BLOCK BREAKDOWN

Showing posts with label IQA Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IQA Festival. Show all posts

Monday, December 10, 2012

Organizing Stinks... like roses!

Before I get in to the real post, I have to share a video.  Here is Bonnie McCaffery's Vidcast from Houston (IQA Festival).  Not only do you get to see a bunch of fantastically wonderful quilts, you get enjoy where Bonnie talks with some amazing artists -- me being one of them!  Watch, enjoy, and share!  Hey, I think I just called myself amazing... hmm, I kinda' like that!


Okay.  Now back to the actual post.  I've shared before that I am a borderline hoarder when it comes to papers, tiny little fabric scraps, stuff in general -- okay, just a borderline hoarder!  Yes, it's bad, but admitting something is always the first step right?  And yes, hoarding is an actual disorder -- I know this, I've got a few of them!  BUT... but, something wonderful has happened to make it necessary for me to organize a giant part of my life -- my studio.  And, the rough part?  In order to organize my studio I also must organize my office/sewing room.  Haha... not sure where the /sewing room part fits into that; I haven't sewn in there in years.  Probably because of the mess -- and no, I will not share the mess photos.  I love sharing but there comes a point when I need to control my anxiety.  You see, part of my hoarding issue is due to the fact that I suffer severe anxiety when *trying* to organize, file, clean, etc.  So, this was a BIG step for me.  It has taken me a little over two weeks, and a lot (and I mean a lot) of help from one of my besties!  She will never know how important all of her help was, she could see the anxiety building and would help to divert my mind to something else.  Thank you Nancy, I love you!  Oh, and she also got first dibs on just about everything in the studio that wasn't staying - that probably helped too!

So here are a couple of peeks into my newly organized world:

Here we have the *clean* office/sewing room -- and into that great open space goes the shelves of quilts:

Look what Nancy found hiding under 85 pounds of batting scraps:

And, of course, I had to make some cute curtains for the french doors, right?

Why do I need curtains you ask?  Because without them I would stare at the pool all day!

A super clean cutting table -- this table is great, but it is getting cut into two smaller pieces.  WHAT, you ask... no worries, it has been buried with so much stuff for so long that I haven't used it and I'm not going to miss it anyway.

Look -- you can actually see my legs!

The the view from behind the Gammill:

The the view from the other side of the room:

The the entire room (yes that messy area there in front of the Gammill, that still needs to be organized and put away.  And in that mess is a bunch more ribbons that need to be hung on the wall.

Soooo.... I still can't share WHY all this is happening.  I'll be able to soon and then you'll all be as excited as I am, well at least I hope you'll all be excited.  But seriously, I'm excited enough for us all!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Festival Favorites

Here are just a few of my favorites from Houston this year.  I could very easily post almost every photo I took, but will contain it to under 20.  I'm not going into detail on each and every one, as that would be a long post... seriously cause I can talk, especially about things I like.





















The amount of beautiful quilts at IQA Festival is amazing.  If you've never been -- GO!  Seriously!!
Click here for a link to IQA's website for a view of all the winners.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Floating on Cloud Nine

No, it's not the name of a new quilt... it's how I'm feeling!

For those of you that are facebook friends this is going to sound like bragging.  It's not... well, it is, but it's not! Really!  I have a lot of people over here in blogland that want nothing to do with facebook, so I've got to tell them all the fantastic news too, right?  And it's not bragging - it's tooting.  Yep, if I don't toot my I'm-so-freaking-proud horn who will?

Okay, back to cloud nine...
Over the past couple of days was a quilt show in Portland, OR... MQX West to be exact.  Wow, just to be accepted and to hang at this show is an amazing accomplishment.  BUT (there it is), to win a ribbon... honor!  Hold on... it gets better... two ribbons!  Both of my quilts took ribbons -- I am beside myself with joy.  BUT (another one) hold on again... it gets even better than all that!  I persuaded one of my customers (Cathy) to enter her quilt and she took a ribbon as well!  OMG... three ribbons - two of my own and one on a customer's quilt -- the quilty angels are definitely looking down on me, and I do believe they might be singing!

Here's a peek at all of them (again, thank you to Teri Lucas for taking the photos and for sharing them)!!

Stella Luminosa - 1st Place Wall Hanging Small
some older posts about Stella Luminosa:

Clouds in My Latte - 3rd Place Wall Hanging Large - Traditional
some older posts about Clouds in My Latte:

Lavender Bouquet  (Cathy Landon, quilted by Karen Marchetti) - 3rd Place Custom Heirloom Show Bed
Click here for a post on my customer blog about Cathy's quilt


The MQX West winners list is available here.  Congratulations to all the winners, there are some amazing quilts and quilters on that list -- I am absolutely honored to be included!  Also, make sure you take some time and visit the MQX website -- they have two shows East and West.  I must send a shout-out to Teri Lucas, she graciously took and posted photos of my quilts (as well as Cathy's) as I couldn't be at the show and now I get to share them with you!  Take some time and swing by her blog and check out her winning quilt, Tilde (photo to left) - gorgeous!  I borrowed this picture from Teri (I don't think she'll mind)!

See, now you understand why I'm floating!  Happy Day Quilties!

Oh, and I almost forgot!  Right after MQX West Clouds in My Latte is getting overnighted to Lisa and hitching a plane ride to Houston!  You'll be able to get up close and personal as it will be hanging in the Machine Quilting Unlimited booth at both Market and Festival!  Make sure you swing by their booth and check out a really great magazine and take a peek at Clouds while you're there!  Oh, and my other quilt, Wonderlust, will be hanging on the other side of the Brown Convention Center - on the show floor!

Okay, now.... Happy Day Quilties!!!