Show and Tell

Following are a few photos of the beautiful quilts shown at the CO West Quilt Guild meeting last week.  A lot of members are getting a great start on finishing up those UFO'S!!  Hurray for them!  That's what I need to do!








Yesterday I taught embellishment stitches at Black Sheep Handworx Studio to a GREAT group of gals - we had a lot of fun!!

Don't have enough t-shirts to make a t-shirt quilt?  Make a t-shirt scarf!  Great idea, huh?  This is Brenda showing off one she made with her friend 😊

An Unusual Edge

I've been working on quilting my Millefiori quilt for the past several days.  With the way I am finishing the edge, I was not able to quilt right up to the edge as I usually do, which is kind of driving me crazy.  However, I completed the quilting that I could, and today began finishing the edge, then I will go back and finish the quilting - a little backwards from the way I usually do it!

First I had to carefully cut the batting even with the quilt top.

Then I had to carefully cut the backing 3/8 of an inch wider than the quilt top, so I could fold the backing over the batting to make the back edge even with the top and now I'm painstakingly doing a ladder stitch around the whole outer edge!

A couple of Hallmark movies later and I'm about half way done!  😊


Tomorrow I will be teaching embellishment stitches at Black Sheep Handworx Studio - perhaps I'll see you there!  Happy Quilting!

Eldred Shafer

We had a wonderful program last week at our Colorado West Quilt Guild meeting presented by Eldred Shafer, an art quilter who lives here in Grand Junction and is the president of the Art Quilt Association - AqUA.

She shared many of her quilts, a lot of which feature animals and discussed her techniques in making them.  One interesting technique she says she learned from Kari Harvey (another local art quilter) is this heavily stitched edge instead of applying a regular binding.  It still makes a very nice edge, and is unique!  It looks great on her art quilts.

She discussed two dying techniques she uses - ice dying and sun printing.  Here is an example of her sun printing.  The ice dyed fabrics are used all over in most of her quilts!

She is willing to teach a class to anyone interested in learning these techniques.  Sheila will put her contact information in our newsletter.

It was a great program and I learned a lot!  You never know when new tips and techniques will come in handy!

The Labyrinth Quilt

Awhile ago I shared a picture of this quilt made by my friend Sherida.  I just love this quilt - it's so amazing to me!  She had it quilted by Laurie Gerse.
Laurie used black batting which was a really smart idea and sewed on the binding for Sherida. If you notice in the picture below, she left quite a bit of batting outside the edge of the binding.  She told Sherida that when the binding is tacked down it will be nice and full and tight, which is what they are looking for in show quilts.  I thought this was a good tip!  I usually get my binding fuller by using a 3/8 inch seam instead of a 1/4 inch seam, but this would work great if you don't want to sew in more than a quarter inch into your quilt top.  Great job Sherida, and Laurie!  I love this quilt!

Check Out This Website!!

I have finished my Homegrown, Sue Spargo block of the month for 2018 and it's pinned and ready to quilt!  I belong to a Yahoo group with others who've been working on this BOM all year and everyone is now writing in and asking "How do I quilt it??"  Some, like me, want to quilt it themselves.  Some want to hire someone to quilt it for them.  One woman wrote in that she has made Sue's BOMs in the past and has a woman named Cindy Paulson from South Jordon, Utah quilt her quilts.  She gave the link to Cindy's website so I looked it up to get some ideas. Wow!  Her quilting is amazing!  I'm not sure who made this quilt pictured here, but it was quilted by Cindy.  This is just one example of many, many beautifully quilted quilts in her gallery.  Go take a look for yourself and BE INSPIRED!!
Here is a link to her website:
http://www.quiltedconnection.com/index.html
Let me know what you think!!

The Stitchin' Patch

Today I went to The Stitchin' Patch, at Laura's Blacksheep Handworx Studio.  Laura offers The Stitchin' Patch two afternoons a month.  It's free, just bring whatever project you want to work on and stitch with friends!  We stitch, we talk, we laugh - kind of like an old fashioned quilting bee - just a ton of fun.  Laura has SO many class offerings at her studio, a wide variety of classes and several different teachers.  Check out her website to find out more about the class offerings and when The Stitchin' Patch meets, so you can come join us!
http://www.laurashome.com/store/
The studio is filled with a lot of fun patterns, wool, yarn, thread and most supplies you need to complete your beautiful projects.  It's a happy place!

I've been working on my Sue Spargo Folk Tails quilt.  I finished working on this block a couple of days ago but I have three more ready to embellish now, thanks to my afternoon stitching with my friends.  I hope you had a nice day too and get to do some stichin' this weekend!

Kimberly Simpson

I have an artist friend here in Grand Junction who has gotten into digital art on fabric!  Her work is amazing.  She is a quilter and is in negotiations for a contract with a major fabric company as a fabric designer.  You really need to go to her website and check out her wonderful work!

http://kimberlysimpson.biz

Also, if you live in the area you can see her work in person:

The City of Grand Junction Art’s Commission will be showing Kimberly Simpson's  Digital Art during 2019.

The first pieces will be shown at The Avalon Theatre, 645 Main Street, Grand Junction, CO. 

They will being showing January 7, 2019

To be announced are later Exhibits in The Two Rivers Convention Center (January 22nd), and the Grand Junction Municipal Building. 

I hope you will stop by and look at all the wonderful Art!

Way to go Kimberly!!  I'm excited to go to the exhibits and see your amazing work!!