Two Crocheted Finishes, and More...

The days since my last post have been full of happy moments.

Last Saturday was spent with a delightful Iowa friend, Rondelle. She and I met through our weekly virtual Women's Bible study at Lutheran Church of Hope. She came to Central Florida to visit nearby relatives so we spent most of Saturday together, meeting for coffee, visiting Ancient Olive to taste and buy yummy combinations of flavored balsamic vinegars and oils, golf-carting to my house for chattime on the lanai, and then visiting 4-H Club. At the Club meeting Rondelle left numerous "little Jesus's" behind. I discovered she left this keepsake for me too 

I sent Rondelle home with two knitted dishcloths and a round loom knitted tiny doll to which she affixed one of my FlourishingPalms pins. We had a wonderful time together.

A new toy tool arrived for me - a Stanwood 7-ounce manual yarn ball winder. I spent some quality time with the winder, turning most of two large bags of stashed yarn into cakes. (Some are already in cakes.)

It's great to have my small yarn stash organized.

I have two crocheted garment finishes to share. This is Lace Summer Top. 

 

This is Summer Cardigan. Both patterns are by KnitCroAddict.

I'm continuing to knit Summer Soul Top by Julia Piro Knits. 

A couple other tidbits... 

Thanks to a recent post by Debbie at A Quilter's Table, I learned about a book she has used as inspiration for improv. Though the book is out of print, I was delighted to find an inexpensive copy through Ebay. 

Bold Expressions is a picture compilation of mostly unidentified-maker quilts collected from Southern states by Corrine Riley

These quilts were displayed May 15 to November 6, 2011 at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, California.

It was delightful to see where the book came from... Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington. It looks like no one ever checked it out from their docent library. 

I've already thoroughly looked through the book, and can see how these quilts - similar to Gee's Bend quilts - will provide improv inspiration.

A quick drive through Twistee Treat, and...  It's still not open! But signage is up. They're close. Others are as anxious for it to open as I am because two cars followed behind!

Open in "two weeks" according to a paper sign taped on the menu board and drive-up window.

From the day I stopped to ask an employee, "two weeks" is July 4. The rumormill is saying July 1. Either date, I'll be there! 

One more noteworthy mention... Tuesday, June 23 marked the anniversary of our move-in to this house in Florida 14 years ago! It's still incredible how time flies - faster the older I get. Linda

QuiltCon Raleigh, Part 6 - Other Quilts

Continuing with my QuiltCon review, I have only a few more quilt photos to share, most of which I took on Sunday afternoon when the show was winding down. That's when it was mostly just me, the quilts, and the vendors.

Since I wasn't fond of the colors of the Windham Artisan Fabrics Challenge chosen by keynote speaker Hillary Goodwin, I have only one  quilt from that category to show. 

Flight, Melinda Gerber @melindas.creative.journey, California

Domestic machine and hand quilted, and embroidered. I like the way Melinda hand stitched one color and then re-hand stitched in between the first stitches. Original, isn't it? 

Balance of Light & Dark, Lauren Klementz-Hart @creativelifesampler, California

Lauren won 1st place in the Handwork category with Midnight & Noon, and the quilt below was in the Handwork category too.

Lauren says this work is "the creation of interesting composition given random remnants from my scrap collection." Hand appliquéd, hand embroidered, hand quilted. 

Another QuiltCon challenge was the Diamond Quilting Challenge sponsored by American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. I adore this one, and would voted for it if I'd had more than one vote for People's Choice.

Bolt Loads of Fabric, Lindsey Eisenhardt @wildeandpurdy, Wisconsin

Foundation paper pieced and domestic machine quilted.

My friend from South Florida MQG, Sarah Muslim Lefebvre @sidestitchesdesign made the quilt below also for the Diamond Quilting Challenge.

Broken Splinters From Fallen Stars

Foundation paper pieced and domestic machine quilted. Sarah told me she thinks she used five color values.

Group & Bee Quilt - Hilma, Stephanie Ruyle @spontaneousthreads, Colorado

Participants made blocks that "channel the major artwork of Hilma auf Klint." 

Other makers are: Leanne Chahley, Debbie Jeske, Karen Foster, Felicity Ronaghan, M-R Charbonneau, Marci Debetoz and Kari Barber.

While at QuiltCon, a special treat was getting to meet-up for the first time with two Bloggers whose blogs I have read for several years, and who read my blog! 

On the left is Mary of ZippyQuilts. I recommend following her to see the creative quilts she makes. Here's her blog post about seeing quilted clothing at QuiltCon - something I didn't get into because... I don't have occasions to wear cold-weather clothing, and some of the clothing was way over-the-top. Prints, designs, colors in a mishmash that could be overpowering. 

Another Blogger I met was Joy who blogs at The Joyful Quilter. When I met her I wasn't feeling well (a head cold) so I didn't get to hug her. 

I also briefly talked with Doris Brunette, a long-time friend from Iowa. Doris and I knew each other when we both worked at Drake University in Des Moines, and then later, in 2010 we co-founded the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild, now the Central Iowa Modern Quilt Guild. Doris is currently the Editor-in-Chief of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine and presented awards to the winners of the Diamonds Quilting Challenge sponsored by American Patchwork & Quilting. 

Lisa Ruble @quiltyzest DMed me on Instagram to come to the Benartex booth where she was promoting her fabric line. She wanted me to see the tote she'd made using my Confetti Pouch tutorial. 

Lisa used leftover project scraps to make this. Didn't it turn out cute? If you're interested in the tutorial, go here. 

This is Emilié Trahan, a Canadian who's a previous QC Best in Show winner, and who had several quilts at this QC. I stopped her to ask for a photo of her in her crocheted top. Of course, I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that she designed and made it herself! So cute and colorful. 

Since I mentioned People's Choice several times, I'll add a photo of the quilt that received the People's Choice award. In nine QuiltCons, I have yet to vote for the winner which I suppose says a lot about my taste in quilts. 

Frances, Jeanne Eileen Garcia @jeanne.garcia, Colorado

I don't have any quilt details except that this is a portrait of Jeanne's mother. She's certainly beautiful. 

I've just scrolled through all the pictures I took of quilts, and realize I've shared them all. I'm sorry I missed taking photos of quilts in the Improv Category, but perhaps my psyche was subtly reminding me that I'm no good at improv. One more post about QuiltCon, and I'll call it a wrap. Linda

QuiltCon Raleigh, Part 1

Attending QuiltCon for the ninth time, I knew what to expect. But it's the people one encounters, and the quilts that make each show special and different. 

As you may know, I hate flying. Though I usually fly a couple times a year, it's always with consternation and uncertainty because I'm afraid. I've learned that it helps immensely to fly with someone I know - someone who can distract me from the odd sounds and turbulence that remind me I'm way up high in the air!

This year I flew with friend Karen who was also my QC roommate. We traveled on Southwest Airlines, on a brand new plane. Given that Southwest now assigns seats, imagine our surprise to learn that three other members of Central Florida Modern Quilt Guild were on our flight, and seated near us! 

L-R: Linda, Karen, Cindy, Donna

Also, you'll note that the plane wasn't even close to being full! None of us could recall flying out of Orlando on a plane that wasn't packed to capacity. 

When in Raleigh on Wednesday evening, a few Central Florida MQG members lined up outdoors in front of the Raleigh Convention Center to check-in and get our QC badges. 

L-R: me, Karen, Donna, Cindy, Mel and Janice

The weather was mostly overcast and occasionally rainy, but the atmosphere was welcoming.

We attended the Wednesday evening awards ceremony. Rather than reshare all the winning quilts, here's a link to them on the MQG website.

From Thursday through Sunday (February 19 through 22) it was quilts, quilts, quilts, and vendors. 

What I appreciate about the Raleigh Convention Center is the ability to view the entire show/vendor floor from above. Quilts are on the left; vendors on the right.

I think Carolyn McKibbin's @quiltergardner Best in Show, Mom's Jeans, deserved to win.

I had a chance to congratulate Carolyn and have a nice chat. Believe it or not, she entered Mom's Jeans into QuiltCon 2025 and it was a QuiltCon REJECT! The lesson in that is to try again!

Carolyn domestic machine quilted.

Another award winning quilt that astounded me was Midnight & Noon by Lauren Klementz-Harte @creativelifesampler who won Best Hand Quilting. This is the quilt front.

This is the quilt back. Basically, she made two quilts and then hand quilted in areas determined by the shapes either on the back or on the front.

A QC volunteer and I spent at least ten minutes trying to work out how Lauren created her quilting designs. We decided she quilted from the back for a while, and then quilted from the front for a while. She quilted the sleeve too! How did she do that? It would have been nice to talk with Lauren about her process. Quite impressive!

I managed to catch a photo of Kelly Spell @kellyspell with her award-winning quilt, Racing Stripes. She won the MQG Excellence Award and deservedly so. Her precision workmanship was evident. Fabrics in this quilt were hand-dyed by Kelly. 

Another Central Florida MQG member's quilt was in the show.

Shown in the Appliqué category, this is In Search of Peace by Jane Grant @gonequiltinginflorida. She also has precision workmanship. Jane big stitch hand quilted peace symbols across the quilt. 

I like to see quilts in their context. On the right is my quilt, Turnabout in the Appliqué category. On the left is Slices of Joy in a Sea of Despair by Karen Duling. That quilt appears in QuiltCon Magazine.

The Turnabout surface is covered with big stitch hand quilting. 

This is Infrastructure in the Modern Traditionalism category. 

It's domestic machine quilted and enhanced with big stitch hand quilting. By the way, Infrastructure was a 2025 QuiltCon reject too. 

The QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge Quilts were displayed in a separate room (apart from the quilt show area) near the lecture hall. 

 

On the left is Fins, Feathers, and Fronds, our Central Florida MQG submission made by about a dozen members and quilted by Karen (in the photos above) and me. 

Fifteen of our 45 members attended QuiltCon this year.

Each year we give our Community Outreach Challenge Quilt to the church that allows us to meet monthly in their fellowship area. The church then raffles the quilt to raise monies to support Rapha International.

More pictures of quilts in QuiltCon Raleigh, Part 2! Linda