Gammill and MQX 2013 - Manchester. NH

What fun I have had since last Wednesday!  Exhausting, anxious, extreme fun!  It is pretty much a giant blur in my mind, but I'll try my best to share it all.

It all started landing at Boston Logan airport -- a few pics of Boston and Cambridge that I managed to snap on the ride to Manchester.

a tunnel... I have missed these!

really cool architecture

MIT !!

look... it's still winter!

The awesome Gammill booth:

And I was super surprised when Rhonda and Betsey handed me my big surprise - the beautiful products brochure with Wonderlust on the cover - it is awesome, amazing, fantastic... every possible adjective and even more!!

The awards ceremony - congratulations to ALL the winners, some beautiful and amazing quilts, as always!  

Outta the Loop managed to win a Faculty Award - pure awesomeness!

I did manage to wander around and see everything I just didn't have enough brain cells to photograph it all.  I did snap a picture of Dance 1-5 by Randall Cook -- this is the first time I have seen all five together, it was amazing!

And you'll never guess what happened while I was in New Hampshire... snow!  I do believe I was the only person that was excited.

So you might ask what my purpose was in the Gammill booth.  As a Gammill Quilting Artist I was stitching on an actual quilt that will be auctioned off later in the year.  Make sure you follow along with Gammill Quilting via the website or the facebook page.  There will be details on when, where, how, etc.  A different quilt will be quilted at each show - what fun!!!  It's nice to show/remind people that quilting is truly an art!  Following are a few pictures of the quilt created at this show - and yes, that is the most beautiful teal silk dupioni:

Well, it seems I stitched a little too quickly and finished a day early.  So we loaded a beautiful rayon batik purchased at Sew Batik (wish you could feel this fabulous fabric):

And a video taken by Carolyn H. of Cape Elizabeth, Maine -- so nice of her!!

This one didn't get finished, it'll have to wait for my visit to Paducah next week!  As well as another dupioni masterpiece -- I can't wait!

I am a longarm quilter, but let me tell you Gammill's sit down machine, the Charm, is kinda amazing!  Here is Betsey piecing a backing on it - she is a genius and shows us how extremely versatile this machine can be!

And then booth take-down time.  This is an amazing team and I think it was possibly a record take-down -- 3.5 hours!  Everyone helps out and it all goes smoothly!

I know that was really long and it was a lot of pictures but I just had to share it all.  It was a wonderful experience and can't wait to do it all again in Paducah -- hope to see you there!!

Say what... that's a lotta stuff!

Where to start?  It's been a month since my last post and that was only my photo a day recap.  Sooooo much has happened it's hard to summarize it all up, but I'll try.

I think we'll start with Lisa's visit.  For those of you that follow on facebook, you already know that Lisa (McLisa) and I are very good friends in the facebook world.  We are actually the best of friends (in real life) and talk/text almost daily.  Anyway, it just happened that Lisa was teaching in Atlanta and then had just under a week before she was teaching in Lakeland so she snuck in a little super mini vacation here at my house!  No, it was definitely not enough time!  Hopefully another mini vacation (or even a non-mini vacation) is in the near future.

And a nice relaxing day poolside!  Natalie joined in all the fun!

I even managed to get my besties autograph!!  This is her two page ad for Gammill Quilting.

We rescheduled our Journey's meeting while Lisa was here because she is, after all, our newest member!

There is some seriously awesome talent in that picture -- a great group of peeps!!

Another amazing thing happened while Lisa was here... my brand new Gammill was delivered!

See, I told you it was an extremely eventful few days!

Then... it came time to put a gazillion crystals on Outta the Loop!  So Eyvonne and I hot fixed our brains out for over forty hours! 

So here it is totally finished -- front and back!

 
And here's a peek at my label...

Somewhere in all of that was a trip to Quilter's Choice.  Vivian made sure I received my copy of Kaye England's new book, Spikes and Peaks.  The quilt that Vivian pieced and I quilted was featured in the book -- what fun, even though it doesn't include either of our names!

So then I picked up my April/May issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine and...
Stella Luminosa was featured with some of the other winners from MQX West 2012!  Its dark and kinda blurry... maybe it's a good thing I am a quilter and not a photographer!

And also in that same issue is my first Gammill ad!!!

But wait, it gets better!  The UPS lady brought me a wonderful package.  Gammill sent me an entire box of American Patchwork and Quilting's June issue!  It features my two page ad -- and it is amazingly beautiful!!!

I think that just about catches you up on everything... I think!  More soon, I promise!

PHOTO A DAY - February

I managed to get every prompt for February - yay!

And here they are, in no particular order: 

I'm definitely still having fun with it.  If you'd like to try for March, visit the Fat Mum Slim blog for all the details.

Good News!

So yesterday was a pretty good day, considering an extremely frustrating ordeal with a customer telephone number issue, and no, that has yet to be solved, but all in all it was a good day.

Why? Email, mailbox, and facebook postings... it was actually a great day!

First my customer (and friend) Cathy emailed me to let me know that her quilt, Lavender Bouquet, was accepted into AQS Paducah.

Here is a peek at Lavender Bouquet (photo was taken while hanging at MQX-West where it won a beautiful 3rd place ribbon):

Lavender Bouquet - pieced & embroidered by Cathy Landon
machine quilted by Karen Marchetti

Well, my mail doesn't come until very late in the afternoon... but when if finally came:

Yes, one of my latest quilts, Flies and Weeds, has also been accepted into AQS Paducah!
You haven't seen much of this quilt because it the basis of an article I wrote for Machine Quilting Unlimited -- look for it in the May issue!  And to add to the excitement, this is the first public picture of Flies and Weeds:

Flies and Weeds by Karen Marchetti

So then, late last night, the finalists for MQX - New England Quilt Festival were finally posted on facebook!  Outta the Loop (a collobration with Eyvonne Smith) has been accepted - woo hooo!!!!

Outta the Loop by Eyvonne Smith & Karen Marchetti

So there you have it!  If you're out and about at either of these shows keep your eyes open and visit my quilts!!