A Silver Lining

After such a rainy grey day back here in the UK, it is good to be reminded that every cloud has a silver lining! Here's an amazing quilt by Susan Stewart. One of the best things about the Houston Quilt Festival is getting to go round the exhibition and meet all the winners. It is customary for the winners to stand with their quilts and take questions. We were able to photograph the quilts and get to know the quilters as we asked questions about materials, techniques and inspiration. What a treat!

Susan Stewart won the $5,000 prize - the Pfaff Master Award for Machine Artistry. This was an amazing quilt and the photos hardly do it justice. You can click on the photos for a better view. Susan noticed our name tags, designating us Superior Threads exhibitors. She told us how much she loved Superior Threads! Susan explained that she used 47,000 yards of #623 Silver from the Bottom Line range of Superior Threads, both on the top and the bottom of this quilt.

As the name suggests, Bottom Line thread was created as a bobbin thread. But once it came out on the market, long-arm quilters tried using it on top and found that it worked!

You can see in the photos how Bottom Line is superb for detail quilting or creating texture without drawing attention to itself. In the Grimm's fairy tale, Rapunzel spins gold from straw. In this quilt, Susan Stewart uses the least expensive thread in the Superior Thread range and spins silver!

Houston Highlights

We're back. The Houston Quilt Show was fantastic!! We timed the visit so we could catch the end of the trade show - Quilt Market and the beginning of the public show - Quilt Festival. This was our first visit and it certainly lived up to our expectations! Here's a view of the Houston skyline taken from our hotel window. We arrived on Saturday, and caught the last two days of Quilt Market. Quilt Market is the trade show and a fantastic opportunity to see all the new fabric and gadgets and sewing machines and mid to long arm frames. We also got to meet many of the bloggers and designers that I follow online. And then there were all the amazing quilts in the exhibition. Truly inspiring! Here's Rachelle Denney from South Australia, one of the winners.

Our first day visiting Quilt Market was Halloween. So most of the stalls offered sweets and many of the vendors dressed up. Here is Heather Purcell from Superior Threads - also known as 'Mother Superior'.
The show organizers offer awards for the best dressed stalls too. Amy Butler's gorgeous stall took first prize.
But so many of the stalls were simply stunning works of art in themselves. Designers were so creative in how they displayed their fabric. Here's Alexander Henry's stall. Many of the stalls created a retro feel this year by incorporating distressed furniture props like this ladder and plank shelving.

It was a real treat to wander around and see so many famous people, surrounded by the fabrics they design or the quilts they create. There was such a spirit of camaraderie! Everyone was willing to stop and talk shop. Here's a picture of Angela Walters who quilts for the designer Tula Pink. Angela was such a pleasure to meet. She noticed our name tags and told us how she loves using Superior Threads in her quilts. She always uses So Fine! on top. It's her favourtie machine quilting thread.
Quilt Market lasts until Monday afternoon. Then it's all change as the Trade Show comes down and the Festival sets up for the general public. We've lots more to post about! Watch this space, today is just a taste.

Off to Quilt Market

We're off to Quilt Market! And we'll catch the first days of the Quilt Festival too!! I've read that the weather will be warm and sunny. Can't wait! We'll have lots to blog about when we get back and I'm sure it won't just be the weather. Have a great week!

Honeysuckle Vine

I decided to use yesterday's momentum to get me going on a UFO that's been ripening...for a few years! This quilt was inspired by a quilt on display at a show put on by one of our local groups, called the Pea Room Quilters. One of the gals had made teddy bear quilt for one of her grand children. The top was pieced out of flannel and it was backed with a good quality fleece. It was the softest quilt I ever felt! I've been using fleece ever since. But this is the first time I've paired it with flannel.

I've used a honeysuckle vine design for the quilting pattern using King Tut #989 Malachite on top and a green pre-wound in the bobbin. Anything with a loop makes it easy to maneuver around the available space. I thought that the leaf pattern would go well with the autumnal colours. I'm waiting for the morning light to take a good photo of the quilting, but meanwhile, here's the line design.

Catching the Bug

My friend Angie caught the quilting bug. Well, actually the piecing bug and the fabric bug too!It's such a good infection! I made a quilt for her daughters and now Angie has pieced a quilt for her sister's new baby boy. She's been collecting fabrics that a little boy might like and completed piecing her first top. I offered to quilt it for her. After feeling guilty for several weeks for not getting round to it, I finally got the kids to set up the frame after Church today, and it was done in an hour and a half! Oh the joy of a finished project!!

I've used this fun variegated King Tut #921 Cleopatra on top. I love this thread, especially with the bright colourful fabrics that Angie has used here. I've just quilted hearts and loops, a good pattern for favourite things. Angie's mum is fond of hearts too. I think that baby quilts are really about blessing mums and grans.This little quilt has bright red non pil fleece for a backing. I've used red pre-wounds in the bobbin. This creates a lovely texture on the back and it's soft and cuddly too. The pre-wounds hold so much thread - I only had to change the bobbin once. Now I feel great, I've done the quilt and blogged about it all in the same afternoon.

The Post Office

One of the best parts of my day, is finding out where I'm going to post the next DVD to. La Mer is going to so many exciting places; all over America, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Iceland, not to mention England, Scotland and Wales. So far this week, my favourite places are Hawaii and Maryland. Hawaii because I've wanted to go there ever since our 5th grade class project and Maryland because that's my home state.

As much as I am interested in where the DVD's are going to, I thought that perhaps it might be fun for you all to see where the DVD's are posted from. So here it is, our village post office, which is just a tiny add on to the tiny village shop which is an add on to our village pub. No matter where they end up, here's where they get posted from; the Martin Village Post Office.

Heading to Houston!

I haven't been doing much blogging lately, but life has been full and busy! We've had a nasty computer virus that caused quite a bit of trouble for a couple of weeks. We've been busy getting the show orders filled and shipped. And we've gotten kids packed and transported to university. Now, we're getting ready to go to Houston, for the Biggest Quilt Show Ever! Yes, we are excited.