The house work is progressing nicely. I can finally see an end to the mess! I have actually settled down enough to resume hand quilting on a whole-cloth quilt started long ago. Hand quilting tends to calm me down, and God knows I need that!
Some miscellaneous quilt stuff...The UFO (from the UFO Challenge) is due in about two weeks. I'll have pics of that up in the next week or so (so watch for it).
...and now, more from the 2009 AQS Show in Paducah..."Fandango" by Judy Peterson from Pinehurst, NC, was inspired by Alice Arnette's ORIENTAL SPIRAL quilt incorporating Bethany Reynolds "Stack-n-What" Fan blocks and Lone Star Quilts & Beyond by Jan Krentz. It is longarm quilted. I just thought the color combination was very striking.
"Color Me High on Life" is an original design by Karlyn Bue Lohrenz from Billings, MT. It was quilted on a home sewing machine. I just loved the vibrant colors and the movement in this quilt. 
I've included a close up picture too. It gives you a better look at the details of the design.
Kirsten Johnston from Ontario, Canada, made the quilt below. It is called "Rosewindow." Magnificent stained glass windows from Europe's medieval cathedrals prompted Kirsten to use Paula Nadelstern's fabrics and template technique to facilitate the creative process. It was home sewing machine quilted. This quilt truly looked like you were looking into a stained glass window with light behind it. It was breathtaking. 
The closeup gives you an idea of the work involved in a quilt like this. Wow!
Rosewindow won an Honorable Mention Award.
I am having problems uploading pictures into my blog. I have tried to upload Paducah pictures five times today. They look like they load, but they aren't there. I'll keep working on it. I'm frustrated! Can you tell?Let me just say up front that this picture doesn't do justice to the mess I have lived in for the past couple of weeks. This picture shows the furniture from my living room and dining room crammed into my sunroom. My sewing room looked pretty much like that too (maybe that is why I haven't gotten any sewing done lately). My living room and dining room had paper on the floor, plastic over the ceiling fans, and no piece of furniture to sit on. Thankfully, some of the mess has been cleared out, and things are slowly returning to "normal." The funny thing is that the painters just finished up yesterday. I decided there just wasn't enough color (the Swiss Coffee color I chose was just too neutral), so I'm repainting two rooms! Hey, at least the mess is mine!
I am finally back on line!!!! Yeah!!!! I've been off-line for the last few days due to the painters working in my computer room. I finally got everything hooked back up and working today. Stay tuned...I'm even going to show you the mess my house was in during the painting! I also have more great pictures from Paducah to share with you. I'll get pics posted some time today, so....please check back. It is after midnight, and I'm heading to bed right now.
My house is still in quite an uproar...walls knocked out, hardwood floors put in, plastering, electrical work, and painting. Right now, all my furniture is smashed into my sun room (and wherever else it will fit). I have boxes everywhere. My new hardwood floors are covered with paper and tape; my brick wall is covered with plastic. My sewing room (which is packed with "stuff" and is a mess anyway) is a bigger mess than usual, because it now contains items from several other rooms. The painter called today and isn't coming until 8 tomorrow! Arghhhhhhhhh! This is putting quite a strain on my quilting--I'm not getting a lot done. That being said...
I did get my sample finished for a machine applique class I may be teaching for my quilt guild. It is an original design and is hand quilted. I hadn't done any hand quilting for quite awhile, so I REALLY enjoyed doing it. 
I have worked all afternoon on editing the quilt photos from the AQS Show in Paducah. I'll be putting more of those up in the next few days. Check back for more pics. The quilts were absolutely awe inspiring! Enjoy!
“Emerald Eyes” by Elizabeth Janowitz from Pinecrest, FL, is an original design. Fused appliqué, thread painting, and fabric painting techniques were used. It is based on the Firekat photograph by Darren Levant and is machine quilted. I am a cat lover, so this one captured my heart. I have another cat quilt that I'll put up later.
Pat Rollie from Los Angeles made "Elephant Walk." This is a wholecloth quilt based on a photo by Steve Bloom. The texture and patterns of the elephant skin are free-motion quilted on a longarm machine. This one made everyone smile when they looked at it. It truly looked like you were observing a real "elephant walk."
“Blushing Triangles 4” won 1st Place, Small Wall Quilts in the Home or Longarm/Midarm Sewing Machine Quilted category. The quilt was made by Gloria Hansen from East Windsor, NJ. It is the fourth in a series of original digital paintings and is based on triangles. She merged her love of digital design with her love of quiltmaking. This quilt just looked "soft" to me. The colors were brilliant.
All of the following quilts were photographed by me at the 2009 Chicago International Quilt Festival.
The first quilt is called "My Diamond," by Noriko Misawa, Kujoshe, Tokoyo, Japan. It is hand quilted and is an original design. It received a second place award in the Innovative Pieced, Large category. The colors are spectacular. The tiny pieces form a large hexagon-shaped quilt.
This is the cutest quilt. You can't help but smile when you see it. It is called Red Owls by Karen Peirce from Belmont, MA. It is hand appliqued and hand quilted. The closeup shows you one of the little owls and the quilting.
Furrowed Fields by Rosemary Cromer from Overland Park, KS, is made of shirts worn by men who (she says) "may have worked the land." It is the most clever use of shirting fabrics. My friend and I compared our pictures when we got back to the hotel room, and we both had taken pictures of this quilt. It is very striking.
Scarlet Beauty by Kathryn Sims from Alexis, IL, is foundation pieced. It is machine pieced and machine quilted. She designed the border using EQ5 and used a pattern from Susan Garman (designer of the block-of-the-month quilts for The Quilt Show) called "Sleeping Beauty." It won third place in the Traditional Pieced category. The big black vertical "thing" in the picture is not a part of the quilt; it is a light pole. There was no way to get a picture without it.
This is a closeup of the border of the quilt. I love the half-circles she designed using Electric Quilt.
I promised another cat quilt...here it is. Being the cat lover that I am, I just couldn't resist this quilt. I love it. It was made by Sandy Curran from Newport News, VA. It is called "Wild Cat." In the garden Sandy's purring pet becomes a wild predator. No mouse is safe! The eyes are all important! Feel him quiver before he pounces! It is home sewing machine quilted.
The eyes were spetacular in this quilt. They really drew me in. I thought they deserved a closeup.
Jean Evans from Medina, OH, made Patio Schene III, "Tomato Takeover." This quilt won 1st in the Large Wall Pictorial quilt category. A tomato plant grew so large that it took over a brick wall and became the inspiration for this partially painted, hand-appliqued quilt. It is hand and machine quilted. I just couldn't believe how real those tomato plants looked.
