Happy News!

On Wednesday I learned that two quilts I entered into QuiltCon, the big national quilt show for The Modern Quilt Guild that's next February 19-22 in Austin, Texas, were juried into the show! I'm tickled pink! Even more so since learning that of the 1,357 quilts entered, only 26 percent - or 352 quilts - were accepted! Wowsa!

So, to receive a couple emails like this has been pretty exciting!

"Shapes," that you'll see further down, is my entry in the Panasonic Bias Tape Appliqué Challenge, and I incorrectly assumed that all challenge entries were accepted. In fact, they were not, so I'm even more proud about these acceptances!

Our "Ad Libbing" was completed in August - a joint effort between me and Lora (Dragonfly Quiltworks) who lives 90 minutes away. We each made blocks, inspired by the "Missing U" quilt in the book Sunday Morning Quilts, as part of the June program and workshop Lora and I presented to Quilting Guild of The Villages.

Ad Libbing - 71" X 71"

Then when we went together to Sebring for a modern quilt retreat, Lora made our blocks into a quilt top. I took it home and quilted it, then returned it to her for binding, a sleeve and label. 

The name "Ad Libbing" refers to how this quilt came about - quite unintentionally, passing it back and forth, figuring it out as we went along. We were tickled when this quilt took first place in the large quilt category of 52 quilt entries, at QuiltFest Jacksonville in September.

Now we're excited to see how "Ad Libbing" will do at QuiltCon. Both of us will be there to find out!

The second quilt accepted was "Shapes."

My efforts began with this pile of bias tape made with a small Clover bias tape maker. The MQG made a very nice, helpful video about how to cut fabric on the diagonal, and use the bias tape maker to press and fold bias tape.

After I'd made a pile of tape in different solids, I folded and circled and pinned it to white Kaufman Kona, agonizing over how to layout the design. Thankfully, my friend Debbie even came over to offer helpful advice! For the background, I used two widths of Kona, hiding the joining seam behind the long, wide zig-zag of bias text print fabric.

Sandwiching involved two layers of batting: the bottom batt was Quilter's Dream polyester; the upper batt was Quilter's Dream wool. It was timely that I was Quilter's Dream featured "batt girl" in June, and was the recipient of a complimentary box of Quilter's Dream battings! You can see that the puffiness of double batting warrants dense pin-basting.

I can't say this quilt finished smoothly, as many of you know about the grease marks that appeared on the white background fabric as I was quilting with my Pfaff walking foot.

I discovered that the foot, which had been recently serviced with my machine, had an excessive amount of grease inside the open base. Suffice it to say I suffered through much heartbreak figuring out a resolution to the marks, which did not come out of the fabric after attempts at cleaning with various spot remover products.

Now, strategically placed bias tape appliquéd hexagons hide the worst of the marks. Happily, I think they enhance the overall design, and add to the significance of the quilt name - "Shapes."

Shapes is quilted with 50-weight Aurifil threads - white, ivory, yellow, hot pink. I changed colors where I wanted to emphasize quilting designs that flowed into bias tape colors. And yes, I also strategically sewed pieces of solid hot pink fabric in the binding.

Shapes - 67" x 67"

Some of the quilting designs here are similar to those in "Ad Libbing," but I did my best to change them up a little. 

Shapes has been hanging on my design wall for several weeks now, waiting to find out if it was accepted into the show before sewing a sleeve to the back. Both quilts must be ready to ship to Austin for arrival between January 5-23. There's nothing more to do but wait... excitedly... with fingers crossed. Linda