Done with Summer Fun . . .

I played around with some different borders for Summer Fun, 

this is the one I liked the best.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 86. ( just 14 more until 100, but who's counting!)

The pattern is Summer Day by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

The fabric is Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt.

It finished at 49" x 49" and has 664 pieces.

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Show Update - A Few Quilts . . .

Warning - picture heavy blog post.

Here's what greeted quilters to downtown Paducah.

Quiltman!

Tuesday night I got to attend the AQS Awards Ceremony, it was a thrill and tons of fun.

Libby Lehman was the Master of Ceremonies.

This quilt won Best of Show.

Harmony Within by Sue McCarty.  This quilt also won Best of Show at Houston.  This is not Sue's first win at Paducah.  She started long arm quilting in 2004!!  I would say she has a natural knack for it!

This quilt won Best Hand Workmanship

Star Struck by Cheryl L See. This is an original design with over 12,000 hexagons.

Here is Best Machine Work

Radiance by Susan Stewart. Click here to see other Susan Stewart designs.

And Best Longarm Work

Avatar Revisited by Judy Woodworth - this project is thread painted.

Judy has written a free motion book, teaches, and has a great website.  click here for website

I came very close to winning, 

in geographical terms!  See my star quilt peeking out to the left of this quilt?

 Here it is to the right of Susan's quilt!  

I bet that star quilt was the most photographed and most cropped out picture at the show!!

Here I am, proud as can be in front of my Red and White quilt wearing my Contestant ribbon.

Believe me, being a contestant in this show was the biggest thrill of my quilting life.

I was warned not to stand around my quilts, that I may not like some of the comments that I heard, but I just couldn't help myself and never heard a single snarky comment.  

This guy took at least 10 pictures, a closeup of each different mini quilt in the quilt.  I share pictures of my quilts online with you, but at the most, a dozen folks see my quilts in person.  Knowing over 30,000 folks walked by my quilts during the course of the week was icing on the cake.

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There's No Place Like Home . . .

I'm happy to be back home even though I had the best time in Paducah at the AQS Show.  I have plenty to show and tell you about the show and my classes (I didn't win a ribbon and that's ok) but that's going to have to wait, Settler's Trail is going to have to wait too, it's the end of April and time for a Summer Day, Sinta and Sherri's April Schnibbles Sew Along.

I'm going with some Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt scraps I have in my sewing room.  I used my Fit to be Geese ruler by Monique at Open Gate Quilts to make my perfect flying geese units. 

I bought the Summer Day pattern as soon as it was released, I just loved it.  I'm so glad Sinta and Sherri picked it for the April Schnibbles of the month, it forced me to move it from my ever growing To Do List to my Do It Now List.  

April has been a very hectic month for me, and for some reason, this pattern suddenly also felt hectic to me.  In an effort to achieve some calm in my life,  I decided to try and add some calm to my project.

I thought going scrappy, but just within each color way, would bring some calm to the project, but that wasn't enough calm for me.

My next attempt at tranquility was to add some white space, but that was little too quiet for me.

Then I decided to add some dots to those white spaces and decided I liked that. 

I also arranged the blocks into units of 4, with three flying geese units pointing towards a dot unit in a clockwise motion.  The perfect combination of order to the chaos.

It's like a little island of relaxation surrounded by the hectic days of summer. 

 Together I think they add up to a summer of fun, so that's what I've named my April Schnibbles, Summer Fun.  

To keep things even I had to add an additional row and column of blocks.  ( you know me, ever the accountant, debits must equal credits,  everything has to be even steven!)

I think it may need another border or two,  I'll give that some thought, stay tuned for an update, maybe!

Tomorrow will be the big Schnibbles Parade over at Sinta and Sherri's blogs, don't miss it, I'm sure it will be a fun Summer Day!

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I'm a Traveling Girl . . . .

This week I'm traveling to Paducah, Kentucky to attend the AQS Quilt Show.  This is my seventh straight year attending this show.  It's a fun week of learning new things in classes, drooling over the amazing quilts on display, playing with all the latest gadgets and machines that are currently available, and trying not to spend too much money at all the vendor booths.  Leaving the menfolk behind at home to do their own cooking and cleaning is a nice little perk too!

I always come home from the show full of inspiration and ready to tackle new challenges. 

 The quality of creativity and craftsmanship on display at this show rivals no other show I've attended.  Each year I've attended I've always wondered in the back of mind if I had one of those amazing quilts in me.  Turns out I do have one or two of those quilts in me! 

 I'm so happy to tell you that I have two quilts  accepted into this year's AQS Show in Paducah!

First up,  my Red and White Tribute Quilt!  

What an adventure this quilt has been.  When I started this quilt I was just wanting to quench my desire to make as  many red and white quilts from the NY Infinite Variety Show as I could.  When I got going on this project I had no idea how it would all come together.  To go from that to the AQS Show is mind numbing!

The official title for this quilt is, "My Tribute to the Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts show".  It's in category 9 - First AQS Entry -Large and is Quilt #905.

This quilt was accepted into the show also.  

I have no problem admitting that it's not my piecing skills that got this quilt being accepted into the show, it's Judi Madsen's quilting that turns this lovely quilt into a masterpiece.  Not only is the quilting exquisite and perfectly executed, it's unique.  I'm so happy folks from all over the world will get to see in person the wonderful work Judi did on this top.

The official title for this quilt is, "Two Score and Seven Stars", it's in Category 7, Large Wall Quilts, and is Quilt #706.

If by chance  you are going to the show, I would love nothing better than to get a picture of you standing in front of one or both of these quilts!  Email your photos to me at cupcakesndaisies@gmail.com.

For more information on - 

Red and White Tribute Quilt see Red and White Tribute Quilt tab on this page orclick here.

Two Score and Seven Stars see Lifetime Quilt #62 in my Lifetime Quilt section orclick here.

I'll be back next week to share all the great stuff I saw and bought!  I hope you have a great week too!

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Settler's Trail Update . . . .

Ta Da!!

I've finished piecing all the Block A blocks! I'm surprised how quickly it went.

Using strip sets to complete these blocks was definitely the way to go.

Now it's on to Block B

Here's my inspiration block. Now I just need to piece 463 two inch nine patches, yup, that's all I need to do!

I decided to go with the nine patches instead of strip sets to get a nice variety of fabric in each block. I'll let you know if it was worth the effort!

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