Y A Y !!

It has been very hectic at my home. I have been dying to post the results from the CTQG quilt show this past weekend. If you read my previous post you know that I volunteered to make the awards for the show.
My sweet reward was to bring back home 2 of the awards. I won 1st. place in the art quilts category with the quilt "Big on Texas". This quilt is pieced, raw edge appliqued, free motion machine quilted and hand embroidered.
Please click on photos to enlarge....

"Big On Texas" (60" x 72")


Third place went to "Fauna Fantasy" in the -other techniques- category. "Fauna Fantasy" is a whole cloth quilt with thread work.
This blue quilt is very difficult to photograph. I have been told that it is due to the blue color. Anyways, I was thrilled to receive the 2 awards and also happy to know that many people liked the awards I made.

"Fauna Fantasy" (47' x 47")

Chisholm Trail Quilt Guild- Quilt show awards

The Chisholm Trail Quilt Guild is having its quilt show this weekend at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, TX. The name of the show is "Color Explosion"
Since I'm a member I volunteered to make the awards that are pinned to the winning quilts.
I'm going to try to do my best explaining the process:
I bought 2 pieces of fabric with the colors needed for the awards. I joined the 2 pieces together and marked a grid with the sizes needed.
After doing this I mounted the marked fabric, backing (plain muslin) and batting on the long arm machine and quilted circles with the circle work station I bought in Houston last year. Every circle was done individually, manually, since my machine is not computerized. Once I did all the circles I free motion quilted the inside of the circles to make it look like trapunto....well, kind of....






Once I finished all the quilting I took the piece off the machine and I washed the whole quilted piece. I put it in the drier for a while so it would get "fluffy". Washing the material was nerve recking because I was afraid of messing up all my hard work...but it worked out OK.
The next step was to cut up the squares to the decided sizes and sew a border or sashing 1 inch wide around the squares. Then I had to cut up a square of fabric to match the award, put 2 right sides together and sew them "pillow style", leaving a small opening to turn them inside out.



After turning them inside out, I closed the opening and "voila"..squares ready for the next and last step....attaching the factory made ribbons...

I spent today helping set up the show and attaching the awards to the quilts. Unfortunately I can't tell winners yet, not until the show opens tomorrow morning.

Katie in Marble Falls, TX

It is always nice to get away from the daily grind. I spent the last couple of days in Marble Falls, a town just a few miles northwest of Austin. My friend Barb and I drove over there to take a workshop called Ghost Layers. The instructor was the famous and delightful Katie Pasquini Masopust. I spent 2 days learning new techniques to add to my repertoire. Katie's energetic personality made for a fun and exciting workshop, but I have to say that, by the end of the day, I was exhausted from all the "thinking" we had to do....I usually don't finish anything in class but this time I was able to focus and finish my class piece...well, almost finish...I still have to stitch it together and quilt it but I hope to get to that by the end of the week.

My class piece (unfinished 18' x 18")


Katie Pasquini's quilts

Exhibit at ABIA

"Rooster I" by Martha Tsihlas (24"x24")

The Austin Fiber Artists group is happy to have their fiber art on display at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The exhibit will run from August 19 to November 3rd.
The fiber art is in a glass display at the departure area of the airport. In order to see it you must be ticketed. Next week the group will tour the area to see the exhibit. I'm looking forward to it.

Faith

"La Fe ve lo invisible, cree lo increible y alcanza lo imposible"

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and reaches the impossible"


Mount Sinai, Egypt 2008