Each day before the doors open for the AQS show a great crowd gathers in the lobby. The enthusiasm and excitement is electric. The doors open and they pour in. Some quilters zoom to see the quilts and other rush to the vendors. What do you do first?
Sue McCarty's quilt, Tribute to Tolkien has won Best of Show at the 2010 Ameican Quilter's Society Show and Contest. Sue's quilt is a whole cloth quilt, with some painting, but mostly, it is all stitching withe metallic threads. The entire quilt was created on her Gammill long-arm quilting machine.
Notice the scale of stitching. The assistant was not touching the quilt, but her hand is about 2 inches away. Such detail! Sue has been quilting for 6 years! Are you jealous?
Way to go Sue.
We're on route to the AQS quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky. That means we get to traverse through Oz. When I was a kid it was on TV each year and it was a really big deal to watch the movie. I remember when my aunt and uncle got a color TV we went to their house to watch it in color.
Driving across Kansas you can't help but recall the movie because there are so many reminders. Some day I'll take one of the exits and see some of the sights, but most of the time when we're blowing through Kansas, we're on a mission - to get to Paducah. What do you remember most about the Wizard of Oz?
This summer will be my first opportunity to attend the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, OR. I'll be teaching and doing a concert as well. One of the things that is happening is a fabric postcard auction for the Wendy's Wish Foundation: named for a quilter who survived breast cancer but succumbed to colon cancer. This foundation helps make cancer screening and other services available to those who can't afford them.
See the cards in the video. Who will I see there?
My dad, as many of you know, also quilts. He goes out to the dog house (the little room attached to the house I used to use as a kennel for my cocker spaniels) and sews every day. Dad enjoys using my hand-dyed fabrics because he doesn't have to worry about accidentally getting the fabrics flipped when stitching - because there is no right or wrong side. His design wall is big enough for half of his quilt - so it works in two parts and they are almost all king size. If dad is not quilting, he's watching John Wayne movies.
Recently my great niece (7 yrs) had a school assignment to write about someone she respects. Since she gets to see my mom and dad several times a week, she chose to write about my dad, her Papaw, her great-grandfather. After she proudly announced she had chosen Papaw for her subject, she assured the family that she didn't mention anything about the Civil War. We're so relieved. Kids!
