Brownstone Quilt Show 2011 - Part 2

Here is part 2 of a 3 part report on the recent quilt show.

Enjoy!

The Lincoln quilts were a challenge that I did with my 2 friends, Jill and Susan McD.  We celebrated the 200th anniversary of his birth.  It was such fun to have a themed challenge, I'm ready for another!

Jills, "And Malice Towards None" (not judged).

Susan's "Lincoln blogs" (hand quilted, and that is his signature)

and my, "Remembering Abe".

This is Jill's fabulous quilt, "Circa 1880".

I love what she did with the border edge here - very cool

 This is a stunner!  Look at the edge - beautiful!

Susan H's Wickersham quilt called "Stella" (hand quilted)

What lovely story.  Susan Z. made the top and gave her to her best friend, Barbara B for her birthday (a big one).  When Barbara opened it at a guild dinner she cried, we all did!  It is lovely and titled "A Gift of Friendship".

Margaret's (our quilt show chair and hero) beautiful quilt, "Down on the Farm".

My completed "Passage to India".  You can't see it here, but it has over 600 Swarovsky crystals and embroidered mirrors.  To my great honor, it received Margaret's quilt show chair ribbon award.

My "Whooville" quilt.  How nice that the judged recognized liberated piecing and ribbon matches the quilt :)

And finally, I can't resist adding this photo of me and Susan H.  In some odd way her shirt matched my skirt, sort of

So, I have a new profile photo because I had to send a photo of myself with a quilt show entry.  I have one word to say about setting up and taking my own portrait; awkward.

Have a fun weekend and I'll be back with part 3 soon!

Brownstone Quilt Show 2011 - Part 1

Greetings!  Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes for a good quilt show.  After 2 years of planning and many hours of work, it was a Wonderful Show!!

I'm excited to share some of the quilts with you.  This was a judged show, but I'd just like to say that I'm grateful for all the wonderful women who entered quits and shared their passion and talent, regardless of judges recognition.  Far too often wonderful quilts are passed over because of Judging bias (just saying).

Best in Show -

Best Use of Color-

Best Machine Workmanship - (this also won viewer's choice!)

And in no particular order some of my favorites-
Donna's - Give Peace Another Chance.

Susan's, Blueberries and Cheddar

Pauline's - Floral Charm - Note:  the squares are Hand Appliqued on the background!

Nancy's  - A Leisurely Trip Around the World. (incredible hand quilting!!)

Renata's - My French Garden

Maureen's Red and Green Album

Our Vintage Revisited Challenge (previously posted here)

The mini auction, which is such a hit with the visitors to the show.  I won three this year, hooray.   Susan and Barbara took this over from me and did a fantastic job!!

That's all for now.  I'll be back with more quilts to share.
In the meantime, I have a lot of blogging reading to catch up on.

Thanks for coming to the show today, I hope you had fun.

Quilt Show Countdown

Our guild is in the final week of our quilt show, which opens on Friday and runs through Saturday.  It's a busy, busy week.

You can find all the information about the show here on our website:  Brownstone Quilters .  If you come, be sure to say hello!

I pulled out this quilt that I finished in 2004 for the fall season.

Here and There Churn Dash.

I swapped churn dash blocks with my friend, Diane, of Persnickety Quilts.  Maybe she will post a photo of the quilt she made.  We used shirting prints and civil war reproduction fabrics.  Here is a close up of some of the blocks.

I machine quilted it with a feather border.

Plain small print backing and my label.

We were inspired to make this quilt when we saw this in Quilters Newsletter Magazine Jan/Feb. issue in 2002.

I'm continuing to make rag balls.  It's really easy when you trim away the batting and backing after attaching the binding. I also find it's a fun little "journal" of quilt backs.  My Abe quilt backings are the 2 on the left, and the pink one is from my Mother's Garden quilt.

Here is a new pile from my recently finished "A Passage to India" quilt that needs to be rolled and glued.

Saturdayday is the big drawing for our Raffle quilt, Friendship Garden.  I can't wait to see who wins this beautiful guild quilt.

I'll be back soon with photos from the show.  In the meantime, have a fun week!

p.s.  I never did get the "you might also like" button to work, but if you click on a label subject you will see the related posts.

Tricks on Trees

Happy Halloween (sort of)

We'll we survived Snowmagedon 2011. Just when the trees were starting to look pretty here in Northern NJ, Snowmagedon hit on Saturday.

We heard the first "Crack" of falling branches in the early afternoon and were hit with a power outage about 3pm.  Our neighborhood was hit very hard.  Luckily we have a wood burning fireplace, so were able to keep the Living Room somewhat warm.  Power resumed Sunday afternoon (thank goodness).

This morning we restocked the fridge and bought a chain saw.

The Lumberjacks, my son and his best friend.

Poor trees

This is about a third of the tree you see standing on left.

Big Daddy came out to show the boys how it's done.  They are really happy with the new toy.

the carnage

It's been a long standing tradition for me to make Sue's Stew and Tom's bread on Halloween.  When the kids were little it was an easy and quick way to get some dinner in while answering the bell and before they were totally sugar loaded.

 

The boys were very happy to sit down to a hot meal after the lumber hauling was over.

Happy Halloween! Back soon with Quilting.

Here are my recipes - they take about the same amount of time, so it works out great.  Enjoy!

Sue's Stew (Sue is my sister-in-law)

1 lb stew meat
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper
1 onion, wedged
2 cans beef broth
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 bay leaves
4-6 red skinned potatoes, cut into chunks
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2" slices.
1 1/2 cups fresh green beans, cut into 1" pieces.

Dredge stew pieces in seasoned flour.  Brown in a dutch oven with a little olive oil and butter.
Add onion, beef broth, bay leaves and tomato sauce.  Simmer 90 minutes.
Add  potatoes and carrots and simmer 30 minutes.
Add green beans and simmer until beans are done, about 30 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.

This is a basic recipe and you can add corn, peas, sweet potato or other root vegetables. 

Tom's Bread (Tom was a family friend who did the cooking on Rich's family boat)

1 Package dry yeast
2 cups hot water
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 - 3/4 cup honey
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups white flour

Combine hot water, oats, honey, butter and salt and let cool slightly.

Proof yeast according to the package directions.
(1/4 cup warm water, 1 tsp sugar and yeast, until foamy)

Add yeast and whole wheat flour to the oats mixture.  Add and knead in remaining 3 cups flour.  Knead about 5 mins.

Spray large bowl with Pam and add dough and cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (at least an hour) in a warm place.
Punch down and let rise again 1 hour.
Divide dough into 2 loaves and put into bread pans sprayed with pam.  Let rise 30-40 minutes.
Bake at 305 degrees for about 45 minutes or until its done and gold brown.

We like it best with butter and honey - yum!!

Sweet Little Baskets

Thank you so much for your wonderful comments on my Remembering Abe quilt.  I so appreciate it when you take the time to leave me a comment!

Here is a quilt I made in 2005, Sweet Little Baskets.

Jan of Be*mused showed a photo of my friend, Sheila's, quilt on her blog and hinted that I had made one too.

A few of use traded 3" baskets for awhile and each made a quilt.  Sheila made a large one.  Mine is quite small, only a throw.  As you can see, I made it larger with gigantic borders.

Here are some baskets blocks closer up.

I organized my baskets in a similar color groups.  It was fun!

This will give you an idea of scale and size, thanks coco.

On the back I used this large scale print of roosters.   It was around this time that I started using "statement" backings.

Simple cross hatch machine quilting and a nice label.

I had forgotten to share this on my Abe post.  I used Superior Kimono Silk #100 thread to machine quilt Abe.  It was wonderful to quilt with and the drape is lovely.

I treated myself to the color card available at Superior Threads.  

Here are a few things that really changed the quality of my machine quilting (and it's still not where I want it to be yet)....

I have shortened my stitch length (on the vicking it's  2 1/2.

I have slowed down - so hard!

I'm using silk in the top and the bobbin.

I'm using a good quality, new sharp needle, 70/10

I'm using a self threading needle to bury the starting and stopping stitches.

I watch Mad Men, Oh, Donald Draper you are a bad boy.

And lastly, I've put a book under my feet and raised my sewing chair so I have a better downward view.

I'm hoping to figure out a better solution, but this working for now.

Do you have any great machine quilting tips?  I'd love to hear them.

Have a fun week!