the Market-Festival time warp

Yes, it is true.  During Market and Festival you lose time, hours blend, days blur, and poof, it is gone!  So much happened and I can't even begin to remember it all.  I'm short on words but here are a few pictures for you to enjoy:

Set up day in the Gammill booth:

Just a few of the selfie/friends pics:

 

 

 

 And I managed to sneak over and grab a picture of Outta the Loop:

 

And here I am with Jacqueline de Jonge in her booth at Market -- she is the pattern maker of the original Elements of Nature pattern before Eyvonne and I modified it for Outta the Loop:

And this is what most of our time looked like:

And here is the first beauty that Lisa and I created:

And then there was some Statler fun -- what?... me and Statler in the same sentence.  But wait, the record feature is amazing -- this is just the beginning, but with what's going on in my little mind (as well as another mind which just happens to be way more organized) you'll probably be hearing me use that word lots more...

 

And here's a little video:

And stay turned for more good stuff in the future.  Karen Farnsworth of Wildflower Quilting and I have a few things up our sleeves -- super good things!

And I just must share a food pic... OMG, Pappasitos - this place was the bomb!!  I think we ate there three times and each time was better than the last!

Also, can't forget to share some of that Houston traffic and a beautiful sun.

Here I am with one of my besties, Natalie Carlton, before the awards ceremony.  She won Honorable Mention on her I Have Many Faces quilt.  I am beyond proud of her!!!

A few of my favorite people:

And some video to celebrate Longarm Month with John and Alex!

Gina stopped by the booth to say hi.

Here's the second quilt that Lisa and I stitched -- the left side being Lisa's and the right side mine:

Gina came back for the booth take down, we were totally responsible for staying out of the way!

And the perfect ending to a wonderful trip -- I saw another glory on the ride home!

A while ago my friend Cristy of Purple Daisies asked if I wanted to collaborate with her on a quilt.  Well... yeah, of course!  She had been embroidering it for some time, and then it spent some time on the road hanging in her booth, and finally it found its way to my door in early October.  And, of course, it needed to be finished before Market.  Ready... go!

Before we get to all the fabulous pictures, here are the details:  the pattern is by Cristy's Mom, Sharon Schamber, another of my very dear friends.  The pattern is Scarlet Serenade -- Sharon has made it super easy for everyone to recreate her amazing quilt through applique and beautiful embroideries.  You can buy your very own embroidery design DVD here.

Now, to the pictures -- isn't this the best part!

All basted and ready to go!

Here's a peek at how amazingly beautiful the embroidery and applique looks:

And some of the quilting:

And the back:

And the full shot:

I am beyond happy to be a part of this amazingly beautiful quilt!

Down the Rabbit Hole

This is the only warning:  if you are part of the Martin County Quilters and want to be surprised about my entry for the member challenge - STOP READING!

This quilt was oodles of fun!  It all started back when Martin County Quilters announced the 2013 Member Challenge -- black and white. I knew immediately I would be doing one of my zentangle doodles, but didn't know exactly what or how so I put the thought away for a while.  One morning I woke up, poured my coffee and sat down to doodle.  Well, I doodled and doodled and this happened:

I had been playing around with an Alice in Wonderland-ish quilt in my head for awhile, and well, the Mad Hatter, he's one of my favorites and this quilt totally speaks Mad Hatter (at least to me).  So this just seemed like the perfect place for all these ideas to meet -- kinda cool if I say so.

The rules for the challenge were pretty simple -- max size 160" perimeter, must be black and white (you can add 1-2 other colors but they can't total more than 25%) and that's it.

So I took my drawing and enlarged it to about 39" square:

Yep, that's an aerial of my kitchen table -- wow, it looks amazingly fun now huh?

So I started with a piece of really nice white fabric -- when I say really nice, it is such a smooth silky feeling fabric!  Now, to try and remember when and where I purchased this... that just might kill me, but let me tell you it is absolutely sweet fabric!  I'll make a mental note to keep looking for it because now I've only got a little chunk left -- it looks like this:

I know, that wasn't much help huh?  So from there I transferred the pattern to the fabric in pencil:

And then the inking and coloring began:

And after about 80 hours this happened -- awesomeness!

And then it was time for the quilting... Yes, I still suffer from I'm-really-gonna-mess-this-up anxiety!  Seriously!!  When it comes time to quilt my own stuff I turn into a nervous-nelly.

So as with almost all quilts, I start by basting the entire quilt so I know it is square and make sure there will be no surprises when I get down to the bottom.  This also allows me to roll the quilt back and forth as much as necessary while quilting.

 Then some test stitches and we're off:

Staying on those lines... hmmm, maybe next time I'll quilt it first then color it in!  And some super-duper tiny pebbles -- FUN!

Hey... did you know that if you stick your hand in front of the needle it will bite you!  This has happened to me many times, but this is the very first time I got blood on the quilt!  Oh no!!  But, did you know that a tiny little bit of peroxide on a Q-Tip takes it right off!  Magic!

Although this quilt was hanging fairly flat, blocking is always a good idea with any competition piece.

before blocking

So it was dipped, blocked, and stayed like this for a couple of days while it dried:

during blocking

 And that leaves us with binding... ugh... yuck... hate... slow...

But here we go, the finished picture -- OMG, I love this quilt!!!

Down the Rabbit Hole - an original design by Karen Marchetti

So the best part of this... as I was finishing inking and coloring the design I realized how awesome it was and decided to submit it to MQX Quilt Festivals Pacific Northwest show.  It was accepted, so everyone will get to see it debut there.  No worries, it will still be my member challenge for Martin County Quilters, and hopefully many more shows!  Hope you get a chance to see it!