Monday, October 1, 2012

Show Stoppers!

I had the very best time ever for two days at my local guild's quilt show! The Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild 35th Annual "Harvest of Quilts" was a big success. It rained most of the weekend, so everybody wanted to come to the quilt  show when they couldn't be outdoors raking leaves. These pictures are just a few of the quilts that were displayed. I tried to include all of mine that were entered.
This is my "Windmills of Your Mind" that was done all in Civil War fabrics. It is my first ever border of flying geese and was great fun! The really challenging part was figuring out what size coping strips to put onto either side of the flying geese panel to get it to fit onto the quilt center. Love that graph paper, LOL!
If you cannot read my shirt, it says, "Quilt Police"

Keepsake Quilting's main store in Center Harbor, New Hampshire, a.k.a. "the  Mothership," came to our show for the first time ever.They had the entertainment of both their Challenge Collection and SCRAPS!

They gave you a ziplock plastic bag and let you stuff it for $5! Oh, the treasures! They had brought a small truck filled with cardboard cartons of scraps! OMG! When I got there on Saturday morning, my very dear friend, Deb Derrick was on the floor with her eyes glazed over from making so many decisions about which ones to take!
After giving her a big bear hug, I joined her on the floor. We carefully rolled bunches of scraps to be able to stuff the bags to capacity.

She had brought her friend, Gail, and the three of us laughed and played in the scrap bins like happy kindergarteners.
If you cannot read it, my shirt says, "Easily distracted by shiny objects".

We finally realized that none of us had had any lunch and the food concession was soon to close. We paid for our choices and ate a good lunch together.
I had some of Sue Jacobs', Kapusta, or Cabbage Soup and it was delicious! All the soups and sandwiches were homemade by our members. The chicken salad sandwiches were extra tasty with the Craisins in them.

I went over to chat with Jane Geary, who is a regular at our sit 'n' sew group, the Sew & Sews where she was working at the guild's Boutique Booth.
Jane is a "snowbird" and I will miss her this winter! She was helping to sell some of my sachets, potholders, and calico catnip mice for me.

I'm afraid nobody bought any sachets all weekend.
But I did sell four of my thirteen potholders! I was really glad to not get skunked on them. I sold them at $6 each or two for $10.
I had such fun making them, but I'm slow so they take me over an hour to complete. Geez, that ain't even minimum wage! But I just can't stop myself from making them, LOL!
The calico catnip mice had a nice run, too. I made 50 of them and sold 15. I use an imported Canadian catnip that is professionally grown and harvested at it's peak. We're gonna be seeing a lot of happy cats around here!

Here are some other guild member's quilts:
You all remember my "Humble Pie" quilt that was made from Mary Johnson's Easy Double 4-patch directions from over at Maryquilts.com.
And, of course, that ginourmous quilt that I named "Calliope Music" from Bonnie K. Hunter's quiltville.com site, where it is known as Patches & Pinwheels.
Just beyond the "Calliope Music" quilt is my "Sister's Choice Part I", peeking out at you. Here is a little better shot of it.

I'm getting inspired to buckle down and complete it's mate, "Sister's Choice Part II", because I love the way this one came out!

"Recent Developments" looked good in the show, too. Here is this Bonnie K. Hunter, Happy Scrappy Houses pattern:


Anne Colburn, who was in charge of hanging this show, completed a very special quilt this year. It was started by Linda Kangur, who had been a guild member, but died before she could finish the quilt for herself and her husband. Anne finished it for her to give to Linda's grieving husband.
Another guild member, Linda Monasky of the Bear Paw Gallery, did a gorgeous quilting job on this quilt pictured above on her longarm.
This picture below is of our Guild's Raffle quilt that was appraised for $1700.00! Pretty spectacular, huh?
Michelle Plourde quilted this on her longarm and did a fabulous job.

Some of the fabric vendors at the show were concerned that the Mothership's entertainment cut into their sales. When I heard that, I made a couple of purchases at the booth of Quilting Corners from Tilton, New Hampshire and some from The Quilted Frog, too. It is important that we quilter's support our local quilt shops so that they do not all disappear!
This is Jody Saulnier of The Quilted Frog. She was happy to get my business; I was happy to get her beautiful Moda "Independence Trail" fabrics.

This morning I woke up with a bad case of a fabric-buyer's binging hangover! I'm totally overwhelmed and can't decide what to sew first. Now, THAT'S the way to have a problem, LOL!



7 comments:

Auntie Em said...

Sounds like oh so much fun! I would have jumped right in and joined you in the scraps!
All of your quilts look so pretty.
Wonderful show!

cityquilter grace said...

great photos..i love "windmills" and "sister's choice" and independence trail is sooooo nice. it's on my list for PA, well to look at anyway. be sure and show what you bought!

Helen in the UK said...

Looks like it was a great show and you had a lot of fun :)

Glady said...

What a lovely show! I so enjoyed looking all the pictures and want to thank you for taking the time to share. Your Calliope Music Quilt is one my favorites. ☺ I hope to someday take a class with Bonnie Hunter. Have fun with your new fabric!

Nann said...

Quilts look so great when they're hung and can be seen from several steps back. It's nice to see yours upright! Our guild uses wooden stands like yours, but we have cloth sleeves to cover the posts.

Unknown said...

I have "quilter's remorse" from not being able to get to the show, Vic. What a wonderful show! I'm putting it on my list of "must dos" for next September so keep me informed.

Your sachets are wonderful; people don't know what they're missing.

Have a wonderful week, and get quilting!

Sara said...

Greaat show and your quilts are lovely!

Please let me know about your catnip mice - I see a christmas present for a sweet kitty named Killian - who loves catnip!!!

nhsarab at yahoo dot com

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