Snow Again!!!!! Just Let Me Quilt.

This is what I woke up to this morning. Yep....can you tell by the heavy key strokes...I am pissed? It is April 28th, and enough is enough. I just want color and sunshine to inspire me. This just makes me want to go back to bed and pull a quilt up over my head, or maybe sit on the couch pinned down by 3 cats that also crave sunshine and are also hissy.

A friend gave me a gift certificate to a local greenhouse and I want to spend it. I won't until I know I can plant what I want to buy.

On a lighter note I did finish one twin quilting job yesterday and a basting job for a hand quilter. Plus I made a small wallhanging for a guild challenge. I'll go into the challenge more with pictures when it gets further along. Here is the teaser...I used a piecing method that Carol Taylor uses. The same Carol Taylor that AQS said was on the cover of the Des Moines show booklet when it was really one of my customers quilts with my mctavishing. It has her skinny strips in it. Look her up on the web.

The Alliance for American Quilts Contest

The winners were just announced and I made the honorable mention list with my little floral quilt.

The Grand Prize winner of the "Alliances" quilt contest is Jamie Fingal for her quilt "Soul Sisters." She won in 2010 also.
First place goes to Cynthia St. Charles for "We are the Quilters."
Second place goes to Annedore Neumann for "Mind the Gap!"
Third place goes to Sandra Starley for "Virginia is for Lovers."
And our Honorable Mention awards go to:
Nanette Fleischman
Joyce Hughes
Christine Predd
Ann Loveless
Norma Riehm
Dana Lynch
Gerry Krueger
Sheila Rauen
Amy Munson
The Broadway Gentlemen's Quilting Auxiliary, which includes:
Christina Cocchiara, Michael Cole, Tom Flynn, Russell Gibson, Caitlin Johnson, Shahnaz Khan, Frank Klemens, Michael Michalski, Aughra Moon, Kimberly Russell, Jennifer Rice, Eric Sciotto, Sharon Scruggs, Steven Skybell, Melanie Vaughan

Today is a Normal Quilting Day

Today and yesterday are normal quilting days. Yesterday I finished a customer quilt that I had the opportunity to use a new ruler on. The brown stack n wack had a great border for using Ronda's new Curved Crescent Moon ruler for doing curved cross hatching. I decided to take it easy on myself and try it only on the corners to see if I liked how it handled. It was great and there was no real marking required, just some small chalk registration marks for



placement. Between the corners I worked in longarm feathering and used Linda's Vined Spine marking tool, which I really like for making those perfectly placed spines that I can freehand stitch leading off into the feathers right away. I think the customer will be very pleased with that border.





So today, I felt the need to work on one of my own quilts today. Today's fun quilting is a queen sized red and cream barn raising log cabin that will be eventually listed for sale on my etsy site. Quilting is stitch in the ditch for the red logs and feathering in the cream areas.

We are under a winter weather advisory today with a rain/snow storm that is supposed to be coming through sometime today through midday tomorrow. Isn't it supposed to be spring? My flowers were starting to come up!

I'm still crossing all my fingers and hoping to win something in the Alliance for American Quilts contest. I don't pray, but my fingers are almost blue with hoping.

Looks like my 3 show quilts that I sent to the Machine Quilters Expo are coming home with no ribbons. The competition is always stiff at this show. The competitive quilting shows are tough to ribbon in since there are so many really talented quilters out there. It's always a super honor just to get accepted. Now I'm hoping for a teachers ribbon possibly in the box.

Well...back to the red and cream quilt. They don't get finished on their own.

Happy quilting and stay snug and warm.

More Glass for my Art Quilts

Here's the newest group of glass pieces I made this week at The Glassy Lady glass studio. I'm already dreaming of fibered art to go with them. This time I made a whopping 14 pieces in 3 hours. There were 8 of us in this class. The great news is that The Glassy Lady, Stephanie Jochim is moving her studio into Hayward with a projected opening date of May 2nd. Yipee! It will be a store front and class room studio, and available for independant work too. I love trying new things.

Beads and Critiqueing

Last night I critiqued quilts for a local quilt show in Rice Lake WI. Before I needed to be at the auditorium I stopped at one of my favorite places for beads, Bargain Bills discount store. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I've found it to be a super place for getting many of my beading and embellishments for my quilts. Last night I felt like I had hit the lottery. I found small round mirrors in the bridal supply area, beads in styles and colors that I needed to replenish for future classes I teach this fall, and new beads that intreged me. I also found plastic bags for the artist trading cards and postcards that I've been making and exchanging. Plus, there was some yarn for layering that I had to have, and some stamps for dying and bleaching etc. There was also stencils from one of my favorite stencil companies, that can be used for bleaching, shiva, painting, etc. Like I said...it was the mother load for me.

Today, we went ice fishing for the last time this season Chequamegon Bay in Washburn WI. There was still about 24 inches of ice, but it is turning punky fast. We took the snowmobile with us to pull the ice shack and gear. Now I'm looking forward to warm weather fishing in the boat. Sunshine on my face, and bug swatting.