A Little of This & That

I've been keeping busy here at the hacienda.  I finished up my time at MQS (Machine Quilter's Showcase) by volunteering Saturday to help take down quilts.  It was a very intense process.  Volunteers were assigned to teams to work to take down quilts. My job, since I was young and tall was to get on the ladder and take the top post off the top rails to take the quilt off.

While waiting for our crew to catch up I had the lady assisting me take this photo of me pretending to take down the quilt.  I don't have gloves on because I wasn't actually allowed to touch the quilts just the poles.  Funny thing was right before this picture was taken I about tipped off the ladder.  I'm sure that's covered under the show's insurance, crazy blogger girl staging a photo accident!

After all the quilts were down I picked up my quilt and headed home.  While I was waiting for time to take down quilts I stopped by and visited the Quilts of Valor (QOV) booth and dropped off a quilt I had finished for them and picked up a couple more to quilt.  I found out while I was there that they had awarded one of the quilts I had quilted at the MQS show to a woman who was a Marine during the Vietnam War.

This is the quilt that was awarded at MQS.  I loved the colors and designs on this one.

My first quilt after MQS was another QOV quilt.  (Seriously, knew that quilting would have as many acronyms as teaching!?!)  It was a beauty made with batiks.  It was my first time quilting batiks and I'm happy to report that everything went fine.

The finished quilt.

Up close of the quilting on the latest QOV.  I used a leaf pattern to accentuate all the leaf designs in the fabric.

I then got this beautiful baby quilt finished.  I love the colors on it!

I just love the colors she picked for this quilt she made for her baby.  

Next up was a customer quilt. It's a large flannel quilt.  I appreciate the opportunity to be trusted with others quilts and I really enjoyed working on this one.  I loved the colors and block arrangements which gave me ideas for some quilts I have in the works myself.

The flannel quilt on the frame ready to go.

Close up of the quilting on the back.

Close up of the quilting on the front border.  I used variegated thread.

Then last Monday I went to my local quilt guild meeting.  I had a blast!  I showed my competition quilt at show & tell time.  Our speaker, Deanna Hodson, was outstanding.  I was so enthralled I forgot to take any pictures until she held up her last quilt.  Her program was called Everything Old is New Again.  Many of her quilts are made out of old lady hankies, table cloths and lace doilies.  She does amazing things with them and her quilts are just amazing.  It doesn't hurt that she uses a lot of pink and I happen to love pink. You can visit her website here: http://www.rosecottagequilts.com/

The photo of the last quilt Deanna showed us.  She was amazing!

Last week I also listened to an online quilt webinar with Angela Walters.  It was on the business of machine quilting.  It was a great webinar and she talked about not only working in your business but on your business. So many great take away tips and all for free!  If you haven't discovered this great resource I highly reccommend you vist the Handiquilters webinar page.  All the webinars are posted for your listening enjoyment and I've found that many of them are not brand specific to the type of machine you have.  A great resource: http://www.handiquilter.com/webinar/
I have several quilts waiting for me in my studio.  So I better get going!