International Quilt Market, Houston, Texas

Today is my third day at Market. I have a FABULOUS time trying new techniques (I took two classes; one on surface design and the other on additional ways to use rubbing plates from Cedar Canyon (with foils, gel pads, etc). SOOOO awesome! I also attended the schoolhouse sessions on Friday and the sample spree. My brain is on explosion mode with all the information and ideas I have gathered and I still get to have another day here!

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to teaching my business blogging class. I hope that all the participants are going to receive information that will help them make the jump into the blogging world less scary and less intimidating.

Whew!

So much has happened since my last post! Prior to the Christmas holidays I had so many orders for dog bandanas, bag tags, and mini bags that I was VERY busy. We left for the holidays and spent time at Disney World (Very Mickey Christmas…too much fun), visiting with friends and family in Tampa and Ft. Myers, a Key West adventure, and then back to the Texas Hill Country for New Year’s Eve. Immediately after the holidays, my husband had hip replacement surgery and life as I knew changed pretty dramatically. My husband is now finally starting to show some marked improvement (he had some set backs although he was in excellent shape prior to surgery) so God is good and now I am getting back to work.

Last week, I had the pleasure of doing a baby quilt for a customer and she has brought me another quilt to do for her which is also a great pleasure. I also received a nice order for dog bandanas from our awesome breeder, Sharon Beck (luvadoodle.com) and as an added bonus, I was able to sell all of my embroidered lollipop covers for Valentine’s Day. Again, God is good!

I have been working on my first ever personal art quilt which has turned out to be a total pleasure and tomorrow evening I get to teach my business blogging class through local community education. Also, additional big news: My proprosal to teach at Quilting With Machines has been accepted, and, God Willing, I will teach my classes in Huron, Ohio during the dates of Oct. 5-8.

Houston Market Just Around the Corner!

I can’t believe that the Houston Quilt Market is starting this week. I am taking a quilt shop tour on Thursday (yippee skippee), I teach my business blogging class on Friday morning at 8 AM (yikes!) and then will go to the Sampler Spree on Friday night. It is going to be gloriously hectic and I can hardly wait. I have a little door prize for the class and have everything just about packed. I am flying out on Wednesday and my dear hubbie will be the main puppy sitter while I am away.

Did you notice I said “flying”? Yep, queen of the white knuckled flyers is back in the plane for the trip to Houston. I decided I was less likely to get killed flying and getting a shuttle to the hotel than trying to drive in the Houston traffic 🙂

I am working away on my inventory for the craft shows that will be coming up after I return from Houston. If you are in the near vicinity of San Antonio on Nov.6 (Coker United Methodist Church Craft Show) or Dec.2 &3 (San Antonio Christian Academy), come to the shows. I would love to meet any of you in person.

I am currently quilting a cute wool applique quilt. The jury is still out on how I will quilt the background fill for the applique…that is always something I really have to “study” to be sure that I am doing what will really enhance the applique.

Don’t forget that I will be posting from the Market and check back periodically…I hope to upload pictures.

Yippee Skippee!

Yipee Skippee!

At long last, my computer glitches are resolved, the wonderful rush of business during the holidays is lonag ago complete, my husband’s relapse with Meniere’s is back under control and I can finally get back to visiting with all of you. I have several things to share with you, so I will just “bullet” each one to expedite all the things I want to say :

• First, please take a look at the Machine Quilters Expo website! This fabulous machine quilting conference will begin April 12 and will provide not only fabulous quilts but also wonderful classes, including mine, LOL! The conference is held in Providence, RI and has a long history of providing wonderful learning opportunities for all levels of experitise and machines. I will be teaching Blog Cabin Blocks, a course on business blogging as well as Putting the You in YouTube. This course will discuss how to create YouTube videos to promote your business.
• I have added THREE really cute items to my embroidery business. You will see pictures of these on the site today. They include a quilted and monogrammed bag tag, doggie bandanas and an adorable portable tea or sweetner caddie to keep with you in your purse or tote. The patterns were designed by DigiStitches and are really darling.
• I added pictures of one of the art quilts that I completed for a customer during the holidays. I am so proud of how this worked out…it is so much fun to create designs “from the front” of the machine. Also, the precious puppy modeling is my dog niece, Mattie, of Asheville, NC. Attie is modeling a doggie bandana in a cowboy novelty print which slides over her dog collar. Very spiffy! These can be monogrammed, of course!
• Another item that I am showing is an order that I did for Veronyka’s, a lovely salon here in San Antonio. Please notice that one of the items is basically plastic and it embroidered beautifully.
• If you live in the San Antonio area, I will be teaching a business blogging course for the North East Independent School District Community Education beginning on Feb. 17 for three class sessions. If you have your own business or just want to learn the basics of blogging, please join us by registering for the class on the NEISD website, clicking on Community Education.
• The baby quilt is my tip for today…simply take a cute panel, add borders, and, if you have monogramming or lettering on your machine, add some cute embellishments. In this case, I added “mommy’s girl” and  a “k” on the pajamas hanging on the close line. I also added some free motion designs, including a dragon fly. Fast, Easy and Fun…all the elements you need for a gift!
• A picture of the personalized quilt labels that I will do for your quilt is part of the blog today, too.

I think that I have shared all my news. Hope that the New Year has been kind so far and that you are well. I continue to be thankful for all of my blessings, especially in light of the recent horrific earthquake in Haiti and all those who have suffered job lose as our economy struggles to improve.

Blogging with Community Education

Along with quilting and embroidery, I LOVE to teach. Last night I had the opportunity to teach a business blogging class through the North East ISD Community Education program. What a fantastic and interesting group of folks were in the class! Authors,a Golf Instructor, Travel Enthusiasts, a Home Improvement business owner and a professional photographer were part of the class and made for great questions and a great time for me. Next week, we will meet again and I am truly looking forward to visiting with them again.

Meanwhile, back at the studio, I have turned the lovely kingsized embroidered quilt so I can to the last borders so I am excited to be finishing it. I also have a cute embroidery order for a baby gift so I will upload photos of that when it is completed. It’s great to have so many varied projects to work on…that is the great thing about having both services available.

Back to San Antonio!

After having another fantastic Innovations conference, I am back in San Antonio. It is great to get back and get started on trying all the new techniques that I learned while at the conference

Actually, I got right back to work on Sunday (my flight back to San Antonio got in at 6:15 PM on Saturday). I am almost finished with a kingsize quilt with beautiful embroidery. My accident threw off my schedule somewhat, but I think I am back on to it now. I have a throw and two wall hangings to quilt, so I need to really get a move on!

I bought three lovely new pantographs while at the conference. Actually, I joined the Anne Bright Panto club since I bought the new pantos at her booth. They are really lovely and perfect for quilts that need edge to edge quilting.

One more note about Innovations: the people that I met were wonderful both in the classes that I taught and the classes in which I was a participant. I would highly recommend attending this conference…great fun and a great learning environment.

Innovations Day 1

Today was certainly a day for information overload, but in a GREAT way. This was my day to take classes all day and see how much I could learn and, in turn, provide new possibilities to my clients. The teachers that I had today were excellent: Sue Patten, an award winning quilt artist, Grace Anderson, an experienced quilter who shared her designs in a class called Echo Explosions, a class on quilting pantographs and, for the grand finale, a maintenance class for my APQS machine.

Taking classes always makes me rethink how I am doing things and reignites my imagination to other ways to approach machine quilting. I am hopeful that the new design techniques that I have learned today will be as exciting to you as they are to me and will add a new dimension to the quilting experience.

Tomorrow I will be teaching my first class and then have the opportunity to take additional classes for myself.  I am also having the opportunity to meet people from our APQS forum as well as friends that I made last year during Innovations. All in all, this is going to be a jam packed week not only for teaching but for learning.

Houston Quilt Festival: DisneyWorld for Quilters

Four Friends Waiting For the Festival to Open

Vendors in Houston

Sharon Schamber, Best of Show Winner, Houston, 2008

$10,000 Winner, Houston

Division Winner, Houston

Art Quilt Winner

I am back in San Antonio after a wonderful trip to the festival. I came home with awesome hand dyed fabric that looks like suede, a new kit for a t-shirt quilt, threads, battings, gadgets from Gadget Girls and, generally a new education on the latest trends.

I felt the new soy batting from Mountain Mist. It is SOOO soft and will be on my list to buy when it officially becomes available in January. I also love the new edition of Accucut…that will also be available in January and that, I hope, will be my Christmas present.

I have pictures of the winning quilts as well as of the Best of Show Winner, Sharon Schamber. I met her at the Purple Daisies booth. What a lovely lady and very innovative both in her work and how she teaches techniques.  You will notice a picture that shows some of the vendors from the 3rd floor of the convention center. The rows are numbered from 100 to 2000 so that should give you an idea of the number of vendors that are present at this event. One other wonderful exhibit was the DAR quilts. Pictures were not allowed but I can tell you that the quilts were from the 18th and 19th century and one of the quilts that I particularly loved was a Baltimore Album that looked like the quilting was about 18-22 stitches to the inch and was done yesterday. It was unbelievable.

I hope you enjoy the pictures; Houston is a “must see” for any quilter.

 

Off to the Houston Quilt Festival!

Today we are off to the Houston Quilt Festival! I am really looking forward to seeing all the vendors (I have already marked the ones I want to visit; I printed the 12 pages (yes, 12) of vendors last week so I would be ready 🙂 I am also looking forward to seeing Sharon Schamber’s Best In Show winner, Spirit of Mother Earth. I saw the quilt on her site yesterday and it is truly a work of art!

I will be taking photos of the show to share with you and will also give you information on the new items and gadgets that I find at the show. I am curious about the new Handiquilter 24″ machine; I hear from the dealers that it is a sleek machine and VERY fast. Isn’t it amazing all the new items that are premiered at this show? I am also wondering if Quilt EZ will unveil their machine quilting robot at this show. I know that they had hoped to have had it ready for the  2008 Machine Quilter’s Showcase but it just wasn’t possible.

I hope you will enjoy reading and seeing pictures from the show and, if you haven’t been before, that my posts will give you some idea of what you can expect.

Houston International Quilt Festival

The Houston International Quilt Festival begins on Wednesday. Many people are already attending the market that takes place prior to the show. Because of prior commitments, I am not going until Wednesday, but I wanted to give you the links to their site. I have downloaded the vendors and found that it took 12 pages!

I plan to take pictures of the event so that I can share it with you. It is truly sensory overload to see the hundreds of vendor booths PLUS the fantastic quilts that are on display. Each year, even without attending formal classes, I learn so much from the demonstrations and, in some cases, meeting the winning quiltmakers. If you haven’t been, put it on your “must do list” for the future. It is well worth it! By the way, today’s photo is from the online gallery for the event located at http://www.quilts.com/home/galleryViewer.php?txtfile=/gallery/lbqf08-1/onlineGallery The name of this quilt is “Ma How Come She Gets All the Attention”. It is by Helen Remick of Settle and is hand and machine pieced, machine quilted.