one up, go inside and be happy to be somewhere. Cool doors, definite story.

Funky, happy shoes.

Looks like a corkboard full of favorite trips, not a quilt.

Wizard of Oz on steroids. Every detail included from the hot air balloon to flying monkeys and a munchkin hiding in the flowers. Totally amazing.

Love the colors in this one.

Very eye-catching. Awesome color combination.

20-something thousand pieces. Definitely a wow quilt. While we were admiring this quilt, a lady by us said, "All those pieces and it didn't win? How many do you need to win??"

Stunning.

Also stunning. By looking at this one for a while, I think I finally decided how to quilt my black quilt. Finally, after 5 years, it might get finished.

Amazing shadows.

Kool Krazy Kwilt.

I love this quilt, but especially the center.

Infinity. My sister and niece met the quilter who did this one.

They were impressed by her down-home personality.

Absolutely LOVE this door. I've always loved cool doors--and this one is expecially cool.

It's amazing that it's fabric!

This one wasn't that big but very eye catching.

It looks like a leaf floating in the water.

Another amazing quilt. Usually the quilts with faces don't wow me.

This year, there were a few that were amazingly fantastic! Big wow!

Love the colors.

Another amazing work of art.

Love the colors, placement of elements. Nice.

This whimsical quilt was definitely a favorite.

It had wool felt balls on it and sparkly confetti. Very fun!

In this one, I love the use of color.

The pastels in the background and the changing of color around the border and the inner medallion.

Love how bright this is!

Amazing colors, LOVE the leaf imprints.

I love a good house quilt. The batiks in this were very fun and added a whimsical touch.

I have to say that this one is my all-time favorite for the year. I love reds and pinks and I love how this has such a fun twist on the traditional log cabin. LOVE it!

Yeah, And that's not even all of my pictures. :)

IQFHouston--It's All In The Details.

Skitchy edge with pink chain stitching/vines rambling through.

I love going to the International Quilt Festival! It's a tradition. In the last 11 years, I've only missed maybe 2 years. There's always something new to see, a new idea to spark my desire to get busy and sew. New tools, notions, fabric, wool! This year was especially fun since I was able to go with some favorite family to enjoy the show together! We spent two full days enjoying each other's company and enjoying all that there was to see!

In looking through my pictures, I've decided that I notice the details. I took a lot of pictures of details of quilts. An interesting border, a bazillion tiny pieces courthouse-stepped together, fun embellishments. I wonder if the artist/quilter had every detail in their original plan or added and changed as they went.

Here's some of my pictures of small parts of quilts that show off different details. Enjoy!

I'll post again soon with complete pictures of my favorite quilts.

The above quilt is a beach scene and the octagon you see is the top of a beach umbrella.

This colorful quilt had close to 23,000 pieces, all arranged in tiny courthouse steps. I wonder if this quilter ever wants to make this pattern again.

I loved the tiny, close quilting in this quilt. There was a LOT of tiny, close quilting in the quilts there. Is there a term for this? "Tiny, close quilting" is a lot to say.

I LOVE whimsical quilts and this one was very eye catching. Wool-felt pom-pom's and sparklies all over! Great colors, too! It looks like a party!

The selvage edge quilt. Very clever idea!

It's hard to see but the quilting on this pink car was incredible! Very fun quilt, too!

It was hard to stop looking at this one. The muted tones made you want to search for the details.

I loved all of the piecing that went into this quilt.

This font quilt was amazing! Besides being a unique idea, the shading/color changing of browns on the letters was incredible.

It's hard to see in this picture, but there are little scallops all around the edge of the flower petals and all of the quilting is amazing. When you use light thread on dark fabric, you can't hide anything!

I love reds and browns together so I love this quilt muchly! Look at the loops and buttons all along the edge. It was like an updated red-work quilt.

This quilt had a gazillion yo-yo's. I've sewn yo-yo's before and it's not something that just zips up fast. It's all hand-sewn and then hand-sewn together. And this was a big quilt.
Something drew my eye to this quilt--the yellows and blues, the small perfect circle berries, the little birds. It's a traditional-looking comfort quilt.

I LOVE the rich colors in this quilt. And one day I will make a quilt with vines and leaves in the border!

I really like this stripey quilt and one day I will have a quilt like this in my guest room. The entire queen-sized quilt--skinny stripes. Maybe different colors, but this stripey look is something I've always loved.

I Need a New Pin Quilt!

This is a pin quilt. My OLD pin quilt. I've had it for many years and whenever we travel and have the opportunity, we pick up a souvenir pin. It's our thing.

We have pins from Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, New York, California, Disney, Japan, Chile, Peru, Switzerland, Houston Astro's, 2002 Olympics, quilt shows, museums, cub scouts, presidential libraries, and many state parks as well. This last summer, our pin quilt got full. Too full. We had picked up lots of new pins from Glenn Canyon Dam, Salt Lake City, Hole in the Rock, and Disney World. There were 22 pins in the border alone! Time for a NEW pin quilt.

I'd like to show you a great way to make lots of little squares. You can use this method for a pin quilt or any project that needs a lot of little squares.
I learned this from a friend who I think saw it on a Quilt show. So, this method has been around--nothing new. It will give you 2" finished squares.
First, I cut lots of different reds 5" square.
I want my NEW pin quilt to be 10 X 10 squares. (The old one was 8 X 12.)

This means I need 25 - 5" squares but I cut a few extra, because I like a few extra, just in case, and I will need an even number anyway.

Now that I have you all totally confused, let's get simple. Cut some 5" squares.

Pair up your squares. Since I like random, I pair them up randomly. You might want to have only two fabrics and pair them up one of each.

With right sides together, sew two opposite sides with a 1/4" seam. This will make a tube.

Put these double-squares on your cutting mat, seams on the sides. Then with your ruler, find the middle of your square (2 1/2" over) and cut through the middle.

Now you have two half-double-squares. But that sounds confusing again. Let's go back to being simple, because this really is simple and hard to mess up. Promise.

Open up your two half-double-squares and look! You have a square with two different fabrics! Halfway there!

Press those seams and put those squares (or mix them up with other half-squares) back together again, right sides together, seams together, across the middle, horizontally.

Now sew your sides again, 1/4" seam again, and create that tube again.

And now, measure it down the middle again (2 1/2" over again) and cut it in half again.

Now open that up and look at your cute little 4-patch. Perfect 2" squares.

You can mix up your fabrics, if you're using a variety. You get all of these great 4-patches that you can rearrange to find just the right spot for.

That's another reason why I like to do a few extra, so the same two don't end up next to each other.

Sew them all together. 10 squares by 10 squares or 5 blocks X 5 blocks.


Quilt it, bind it, put some pins on it and hang it up!

Then get traveling! :)

(p.s. Try different sizes: for 1" finished squares, start with 3" squares)

C8's Quilt--Adding More Borders--Might as well!

Here are a few pictures of the finished border. C8 wanted more piecing in the border and so I used the scraps and this is what I came up with.

I wanted the wider border to add to the overall size of the quilt, but I thought it looked a little bit odd to go from 1 1/2" strips in the blocks to 4" strips in the border. So I added that middle border strip made from leftover scraps from the blocks. I think it ties the blocks to the border a little bit more.

It is a totally random pattern with regard to the blues and greens and what fabric is next to what fabric. I mostly like the way pure randomness turns out.

I added the strips exactly how I added the pink strip. I measured the width of the quilt and cut my strips that size and then added them. Then I measured the length and cut my strips that size and added them.

Here's a picture of the entire quilt top, finally finished and ready for the quilter. Finished size turned out to be 68" X 84".

I'm upset with myself that I didn't take any photos of the back of the quilt. That would have been a great post/tutorial. I'll take some pictures when I get it back from the quilter! I have a feeling I'll be tacking down the binding on the airplane on our way to Idaho when I take her to college. :)

C8's Quilt--Border Patrol

This is it! All of the blocks are done! 48 blocks that have been tweaked, squared, and stitched together! Time to put on the border! I decided to put on a pink border first to bring out the pink squares in the middle and separate the blocks from the rest of the border.

First step is to measure the short side, right across the middle of the quilt. This tile floor is the biggest space I have in my house to lay out a quilt. And my knees are starting to feel it. Ouch!

It measures 51 1/4" wide. That's the measurement I use to cut the top and bottom pink strips.
I go with a 3" wide strip and cut 2 strips 51 1/4" long.

I find the middle of each pink strip by folding it in half and then pin the middle of the strip to the middle of the top and the other strip to the middle of the bottom of the quilt. Then, while I sew it on, I make sure the ends of the strips meet at the ends of the quilt. I use pins and bobbin tugging to make sure the fabrics (border and quilt) all match up. This will keep your quilt square!

Next step: Measure the length of the quilt, down the middle, including the new top and bottom borders. Cut 2 3" wide strips that exact length. Find the middle of the strips and pin it to the middle of the sides. This helps to sew the border strip to the quilt evenly. Make sure the quilt fits the border length when you sew it on.

Here's a pic of the first, pink border. I added 2 more borders to this quilt before I called it good! More pics of them in the next posting!

M I A

Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew. I have great ideas and then after a while, I realize that it's not working out, other things crowd my life, just not possible. This blog was full of great intent but life happens and this got shelved for a while.

I'm not ending it, but I am slowing down. I've always been more of a jack-of-all-trades rather than a master of one. So, I got busy with other things. I still will always be making quilts, but I can't plan every project around pictures, cameras, lighting, posting, and self-imposed deadlines. So, please feel free to continue visiting and I will post when I can.

Please don't expect too much from me. My whole life is not quilting, although a lot of it is. Caitlin's quilt has made it to the quilter's who promises 2-3 months on the return. We'll see about that. Maybe I'll start the nagging phone calls ("Is it done yet?") now. I'll post the end of the piecing soon.

Please continue to ask questions, visit to review a how-to, and keep making beautiful quilts!