QuiltFest Jax

This is a little late post, but just wanted to write about my Jacksonville Quiltfest Trip. This was an adventure by myself since I really wanted to go and it was just easier to go by myself rather than make dog care arrangements, etc... I took Friday off and traveled for 4 hours to Jacksonville. I went straight to the Convention Center - Prime Osborn, which was fairly easy to find. This was the biggest quilt show I have seen and I knew it would be pretty big compared to Palm Beach and Broward County Shows. I think they had over 600 quilts displayed and some were very spectacular, especially the ones that won the ribbons. They were all well deserved!!! As you can see from the picture I went a little nuts! I also bought some raffle tickets (I guess I did not win anything since they haven't called me yet!). I got to finally try out a long arm machine. I was able to try the Gammill Classic and the HQ Sixteen. Of course I would prefer the Gammill but I don't think my pocketbook would like that right now. I definitely have an interest in longarming. It just seems alot simplier than trying to manuever the quilt through my home machine. I am thinking I might want to try an APQS too!!! I've heard both are good reputable companies. The problems I see is that there is no local dealer and if I have a problem and I can't resolve it over the phone it will cost a bunch of money to fix, whether I have to pay someone to come out or ship it. Maybe when I hit the Lotto I can get one!!!

Baby Quilt!!

Here is a pic of the baby quilt that I made for Sarah and Eric and their new baby. This is my first attempt at free motion quilting on real quilt. It is an overall meandering pattern using the variegated thread.

Hoffman Challenge 2007 Reject!

This is my Hoffman Challenge that came back in the mail last week. I had a hard time with this one since I did not work with a pattern or plan in mind. Halfway through I ran out of inspiration but Rob encouraged me to finish up since I had put some effort into it. I kind of knew that it was not going to win anything but it was somewhat gratifying to actually complete it. Hoffman did send me a little pin and 2 fat quarters.

9 block

My Pineapples Plus class has ended and this is my project. I still have to do the quilting and binding. Overall it was a good class, I like paper piecing and it is relatively easy but time consuming. The last sessions went in to designing your own pineapples but I haven't been motivated enough to design my own. So it is nice to know how to do pineapple quilts if I choose to do so.

More Pillows!!

I bought this fabric from Boca Bargoons at 29.00 a yard. Ouch! The lady there went on to tell me that she was a designer and I should make at least 3 pillows, not sure if she is correct or not but I have enough fabric for 4. I only picked up two pillow forms for now, so I guess I will have to wait on the third pillow. Overall I think they turned out really nice. The other side has a diamond motif on it.

Pineapple Pillow

Here is a 12 inch pillow I made with my pineapple blocks. The back has a light batik fabric with a invsible zipper. Overall paper piecing is fun, but very time consuming. I think this took me about 5 hours to complete.

Angelina Sampling

This is a sampling of what I am coming up with so far. I really love this dragonfly fabric and I have a quilt top that I've made with this fabric using the attic window block. Hopefully I can finish it up and post it, meanwhile I might just make this a little wallhanging.