The Usual Suspects

I've already seen pictures of this one in two or three places, but darnit, it's adorable. So here it is again. There's also a detail picture here.

Quilt above made by Nancy Brown of Oakland, California; winner of an Honorable Mention (category Art-Pictorial) at IQF Houston 2007.

The Time of Amber

The Time of Amber, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Another one I really like - it's different.

Quilt above made by Junko Sawada of Kanagawa-Ken; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

She

She, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I heard them say over the loudspeaker Sunday afternoon that "She" had won Viewer's Choice, but I had no idea which quilt that was. Apparently it's this one! Although come to think of it, I had noticed before that there was a lot of "ooh"ing going on in its vicinity. (Detail pictures here and here.)

Quilt above made by Tomoko Matsuura of Kanagawa, Japan; winner of Viewer's Choice in the judged show (category: Handmade) at IQF 2007.

Colorplay V

Colorplay V, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Anne Lullie of Illinois; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Abstract, Small) at IQF 2007.

Hope for Our World - Best of Show

Guess what, Hollis Chatelain won Best of Show again - with a little help from Archbishop Tutu!



Here's a piece with some info about it from the Houston paper. (There are several other articles about the festival, too, if you follow the links in the sidebar of that page.)


I'm a tired puppy. I did get a few pictures up, and hopefully I'll get some more up tonight and tomorrow.

More later.

On my way - almost

Somebody put up some quilt show pictures, already, and I looked at a couple and then stopped. It's like spoilers; I don't want to know ahead of time! I'm sure the list of winners is posted by now, too, but I've resisted looking for it. I'll find out soon enough, in just a couple of hours.

I nearly forgot that I told my aunt I'd have lunch with her. I'd better get going! And the Livejournal people are meeting at 6:30 tonight, not 6, so it's a good thing I checked on that.

OK, what am I forgetting?
camera - check
batteries and recharger - check (although I'm wondering whether I should go buy more!)
comfortable shoes - check
toothbrush and hairbrush - check
change of clothes - check
money and ticket - check

Really, what more do you need?

(I am tempted to stop at the new Best Buy on the freeway and buy an extra memory card for my camera, actually, as well as the batteries. Last year I ran out of room!)

Getting ready for IQF

Quilting-related task for today: find camera batteries, lots of them, and/or the recharger and lots of rechargeables. The quilt show requires many, many batteries. I can't remember how many I went through last year - I know it was at least 8. And rechargeables go even faster than regular ones. I prefer to use them because it feels less wasteful, but it'd be nice if they could make them last a bit longer.

I dragged way too much crap up to Houston last year but I have vowed to do better this year. And I'm going to try not to buy too much stuff, either. I have a new computer, have I mentioned that here? It wasn't a horribly expensive one but it was still an unplanned expense so we are trying to watch the spending extra closely. I have enough quilting stuff for any three people, anyway, god knows.

A month of posts for NaBloPoMo

I signed up for NaBloPoMo ("National Blog Posting Month") and promised to post every day this month, thinking that this would be easy since I will - hopefully - have a zillion pictures to post soon. The "hopefully" is because I have not been doing too well with technology lately, and at the rate I'm going I would be surprised if I managed to blow my camera up somehow, or something. So cross your fingers.

I usually post a bunch of pictures of Halloween and then Day of the Dead related quilts this time of year, but the fact is, I don't really have anything new to show, and I get tired of posting the same ones every year. So I'll let you decide for yourself about the pictures: if you haven't already seen all those pictures (or heck, just want to see them again), here they are!

(Hmm, a photo-free post is really rare for me here, but I intend to make up for it later!)

The fabled sewing room

So, there is a room with a sewing machine in it, and a whole lot of fabric and other related items in it. Unfortunately, it also has boxes and boxes of other stuff in it, too. Sorting it all out is going to take a while.

Here it is on Tuesday, the day after the move.


Here's the sewing machine (although I have to admit that it's not actually plugged in yet):

It was my mom's - I think it's a Janome MemoryCraft 4800.

What you can't see in that picture is the rest of the mess on the table:

It could be worse, I guess - but I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with all those big flat boxes. The movers did a really good job with all this stuff - what they did was wrap the particleboard furniture in big pieces of plastic - you can see some of it around the little cabinet at the bottom. (It was full of thread and things, too, so it's good that they wrapped it up tight!)

Autumn Reflections

Quilt above made by Bonnie Borer of Thompson, Ohio, and shown in the judged show (category: Art-Naturescapes) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


Fall is my favorite time of year - and it finally feels like fall, even down here on the Gulf. So hooray for that! (And hooray for my sewing room! I will have to post pictures, even if it is still a big mess!)

IQF ribbon winner: Hoffman Challenge

The quilt above is "Happiness-Peace-Love" made by Janet Henshaw; winner of 1st prize in the Hoffman Challenge at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I am moving this weekend, so don't expect to hear much from me for the next few days. But hey, after that, it's almost time for Quilt Festival!!

New pictures, and another version of the list

I scanned a few more pictures. The one below is by Moira Farah.



Quilt Pink quilts (although they may be from before they started using that term) from IQF, year unknown:




I forgot to mention another thing that I bought, except I ordered it online and it hasn't come yet that I know of: the Sidewinder Bobbin Winder. I noticed when I was in the store the other day that they seemed to be mailing them out, so it may be sitting in my apartment office waiting for me. I will have to try it out when I get it, and report back.

Updated project list

I took the project list I had made before and broke it down by where the quilts are in the process. It's less depressing than just having one tremendously long list!

(A lot of the comments on the different projects have changed, while I was thinking this out. And see the entry below for pictures of some of this stuff, if you didn't look before.)

Just need quilting/binding:
- community service quilt (almost done, even the binding is done)
- green triangle quilt (I'm thinking this may grandly be called "Monochromatic #1", and the beginnings of #2 are down below.)
-- Added (I remembered more stuff, I knew I would): bindings for two of Mom's quilts, otherwise finished. One was intended for me and one for my sister. I probably ought to try to do the one for my sister right away, so I can give it to her at Christmas.

Blocks done, just needs assembling/finishing
- Quiltmaker's puzzle (swap blocks in fall colors)
- Christmas swap lap quilt - 9 blocks
- Christmas swap table runner

Blocks done, but I don't know quite what I'm doing with them!
- Poetry wallhanging - I have a lot of triangle blocks and fabric for sashing; now I just have to figure out how I'm arranging them!
- Cuppaz wallhanging- I have 20-odd blocks, I think
- Crazy quilt wallhanging - 3 blocks (I seem to have played out on making these, so I'm thinking of just setting the three blocks I have vertically, otherwise it may never get done)

Still in the piecing stage:
- Ohio star sampler - 8 of 12 blocks done
- Indigo log cabin - number of blocks still undetermined!
- Frank Lloyd Wright quilt - my oldest UFO - I need to figure out if I even have enough stuff to finish it as is, or if I need to buy more

Projects that haven't been started (but have materials):
- Tutti Frutti quilt (from a kit that was given to me)
- t-shirt quilt for my husband - I have a pile of his old running t-shirts, and there are many, many of them - I need to start putting stabilizer behind the designs and cutting them up, and then see where this stands
- "the pink quilt" - currently just a LARGE pile of pink fabric, but I'm thinking this may be end up being "Monochromatic #2" since I seem to be drawn to the one-color idea
- Dia de los Muertos quilt - a lot of embellishments, some fabric and some ideas, still rather vague

Also, decide what to do with...
- Mom's few UFOs - (1) grandmother's flower garden, (2) bright Friendship Bee blocks - that's all I can think of, at least (and I will have to take pictures of these and get some ideas from you guys!)
- mystery quilt top from my grandmother's house
- leftover green squares from triangle quilt - I have lots of these! And also some HSTs. I feel like I ought to do something useful with them. Maybe community service quilts. I suppose I could do a Monochromatic #3!

Actually I have way too much fabric, period. I need to be making many, many community service quilts.


(Re: the Day of the Dead quilt - I think where I need to start is with the pictures. My mother had put a couple of pictures of my grandparents on fabric, I need to get more pictures and figure out from there where I'm going with it.)