Every other year the Tokay Stitch ‘n Quilt Guild of Lodi, California, put on a delightful show. While I was there I was so happy to see guild member Thelma Welch once again. Two years ago I blogged about her unbelievable Baltimore Album quilt, and at about 85 years of age, Thelma is still at it. Look at this elephant quilt that is one of her latest creations.

thelma-elephants

blue-elephant

The show’s featured quilter was Fran Schmidt. Here’s Miss Fran in her sparkly sash denoting her status.

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We made her put on the tiara too.

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Here’s one of her many wonderful quilts that were part of the featured display.

fran-quilt

As usually happens at a show, I made some new vendor friends. Across the hall from me I discovered the elegant appliqué designs of Bobbie Y. Jarrett.

bobbie-jarrett

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That’s some eye candy for us appliqué enthusiasts, no?

Right next door to me were two fantastic ladies who are just starting out on this designing adventure, and IMO they’ve got “it.” Meet Rita Traxler and Debbie Holland of Lady Bug Lace.

Rita and Debbie

Rita and Debbie

lady-bug-corner

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

keri-duke

Last month I had the privilege of taking a class in Hawaiian appliqué from Maui resident Keri Duke.

Keri was here for Pacific International Quilt Festival and came a week early to give a workshop for our guild. She’s snorkeling buddies with our program chair Tracey Brookshier so yay for us!

It was a beautiful day and a great location for a workshop. We were making a traditional breadfruit (ulu) appliqué. As Keri told us, this is usually the first pattern made by a quilter because it is supposed to bring fruitfulness and good luck in life.

keri-+-sample

Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.

Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.

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My big basting stitches. I was the first one done basting; some spent the whole morning just basting, using little bitty precise running stitches instead of big honking toenail catchers. Not necessary, gals. Just throw ’em in there.

other-colors

Some of the class members chose other colors for their projects.

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It looks good any which way you do it.

After the entire dark-green leaf motif was basted, we did traditional needle-turn hand appliqué. I’m a fast stitcher (well, you know, it isn’t my first rodeo) and I had my block all done for Show & Tell at quilt guild the next night. This type of Hawaiian appliqué is about the most fun, I think. Once you get it all prepped, you just sit and stitch and stitch to your heart’s content.

uluMy Ulu.

The following week was PIQF.

piqf-crowd

The crowd waiting to get in on Thursday morning.

Once I made it inside the doors, I chatted with Keri in her Keri Designs booth, and I was delighted to learn that she and another quilter had curated a special “Colors of Maui” exhibit for the show!

exhibit-sign

hibiscusThis hibiscus was my favorite entry, and come to find out, it was Keri’s!

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If you’d like to go on a tropical tour of the Colors of Maui, there’s a lovely slideshow posted over at The Quilt Show. Enjoy!

Aloha,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The winner of the Rose of Sharon Block Book and note cards is… Jen! Congratulations! Enjoy these beautiful items, courtesy of That Patchwork Place.

I’d now like to go back two weeks in time to the Delta Quilters Guild show in Antioch, California. I was there as a merchant, and after I finished setting up my booth I took a tour of the show buildings. I came around a corner and was flabbergasted to see a beautiful quilt made from my first collection of teapot designs on special display against the wall.

As I drew closer, I saw that this was a memorial area for two of the guild’s members who had passed away during the year. My heart filled up and I felt so honored that the daughter of the lovely lady who had made this teapot quilt had chosen it to represent her mother in the display.

antioch-teapots

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Helen Holoch, quiltmaker.

Her are some closeup shots of individual pots. This lady had a very special collection of fabrics, I’d say!

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Thank you, Helen, and thanks to your daughter Nancy, and also to guild member Terry Matejcek, who helped me round up the information about the quilt and gave me permission to post the photos and the story.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

B1051 Rose of Sharon Block BookThis month’s featured book is The Rose of Sharon Block Book: Winning Designs from the EQ6 Challenge by Sharon Pederson.

A year ago, quilt designer, author, and teacher Sharon Pederson issued a challenge to appliquérs worldwide to design a block using a special fabric collection and just three shapes… the classic eight-lobed scalloped blossom, center circle, and symmetrical leaf that are found in traditional Rose of Sharon blocks. The challenge was a wonderful collaboration among companies: the book from That Patchwork Place, a DVD from Sharon’s company Nine Patch Media, project files and templates available on the Electric Quilt website for anyone who owns the program, shape-cutting dies from Accuquilt, a CD of embroidery designs from Oklahoma Embroidery, and the fabric collection from Island Batik. The very cool thing about this whole event is that it supports a truly worthy cause in the process… the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.

Sharon received over 850 blocks, from which judges Alex Andersen and Ricky Tims selected 12 winners. Sharon designed a thirteenth block and assembled them into the beautiful quilt that is seen on the cover of the book.

In all, 83 blocks are included in the book for your appliqué pleasure. You can make the cover quilt or you can design your own as you please. You can also use any appliqué method. The author gives information on her own method of machine appliqué but invites quilters to use whatever they prefer. Sharon is known for her method of quilting and joining block-by-block to break the chore down into smaller, more manageable bites, and gives the information in a “Quilting 101” section, but again encourages quilters to use any method of finishing they like.

That Patchwork Place has also put out a boxed set of notecards featuring the winning designs. They just sent me a set!

Rose of Sharon NotecardsThese beautiful 5 x 5 note cards feature the top 12 designs from the challenge, each card showcasing a different block. They’re blank on the inside for adding a personal message and are coming along just in time for holiday stocking stuffers!

I’m really coveting these note cards for myself… but oookay, they’re going in with the book for the drawing. Leave a comment by 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, November 9, to enter the drawing. Those subscribed by email or feed reader, remember you’ll need to click over to the blog itself to leave a comment.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article for the newsletter of the Appliqué Society and in the process contacted Electric Quilt to get some information about the appliqué features of the program. Here’s what I wrote:

During the Spring Quilt Market trade show, I stopped by the Electric Quilt booth to chat about appliqué drawing. EQ has the same equivalent drawing tools as Illustrator, and also a companion lesson book available called EQ6 Appliqué Drawing by Angie Padilla. Here’s a blurb from EQ advertising about the book: “No prior drawing experience required. Start a beginner – end up an expert! Learn to draw vines and leaves, invent appliqué folk art, import photos to trace… draw a wedding cake with flowers and so much more!”

Here are some links in case you’d like to follow up a little more.

eq6

Electric Quilt 6

eq7

Electric Quilt 7

design-wizard

The Electric Quilt Co. Quilt Design Wizard

applique-drawing

EQ6 Appliqué Drawing
Beginner’s Guide to Drawing Like a Pro by Angie Padilla
EQ6 Companion Book

rosdvd

Sharon Pederson Presents Rose of Sharon: Winning Designs from the EQ6 Block Challenge

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie