Show Recapping After Show Recuperating

Today I'm really feeling better from the over-stimulation of the quilt show. It is a lot of fun but it is exhausting in every way; physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

Please recall that you may enlarge a photo by clicking on it.

We have great people who pull together as a team, and we are blessed by the gentle and loving leadership of Ann Rampulla, who has pulled double-duty this year as show chair and president. Thank you, Ann for your continuing guidance and tireless work!

Here are some more random shots from around the show for you to enjoy.

Here is one of the early shoppers at the Penny Sale chaired by Judy Sigsworth.

The boutique was a success!

Although I don't know her name, this, below, is the gal that bought Ila Matila's  gorgeous blue quilted jacket and she is standing in front of the little Sunday raffle quilt.

Can you believe that Jean Vaillaincourt, who assembled all those blocks, is the one who WON IT!???!!

"Rigged, rigged, rigged" was the teasing that we heard all day, LOL!

I was happy to sell a few potholders and some catnip mice.

There were lots of wonderful vendors and here are just a few of them. 

Sharon Zimmerman with a customer at the Dreamland machine custom quilting booth. In the background is Sharon's mom, Tracy Szanto, who does the beautiful quilting!

And Camille Arnone of Evergreen Country Primitives quilt shop.

And don't forget The Quilted Frog.

The Guild table was busy, too!

As a Stashbuster, I was pretty good, only indulging in a $1.00 bag of scraps from the guild table. But I doubt that I'll ever tame my fabric addiction, LOL! I'm not even sure that I WANT to.

I was thrilled to encounter my dear friend Deb from Meredith enjoying the show!

Sometimes we shop together on Saturdays if there is a great sale at The Mothership (a.k.a. Keepsake Quilting's retail store in Center Harbor, New Hampshire).

This year the guild chose to display the Keepsake Hoffman Challenge quilts in the main room as you entered the show. They are the smaller wall hangings hung from the ceiling tiles.

All the quilts were beautiful!

 Pictured below is the all-batik official Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild Raffle Quilt. Remember that I did one paper-pieced block for it? Well, I guess it's in there somewhere, LOL!

I feel badly that I was so booked to work at various booths that I do not have a complete photographic record of the show. But I did make certain to get a picture of all 6 of my own quilts!

This is my "Mr. Bojangles", a Civil War reproduction snowball/nine-patch with a striped border. I quilted this one with those big freehand loose wonky spirals on Ellen Peters' rented longarm.
Yesterday, this quilt was returned by me (from being on loan for the show) to my next door neighbor, Al Constant, who was a lifelong veteran in the Army. It is not an official Quilt Of Valor, but I just wanted to personally thank him for his service to our country. He gave me the world's biggest bear hug!

These two quilts were my Sister's Choice Part I, and Sister's Choice Part II, that were on loan from my wonderful sister, Suzanne Levesque. Thank you, Bonnie K. Hunter for this free pattern on your blog here!
Linda Monasky, of the Bear Paw Gallery in Alton, New Hampshire, quilted both of these beautifully in her ivy vines and loops!
I was very grateful that our Chairperson of Hanging, Anne Colburn, was able to display them so effectively side by side. She is a genius at hanging the show and her work this year was, once again, pure artistry. Thank you, Anne!

And there, above, is my Bonnie K. Hunter's mystery pattern, "Easy Street", that was done in all Civil War reproductions. I quilted this one with groovy boards guiding the design of Baptist Fans at Ellen Peters' Studio. I quilted the pair of twin quilts shown below at her studio, too.

These two quilts are my "Cappuchino" log cabin right beside my "Tumble Inn" random tumblers quilt, and that was all that I put into the show.

I did not get a chance to participate in the many demonstrations that were going on in this area where Sharon and Tracy posed for the camera, but I heard that they were terrific! Thank you so much, Kelly Bliss for organizing all that!

There was a good crowd enjoying the show on both days!

The food at our Harvest Cafe was delicious! I had a pulled pork sandwich for only $4.50 and it was awesome!

For dessert, I had a Raspberry Marzipan Square that was out of this world, yummmy!

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This show hosted two featured quilters from the Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild, Margarget O' Brien, and June Pease. No photographs on earth will ever do justice to their beautiful work.

Here is Margaret O' Brien surrounded by her creations.

I loved her batiks in the "Twin Stars" pattern below, and the story of how she made this quilt because she has a twin sister.

Her whole booth was phenonenal.

She chooses classic designs and executes them to perfection.

Thank you, Margaret, for enriching our show with your artistry!

And, not to be left out, is June Pease, our other featured quilter, who is seen here with "Mr. June."

Although June has been involved in almost every aspect of the quilting industry, I was glad that she chose to display her award-winning applique quilts.

Her work is stunning and I have warned you that my photos are poor substitutes for seeing these quilts.

Each one is a masterpiece.

Thank you, June, for gracing the show with all this beauty and expertise!

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This quilt show was two days of powerful inspiration and intimidation for us all.

Not the least of the show's charm is the placement of quaint antiques that are on loan from the many members who bother to haul them back and forth to the show, and the giant fresh pots of chrysanthemums to compliment the beauty of the quilts. Thank you, Debbie Pare for all your behind-the-scenes efforts to bring these props!

There are many, many other folks who contributed to this show and I publicly apologize for their omission here but thank you!

I hope that you enjoyed my sharing of a few of my impressions of this show!

Stay calm and quilt on!

There's No Business Like Show Business

Our first day of the quilt show was a huge success! Here are just a few extra photos of the quilts going up and a little look around the show after it was open. Enjoy!

The man clowning about in the red apron is a great quilter and he made this quilt!

More later tomorrow but it is such fun to be there!

Happy sewing!

Just Another Day

Don't looming deadlines just drive you crazy? They do me!

I'm hostessing a Red & White Quilter's Choice block swap over at Block_swappers yahoo group. If you are interested, you need to be a member of Yahoo and the link is here. Although the deadline is not until November 15th, I got antsy to get started, at least.

Now it looks like a Polish national flag got bombed in my Quilting Cave, LOL!

The block that I chose to make is the Buckeye Beauty Block from Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache. But her block is deliciously scrappy. The difference for mine is that we, in the swap,

These are huge 6 1/2 inch HST's for the 12 inch block.

are ONLY using red and white, so mine will be in those two colors.

Every block in the swap will be a 12 1/2" square to finish at 12" in the quilt. So far, I'm the ninth person to sign up for it.

Now, I believe that this particular block is the same pattern as "Jacob's Ladder". I'll be using two 6 1/2" HST's and two 6 1/2" four-patches (they were strip-pieced with 3 1/2" strips each of red and white).

The way it's supposed to be...

 The dream here is to get one each of every other quilter's choice so that when the swap is completed, you have an instant sampler quilt done in all reds and whites.

What's wrong with this picture? Hint: note the matching seam ripper!

After a wee mishap in my placement of the components on the first time I did this block, I resolved to pay more attention, LOL! But I did get four of my nine blocks done and was I was very pleased.

Here are three and the fourth one is now corrected and pinned to the wall in front of my sewing machine as a model! Check. Check. Double check.

By the way, if you have been admiring my VERY RED reds, they are all from the Moda line designed by Kathy Schmitz called Round Robin and came from my friends at The Quilted Frog located at Weir's Beach in Laconia, New Hampshire.

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Yesterday I spent most of my time helping to set up the Boutique booth at my Belknap Mill Quilter's Guild quilt show.
It is truly amazing to see the show begin with a bare rented hall and a few tables holding stacks of folded quilts.

The transformation grows slowly through the many hours of back-breaking work of the all-volunteer hanging crews.

If you look hard enough, you might spot Matthew and my sister, Suzanne, who both came to help support me in my hobby.

The white wooden quilt racks all need to be brought out of storage and assembled.

The two-part bases interlock and most often need to be "coaxed" with a rubber mallet.

Then the uprights are fitted into the center slot.

Quilt sleeves, attached to the backing of the quilt by the quilt's maker, are carefully threaded through the 1" x 3" horizontal crossbars. Then the quilt is lifted into position and the crossbar placed into its grooves at the top of the uprights. It's tricky and well-trained volunteers are appreciated!

The quilts are carefully registered a month in advance of the show. They are checked in with written receipts given back to each quilter for each quilt. When the show is over, you must present your receipt.

In the back room of the Opechee Conference Center, where I was working, there were many more volunteers, laughing and chatting as we all worked.

Things sure do look jumbled whilst they are in the process of setting up our Penny Sale, the Guild Table and the Boutique, LOL!

We all worked hard but really had fun, too.

There were so many treasures to ogle!

I loved this little sweetie pictured below! By the way, I liked the quilt, too!

We even managed to get the half-broken old guild portable quilt rack to work to display the Sunday Rail Fence Raffle quilt! Life is all about the little miracles, isn't it?

I hope your day was productive, fun, and filled with mini-miracles, LOL!

Happy sewing

Davy Crockett Log Cabin

Today is the last day before the set up on Friday for the quilt show. I want to make one more hanging sleeve. It's for the "Davy Crockett" log cabin and then I'll load my car.

I am so pleased with how this turned out! It is a nice sized queen at 84" X 84". It took me 22 days to complete this quilt, which is like lightening for me! Usually I take several months to finish a quilt.

The wonky spiral quilting is as whimsical as the rest of it.

Maybe the quilt show coming up spurred me on to try to finish it in time to show it, I don't know.

Maybe it was the break in the hot sticky weather with all this cool, energizing dry air.

What made me stay on task to the end? I have no idea, LOL! But I'm very glad that I did for once not get bored and distracted by some new project.

I'll be pleased to offer it for sale at $475.00 and hope very hard that it does find a wonderful new home with people that will love it as much as I do, LOL!

Stay calm and quilt on!