Thursday, August 28, 2008

Quilts in the Garden Quilt Show

Hopefully most of you local quilters were able to attend the QUILTS IN THE GARDEN QUILT SHOW at Thanksgiving Point this last week. What a treat! Quilts were arranged in groups throughout the gardens and it was so very exciting to round a bend while walking on the garden paths and see another breathtaking group of quilts! Thanks to Barbara for making this quilt show happen, all the ladies that were able to help her, and of course the ladies that bought tickets and took advantage of such a great opportunity. This is a great fund raiser for the Utah Quilt Guild that will hopefully continue in the upcoming years.


The first grouping of quilts that you came to as you walked along the path was a beautiful arrangement all made by Jodi Warner. Some guild members may remember Jodi as she was a guest instructor/speaker at one of our guild meetings in 2007. She shared her tips and tricks with us and also her amazing appliqued panel quilt shown below at that meeting.




Isn't it amazing!! It was wonderful to see so many of her quilts in one place at Thanksgiving Point.





The next quilt grouping was a great quilt assortment all made by fun fun ladies from Moab. Here is Barbara and some of the great quilters from Moab.



One of the favorite quilts from the Moab ladies was this quilt made by Tommye and the cute Spring wall hanging, also made by Tommye.



Another quilt area was along a nice pretty corridor of trees and shrubs. There were so many quilts from our guild members and it was great to see them in such a pretty setting.



Rachel's

Connie's
Connie (volunteering) with Whitney's quilt (Natalia has this pattern for sale on her website-link to the right)


Kathleen's
Michele's
Another fun quilting arrangement was mostly full of Deonn and girls, and Kim's quilts. Here is Deonn and Chelsea helping out with the quilt show.


Kim's

Deonn's
Deonn's is on the right

There were two Moab quilting group arrangements and one of the arrangements had a lot of what they called BQ quilts. If you google "BQ quilts" you will find so many results for these fun quilts. They are made up of 18" blocks with 12" off set centers of focus fabric. The BQ is for Big Quilts - you can make a quilt pretty quickly with this pattern. The following 3 quilts are BQ quilts made by ladies from Moab.




And here and the happy ladies from Moab! Deonn, if you remember their names, will you please comment who they are so I can add them in.

A surprise in the Secret Garden was Kim Diehl. She set up a bunch of her quilts from some of her books and it was a great secret!
Her quilts have amazing applique and great color. It was such a treat to see her work and chat with her for awhile.
This one is also Kim's
Barbara and Tricia, taking a break in the shade of the Secret Garden. They were so busy running all day getting things ready and taking care of their volunteers. Thanks so much to Tricia and Barbara for doing such a great job with the quilt show.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Wasatch County Fair

Our wonderful guild members made quite a showing at our county fair earlier this month. There were so many quilts and a few other home art projects that were submitted by the talented ladies in our guild. The room was full of blue ribbons and a few purple ones - good job ladies!




This is Sue, one of the newest members to our guild, and her beautiful quilt and her sweepstakes ribbon.




Here is Michele and her 'finished just in time' cute cute quilt and her sweepstakes ribbon.

This is our guild president, KayeDawn's, Lullaby quilt that won a pretty sweepstakes ribbon also. This quilt was the inspiration and direction for our guild meetings this year - mostly focusing on different types of applique.


Another new member, but one that we know is Kami. Here is her amazing wedding quilt and her judge's choice ribbon.

Congratulations to these ladies and to everyone that entered their beautiful work in the fair this year. Your entries are what keep us going! Thanks for the inspiration and all your hard work!

Friday, August 22, 2008

August's Cool Tool

Shantelle shared a great and very cool tool with us at our August guild meeting. She brought Quilt Sew Easy Discs. These handy little gadgets are used when you machine quilt. Shantelle uses them and one disc goes in each hand and you use them to guide your quilt fabric as you sew. The discs are made of a nice material that grips your fabric and moves it smoothly where you want it to go.


If you don't like wearing sweaty gloves or fingertips, give these discs a try. They shouldn't make your hands and arms ache, and gives you great control. Thanks Shantelle!


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Round Robin Group #2

There were 6 ladies that participated in a second group of Round Robin making. The last borders were added and finished for our August meeting. Here is the quilt show!



This one is Rachel's



This one is Sherron's





This one is Crusan's, well, technically her husband's she says




This one is Wendy H's


Poor Wendy J, she finished one and her's didn't get finished! Darn that Rachel! She better get busy! Wendy - it is on its way, promise!

Where is Stella's round robin? Some investigation must be done!


If anyone wants to comment and tell us all which borders you did that would be great!


I had Stella email me a picture of hers - Thanks Stella - it turned out so cute!


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Quilts in the Garden Quilt Show
Thanksgiving Point
August 23rd from 10 until 3


Hope everyone is planning on attending a great quilt show! These are the only pictures I took last year. Isn't that sad? I just really liked this cute sampler quilt so I had to get a picture of it. There will be many quilts on display for everyone to come and see, along with the beautiful gardens!



Bring a water bottle, good shoes, and a shady umbrella for a gorgeous day! There is even going to be a surprise in the Secret Garden!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Renae Allen - what a treat!

Renae Allen was our guest instructor at our August guild meeting - WHAT A TREAT!

Renae is the mastermind behind a product called Skillbuilder for Machine Quilters. She designed panels of printed fabric that you and I can use to practice machine quilting on our home sewing machines. She also has companion books available to go with the panels to give you the basics of home machine quilting, along with her tips, ideas, and patterns.






Here is Renae showing us her Skillbuilder panels. There are many different types of blocks to quilt, borders to try, and fun continutous-line designs with directional guides. She now has a few different panels available, both beginning and mastery levels.




Renae talked to us about many aspects of machine quilting including how to mark a quilt. Her suggestions were: chalk wheel, pounce pad, Sulky transfer pen, blue marker, and Golden Threads Quilting Paper. The picture below shows the Golden Threads paper. She said tissue paper can also work.

Renae also has CDs and templates available with more instruction and more design possibilities.




Renae gave many tips on how she machine quilts on her sewing machine. A few of her tips were to use bike clips along with an accordion style folding of the quilt to make it fit nicely under the arm of the sewing machine and to keep track of the bulk as you quilt. She also mentioned that if you buy a throat plate with a round hole rather than a normal throat plate with a larger opening, it won't suck your quilt into the hole and you will have a better turnout.

Renae told us how she bastes her quilts and gets them ready for quilting. She uses a table and clips the quilt backing onto the table. She has found some nice big clips that work for thicker tables and many ladies took advantage of her searching by purchasing some from her! She said the key to having nice quilt backs is getting the fabric TAUT but not stretched. Another basting tool she uses is the quick clip used to clip safety pins in quickly. Renae talked about needles also. She always uses sharps rather than universals when quilting, and she emphasized to change your needle with each new project! She demonstrated how to pull up the bobbin thread so quick and easy! WOW! Another great tip she gave us was don't backstitch when you start and stop. She just does about 5 small small stitches before quilting your normal pattern and stitch length when she stops and starts. Interesting!



What a great evening our August meeting was for everyone that attended. Thanks to Renae Allen and KayeDawn for arranging her visit! If you missed her visit, her products can be purchased just about anywhere in quilt stores or online. Our very own Seasons of Home also carries her products!