More Quilt Appreciation

Everyone says that Blogspot is so over and that Wordpress is so much easier to use. The post immediately prior to this one is a good example of the hassles with Blogspot. I could not add anything after the picture of me on the longarm.

Anyway - more quilt appreciation: for 3 days I demonstrated using Paintstiks at KiwiQuilts during their minishop hop with two other local shops. It was fun, and I almost reached my sales goals. I think we either had three or five of the Paintstiks left over, which is pretty good, given that I had to practically arm wrestle people to even pick the dang things up.

Prior to that, I went to the annual Houston Quilt Festival. The quilt that won Best of Show is "America, Let Her Shine,"  by Sherry Reynolds. Her goal was to create a quilt that was "a tribute to America, our foundations and values, with the hope that they will guide us to a brighter future."  Mission accomplished, wouldn't you say?  The thirteen original colonies are represented in the border's blue rays and red triangles. The 4,886 Swarovski crystals represent the sum of the 4,543 words of the Constituion, 312 words of the Star Spangled Banner, and 31 words of the Pledge of Allegiance. She embroidered words from the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble of the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. I can't remember how long she said it took, but it is definitely a masterpiece and has won all kinds of awards from coast to coast. OH - she quilted it on her home Bernina!For more about the quilt, here's a video on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TjmrUAWl70 



My favorite was this quilt: Can't you just feel the heat of that sun? It's a hand dyed gradation. Everything else is pieced. She was inspired by a photograph she took in Africa on vacation.

The Brown Sugar Stitchers are participating in an exhibition at the Lucy Laney Craft Museum in Augusta. The show will be up until January 1. Here's a photo of Edith Chadwell and me in front of my go to quilt show quilt:

 

"Freaking Rock Star From Mars" found a good home at Pam's 16th annual “Making a Difference in the Lives of Children” gala at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Los Angeles. The purpose of this celebration is to acknowledge grandparent caregivers who selflessly raise their grandchildren in the absence of their parents. Pam was visiting and liked the quilt, so I was thrilled to give it to her for the silent auction. It took a lot of pressure off to not to have to complete another quilt!
 

Finally, at the end of September, Scient had their annual reunion at the home of Bob and Meg Beck in Pebble Beach. It's good to know 1%ers.

 

Finally, on the quilting front - I am going to finish the binding on a quilt to send to New York. The devastation from Hurricane Sandy is still being felt, and some people have lost everything. But for today - Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The funny thing about Thanksgiving, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it and then chopping and cooking and braising and blanching. Then it takes 20 minutes to eat it and everybody sort of sits around in a food coma, and then it takes four hours to clean it up.
-- Ted Allen

Thanksgiving, when the Indians said, 'Well, this has been fun, but we know you have a long voyage back to England.' --Jay Leno