Happy Holidays!!!

Phew! We made it through our first Christmas with little Maura and she did so well! Much better than I anticipated considering the hustle and bustle and excitement the last few days.

Sorry it's blurry, it's off my phone, but she had the most adorable Christmas jammies that she didn't actually wear on Christmas because we had a heat wave and it was just too hot for fleece! That's definitely not the norm here in Ohio, yesterday we hit a record high of 68* and today it's supposed to snow later. It's weird.

Anywho, as far as quilting goes I am taking this week to do some selfish sewing of this guy:

I finished this top almost two years ago and it's just begging to be quilted. I had a plan, it was all drawn out - but somehow in the last couple weeks of Christmas chaos it disappeared and I'm starting over. Hopefully I can figure out the plan this morning and get to quilting tonight after everyone else is asleep... Cross your fingers. I have coffee, a pencil, a printout (or three) and a napping baby at the moment, I think I can, I think I can! 

I'm hoping to get this one quilted up and enter it into the Lake Farmpark show this year, which means I have to quilt fast! The quilts need to be entered in just a few weeks. I think I can! I think I can!

After this little pause it will be back to quilting and cooking and playing with the baby (whose not such a baby anymore I guess). I'm taking in quilts and planning ahead for this year, if I play my cards just right I may even be able to post my schedule here soon. Granted the computer and I don't get as much one-on-one time as we used to, but that's okay with me! 

I'll be posting more soon. From my little family to yours - I hope you had an amazing Christmas and I hope 2017 has all the best in store for you! I have a feeling it's going to be wonderful! -Rebecca

Other sights at the Farmpark

Each year for the quilt show, the timing usually coincides with lots and lots of baby animals being born on the park property. Right behind the desk at the entrance they have a list of how many babies they have and when each was born. It's neat to have other sights to see for those people traveling with you that may not be super interested in quilts (yes, they exist, no I don't think there's something wrong with them - we just haven't convinced them how cool quilts are...yet)

 When you walk into the main building (there are several buildings) it's set up like a "U" shape. If you travel to the left and head down the hallway, there is a Dairy Parlor complete with cows. Danny wanted to milk a cow soooo bad and see how they are milked by the machine. First thing we did was head to the parlor and her got his chance to milk a cow!

 They also had two baby cows that are twins about two months old in the Dairy Parlor. I think Danny wanted to take them home. He's been asking for a cow for Christmas for a couple of years now, the differences in wish lists when you live in the country on a farm!

 We took a short walk to take in the sunshine and found a large barn that housed pigs and sheep and goats and horses and and and... This four-horned sheep was interesting...

 I hope you can see this, it didn't photograph as well as I hoped... Ombre lambs! It went from white-ish to brown to black and I thought it was adorable!

 There were lots of little piglets in the one pen (just one litter) and by now there's probably a lot more piggies. The pig in the next pen looked quite large and uncomfortable and seemed like she was nesting...

Our favorite babies to watch were this pair of lambs. They had jumping beans in their legs I swear (hence the blurry mid-air action shot). They never walked... always bounced like little Tiggers. All four legs leaving the ground at once and hopping everywhere. I should have taken video, but it wouldn't have turned out well because I was laughing so much...

They have other barns and buildings we didn't get to see, but this park is amazing! They have a greenhouse, a sugar shack that's making maple syrup this time of year! In the summer they have a tractor/machine building showing kids (and adults) all of the different engines and equipment used on farms. 

Plus they hold exciting events all year round, like the quilt show! They use food coloring to dye the sheep in the spring before they harvest the wool for a Fiberfest, they have working dog weekends, Horse Days, tractor weekends, haunted hayrides in the Fall... And on top of all of that, this park is fun and educational. Everything is designed to be a learning experience and I remember going to this park on field trips when I was in school. I have to say it was tons of fun with kids along this time around! Seeing them smile and giggle when the goat was nibbling on their fingers and seeing how they responded to the different animals was so much fun! 

So think, if you're in the Cleveland area each year between mid February and the end-ish of March... Head on over to the Lake Metroparks Farmpark and you can see the show and check out all of the animals. Bring the family and you can send them all out to the barns to see the animals while you take a look at the quilts by yourself... Oh, did I mention there's a cafe? You could stay all day if you wanted to! If you'd like to learn more, you can see their website here. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour of the Farmpark, quilts and all! I usually never get the chance to experience the whole park and honestly we only saw about half of it this day. I guess we will have to go back! So much to see and do in one place!

Farmpark Quilt Show!!! Part 2

Today I am going to toot my little horn a bit. Not only do I love this show, but I love being able to see my client's quilts hanging at the show! This year I worked on such a mix of styles and it kept my challenged creatively throughout the year. It was so nice to see them all hanging in their glory and reminisce a bit.

I will try to link up to each original post for the quilts if I shared about them in the past. That way if you'd like to explore the quilts further or see more details, you can read more and see more pictures!

 Kathy made this Arizona Cactus and then added this checkerboard border to finish it off. I had so much fun quilting it and showcasing each and every fabric playing off of the way she placed the colors.

 Anne made this at a Jinny Beyer mystery workshop and I played off of the designs within the fabrics (which Jinny is known for) and highlighting the more subtle areas. See more here.

 I did this fun bright Christmas quilt for Angie. It was neat to see some Christmas and holiday quilts hanging in the show this year, but they all had a different style and flair. This was by far the most contemporary of the bunch!

 Kathy entered this quilt that she made for her son. His favorite colors were white, black and orange and it is a vision! For more pictures including the pieced back she made, check it out here. This was Kathy's first time entering a quilt into this show and she scored an Honorable Mention! Congrats, Kathy!

 Karen made this quilt for a niece I believe that is an animal caretaker at Disney's Animal Kingdom! I loved the animal prints and they were still as hard to see the quilting on as when I quilted it.

 Darlene originally wanted to enter this quilt last year, but there was a little mishap with some water spots. Not sure if they would come out or not, Darlene entered another quilt. Well, it washed up beautifully and I love the traditional look of this quilt. To see more details, click here.

 Here is the Rock Island Campfire quilt by Carol (complete with a blue ribbon!). This quilt looks so happy on this sunny day with the bit of sunshine peeking into the room. This is such a happy quilt, but it posed to be challenging at best to quilt... See why here. You won't believe what a difference in lighting does to this quilt!

 And just for laughs. This is the last quilt I did for the show. It was also the largest quilt I did for the show. It's practically hanging from the rafters of this large room!

Sandy made this ginormous quilt from a kit and that's the original size of the quilt. All 125" in length! I actually saw Sandy right after I went to the show and we were joking about how big it looks, but it's HUGE! No denying that! I loved all of the feathers I quilted on this one and I'm happy to have it done just in time for the show!

What a mix! A bit of modern, traditional, bright, subtle and everything in between! Thank you to all of my clients that let me play on your quilts and then show them off at shows like this!

Now I know some people solely make quilts to enter shows and win ribbons. That is entirely NOT why I'm sharing these quilts. These ladies made something creative that they worked hard on and poured their hearts into and then they shared it with the world... Or whoever looks at these pictures and goes to the show. Isn't that the most important thing?! Sharing your creative spark and hoping to inspire someone... To me that's more important than any ribbon will ever be.

Many times I hear people say their quilts aren't good enough to enter into a show. And to that I call bull crap! It's not about being good or better than someone else, it's being a more confident quilter today than you were yesterday. It's about sharing what you're working on and what inspires you. That's what you should strive for in entering a show. If you win a ribbon, great! But please don't compare your work and skills to others and just try for that ribbon. Celebrate your hard work and show the world what you can do! Don't you agree?

Farmpark Quilt Show!!! Part 1

Today I wanted to show you some of my favorite quilts from this year's show. I didn't get to the show as early as I normally do each year, but dang it was cold! I was a hibernating fool this winter. My best friend and I (and her kiddos) took advantage of a nice warm sunny day to check out the show and the rest of the park.

 When you walk into the Farmpark entrance during the show, this is what you'll see... The Best of Show is hanging in the entrance for all to see!

 This quilt is spectacular to say the least! Sorry for the sun spots, but I wasn't going to complain about the sunshine! You can't really see the quilting in this picture, but you can see the detailing in the picture below.

 This is the back of the quilt. It's really more of an off-white color, but I tried to enhance the contrast to show the quilting better. Those little pebbles and swirls are about the size of a pea... And don't even get me started on the outlined applique shapes and the stars!!! Gorgeous!!!

 Now, you've seen a bunch of Quiltworx (Judy Niemeyer) quilts on my blog in the past. I really liked this one for the use of solid fabrics and the simple yet effective quilting. It gives a totally different vibe this way.

 I can't even begin to tell you how many people told me about this quilt before I got to the show. They'd all start the story with - there's this quilt... when you turn down the one hallway it's at the end... By the third or fourth tale, I knew which quilt they were talking about and I hadn't even seen it yet! (I know someone somewhere is shaking a grammatical finger at my last sentence and I'm sorry, but I'm typing how I'd talk and sometimes it's not pretty)

Back to the quilt. This thing had to take FOREVER!!! There's applique and sparkles and rhinestones and the quilting!!! Here take a look:

 Can we say detail? There's even little other details quilted in... You could stare at this quilt for hours and still not see it all! It was gorgeous and I can't even imagine taking on such a task!

 I loved this quilt that blended a complex block with a traditional design and then threw in a wave applique on top of it all! For me, I don't know how to tackle adding the applique and blending it in with the pieces like that... This was very neat to see!

 And the hand quilting! I actually started hand quilting before I switched to long arming... I actually hate to say switch, I still like to hand quilt, but for deadline reasons I usually opt for the machine. Well, this quilt was made by the sweet lady that taught me to hand quilt. Her quilting is so dense in certain blocks, it adds texture rather than another element. She echoed around these flowers about every 1/8th inch!

 Here's another picture of the quilt. There were alternate blocks with a little less quilting, but her work is superb and she works hard to achieve these results! I love hand quilting, but I don't see myself quilting this dense!

 I also loved seeing the quilts with teeny tiny pieces. These aren't the tiniest I saw, but this was a large quilt with strips that finished at probably 3/4" or less... That's a lot of little seams!

We saw some quilts, then we took a break to see the animals and let the kids milk a cow! Literally right down the hallway from one of the rooms for the quilt show is the Dairy Parlor! And just on the other side of the Parlor is a room they use for quilting classes during the show. I took many more pictures and I'll show them over the next few days.

I had a blast checking out the quilt show and the park and it was even more fun to have these guys tagging along! I got to see what Katti thought of the quilts form her perspective. She and I used to quilt a long time ago and then life happened, but she's looking to get back into it. Plus it was fun to see what the kids thought of the quilts too!

Did you see a favorite quilt? This show had 186 quilts entered this year. There was something for everyone and then some! I'll show you more pictures tomorrow!

Lake Farmpark Show Information

It's now posted!!!

The winners for the 2015 Quilt Show at the Lake Farmpark have been announced, you can get to the page for the Quilt Show with all of the information listed including registering for classes, dates and times, the Featured Artist and the list of the winners by clicking here. 

Or you can visit lakemetroparks.com to see what else the park has in store! (Like baby animals being born this time of year)

That's it for now!

Happy News!

I just wanted to pop in really quick for a bit of happy news...

Carol e-mailed me yesterday and let me know that her quilt received a BLUE RIBBON at the Lake Farmpark Quilt Show in her category!!! I couldn't be happier to be a part of this quilt's journey and now I can't wait to see it hanging with a ribbon on it!!!

Judging for this show was over the weekend and it takes a day or two to call all of the winners. Once they have all been notified, then the list of winners and a picture of the Best in Show quilt will be published on the Farmpark's website. That will probably happen mid-late this week, but once it's public knowledge, I will share it on here too!

The Lake Farmpark Show is a quite large local quilt show here in Northeast Ohio that is held every Spring. This year I've heard there are 182 entries into the show and once I get a chance to run over there and snap some pictures, I will be sure to share them on here with you. I didn't enter anything myself this year (all of my quilts were either fun couch quilts or are secret projects that I can't share yet, so I'm working on my entry for next year...), however I did long arm several quilts that were to be entered. If I hear any more news on ribbon winners before I get to the show, I will share those too!

This is such an exciting time of year in Northeast Ohio!I mean, with the snow and the cold, it gives us something to look forward to until Spring arrives, right?

Speaking of which, I hope all of you in New England getting hammered by this awful winter storm are staying safe and warm!

Machine Quilting: Rock Island Campfire

Carol made this quilt... and has been making this quilt for some time. It's a super amazingly scrappy masterpiece that needed a little pop...

 And that little pop came in the form of that super tiny black and white checkerboard fabric... I love this quilt, but I knew before I even got started that I was going to have a migraine or two working on this quilt. That's just how it goes sometimes.

 I started out and only made it about half way through the first day before my eyes and head were exhausted, but I was loving how the progress was going.

 For this design, I had a drawing of the quilting plan I kept next to me as I worked. In order to keep the motifs in the correct orientation in the blocks, this was my little road map and it was so helpful...

 Here you can see it better. I even numbered the quadrants and which direction I needed to go into first. Without this doodle I would've messed up... a lot... I don't always need a doodle like this, but with exhausted eyes and a pounding head at times, it was needed this time.

 But alas, the next day I was well seasoned and we had beautiful sunshine that actually helped. The first day was a bit overcast and gloomy so the checkerboard was very very loud visually. The next day the sunshine made the other fabrics brighter and equal visually to the checkerboard fabric so it was much easier to look at for hours on end.

 Carol and I both agreed that this quilt wouldn't be the same without the crazy checkerboard fabric... And it really makes this a happy fun quilt to balance out the other colors and textures. We came to the conclusion that the checkerboard fabric was like the red-headed stepchild that holds the family together. Simple as that.

 Isn't this quilt gorgeous?! If you're heading to the Lake Farmpark Quilts 2015 Show coming up here soon, you will be able to see this quilt in person! Just saying!

 Here's a much better representation of the quilting in relation to the block and the fabrics in the quilt. I love string quilts, but I will warn you, they're very heavy! Tons and tons of seams, so plan on a quilt like this for those long winter nights, not a light quilt for the front porch...

And here's how the quilting design looks from the back of the quilt without all of the other visual stimulation from the fabrics. I'm very happy with how it turned out and I think this quilt was a mixture of all sorts of wonderful things from start to finish to create a beautiful quilt. Wouldn't you agree?

It's amazing how this quilt's personality changed in the differences in lighting. Remember that little tidbit if you're working on a fabric with a ton of fabrics (like my super insanity crazy quilt I shared yesterday). Maybe the fabrics look a bit muddled or off and you don't know why... Maybe it's the lighting. Remember to look at your quilts during various times of the day to see if maybe they're happiest in sunlight, or brightest under indoor lighting at night. When you pulled together the fabrics initially, the lighting may have been different than when you're working on a quilt (like if you bought them at a store with fluorescent light or during the middle of the day on a weekend but you only sew at night). Just a little tidbit to share...

Well, I wanted to thank Carol again for letting me play with her quilt and sharing this crazy envision of scrappy quilts. It's such a treasure to click with other quilters on a level that certain fabrics and ideas just make sense and pull at your heartstrings! We can have a little too much fun at times and I love it!

Shipshewana samples

Last week Mom and I made the trip over to Shipshewana to show off some of the new Christmas fabrics with Moda. 

I know, I know... We just had Christmas and it's still cold with some snow on the ground, but the quilt shops are looking at the future fabrics to come out this Spring, which includes Christmas and some Halloween. 

I made this simple HST quilt with Laundry Basket's (Edyta Sitar) new Snowbird prints. This line also features batiks, but I only had the prints to work with this early. I did add in the darker brown and tan to even out the lights and darks, but this line is gorgeous! It's very elegant and says 'winter', not 'Christmas'. 

I also made this little one out of Solstice by Kate Spain. I wish the green sashing was a bit smaller now that it's done, but I still like it. This is my alter-ego of Christmas. I love the fun and bright prints that are more playful. 

This week we are gearing up for the vendor weekend at the Lake Farmpark show. I will be out there with Mom all weekend so stop by and say hi!

In the meantime I have been working steadily behind the scenes and sadly can't share much of that right now. Once I have more to share I will. Toodles!

Machine Quilting: Elegant Cakewalk

Darlene tested this pattern out for the designer and then it sat. And sat. And when it came time to think of a quilt to enter into the Lake Farmpark Quilts 2014 Show, this was the one, so she pulled it out and asked me to quilt it and enhance it's beauty.

 For this quilt, Darlene switched up the colors and planned out the design a bit more than the original. She also chose just a few metallic fabrics and kept the entire palette limited, but it looks so great. I had to experiment a bit with this quilt due to all of the metallics and busy prints. It makes no sense to quilt a bunch of detail in an area if you're not even going to see it. So this is what I came up with:

 My new-found favorite dahlia-type flower design worked well to fill either side of the "ornaments". The red border was quilted in red thread and I used an elegant swirl pattern that had enough points to mimic the rest of the quilting.

 Here you can see the blocks better. My first gut instinct when I saw this quilt was to quilt ribbon candy in the center of each "ornament". The rest of the quilting fell into play after that.

 I did the same design in each block, but from block to block the direction switched from horizontal to vertical and the fabrics flip-flopped so it looks a little different in the two blocks.

When I switched thread colors, I also went back and quilted the cornerstone pieces in a similar design to the blocks.

With a quilt like this and many others where there are areas that deserve different types of quilting, here's my best tip: Try to keep it as simple as possible. Each of the designs I chose mimics a part of each other design (except the ribbon candy in this one). If the designs work well together, it'll give the quilt a finished look. Now with that said, one or two "accent" quilting designs can set a quilt off (like the ribbon candy here).

Thanks, Darlene! I can't wait to see it hanging in the show!

Regrouping

Holy Cow!!!

I really have to thank all of the wonderful people that I got to chat with and share ideas over the weekend during the Farmpark Show Vendor Weekend! I had such an amazing weekend and it was soooooo incredible!

I signed more books than I could have imagined and each of the trunk shows I gave during the weekend were filled with both familiar and new faces. You all made me so happy.

After all of the hard work, this weekend was just what I needed to realize the hard work is over and you all love the book as much as I do!

The best part about this weekend was chatting with brand new quilters. There were some that came with friends who quilt and are diving into this awesome world we live in, and there were some that were brave enough to come on their own and maybe even sign up for a class or two! I love talking with new quilters and watching as they learn and evolve.

I still feel like my brain is going full speed after all of the excitement from the weekend, but I have to reel it in and get settled since I'm chatting with another guild tonight :)

One sad thing I have to report is... I was sooooo busy all weekend I never had a chance to go back around and look at the quilts and take better pictures of some :( I had a very small window to get away and I used that to boost the economy and get fabrics for some new stitchery patterns that should be out soon.

Thank you all again, I had no idea of what to expect when this book finally was released and all of my expectations have been blown out of the water. I am such a happy girl and should probably go work on some new quilts now... I'll be back later once my brain stops spinning!

Farmpark Trunk Shows

It's early and I'm starting off my day trying to wake up waiting for the coffee to warm up, but I wanted to let you know the schedule at the Farmpark Show.

I will be signing books all day at the Cottonpickers booth down in the atrium (by the Cafe) and each day at 1:30 I will be showing some quilts from the book in the Auditorium (behind the front desk). Hope to see you there!

In the meantime, Paco and I are going to try and wake up!

Crickets...

Sorry it's been a tad quiet around here. I've been working a ton on behind the scenes things and quilting and there's unfortunately not much that I can share right now.

One of the things I have been prepping for is the Vendor Weekend at Lake Farmparks this weekend. We're setting up later today and I'll be out there the next few days doing demos and book signings the whole weekend! As soon as I know when I'll be doing trunk shows of the quilts from the book I'll let you know!

But once this weekend is over and things calm down a tad, I think it's about time to tackle this mess: