Sunday, October 14, 2012

Whew! The quilt show for our local guild is over for another year! What a great time we had, but a lot of work. A lot of beautiful quilts took home some pretty prestigious ribbons too!  Yes, I did get ribbons on two of the quilts I entered. Got a 3rd place ribbon for "French Braid" & an Honorable Mention for "Carpenter Star meets Bali".  Texas's Butterfly Ballet didn't win anything, but the category had so few entries that they lumped them into small quilts, so it didn't fair with the others that were larger.
Now that I can breathe again, it's back to the drawing board, so to speak. After looking at the ribbon winners, & talking to the people who did the quilting on them, I think I've got a bit of a handle on what the judge wants, so I will make sure next years quilt really stands out! What really baffles me is that most of the winning quilts were done with pantographs! Or portions of groove boards! I'm not 100% positive, but I think mine were the only ones completely done free hand! I know the major shows are now sub categorizing machine quilting so that computerized stitching is recognized, but I would think the smaller ones would follow suit. Guess not this year, maybe next year. It's just my opinion, but I think that someone who's done a quilt totally unassisted by other means should get a little more recognition than someone who chose someone else s patten & followed it. To me, that person is really putting their talent & skills on display more than the other.  I know I haven't been longarming very long, & I definitely have a long way to go to become a renouned quilter, but I had the nerve to put what little I know on display for all to see. 

Well, I've got 2 quilts in the UFO pile that will fit the bill nicely for outstanding quilts. One is a Lone Star. That one is definitely going to show this next year. What I originally planned for the quilt & what it's going to finish as, are definitely two different things! Now I'm going to scrap some of the applique that was going to go on it & switch over to quilting instead.

To broaden my horizons with my quilting, I've just ordered Kimmy Brunner's books & DVD's. I've seen some of her videos & really like how she teaches. From what I've seen recently, she also agrees that with practice & ruler work you can have a quilt coming out looking like a computer did it. So, if she can do it, SO CAN I! I will watch that DVD over & over til I get it down pat, practice, practice, practice!  That's why I have a dry erase board! Wipes away those mistakes!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Hi there!
Welcome to my new blog!
This is a first for me, doing a blog, so please be patient! I'm learning!!
What do I want to accomplish with this blog? Well, I'd like to let other quilters know what to expect from a longarmer. Maybe give some tips on quilting, piecing, sewing pieces together, and maybe help someone new to longarming get started! There's a host of information out there, but very little for the beginner! And even less for the intermediate longarmer! My information is vast in the quilting arena & I hope to share it with those who'd like to follow along.
Stay tuned for the next installment! Who knows where we're going!