A cotton-pickin good time

Where has the month gone! Oh my, I feel like I'm just coming up for breath.

So, did ya think the Quilt Rambler lost her voice? Actually I had a slight scare there for a while....it's been a fabulous few weeks. Non stop quilting fun, and yes lots and lots of quilt talking! So much that my jaw hurts!

For several weeks I've been preparing for the Houston International Quilt Festival. It's my favorite time of the year, 10 days (counting the wholesale buying part called Market) of nothing but quilts, quilts, and more quilts. Anything you can think of concerning making, enjoying, loving quilts all under one roof - a giant roof spanning 9 football fields! As a "quilter for hire" (business) I attend 5 days of Market shopping for new items I can use in my business - fabrics, new patterns to teach, the latest in notions and techniques....very fun, very rewarding and very tiring (grin).

But its the Festival that really get me excited! Once again this year my participation in Festival was that of a vendor - one of over a thousand vendors in a crowd of over 56,000 attendees! So for weeks ahead of time I've been thinkin', collectin' and makin' STUFF to decorate the A1 Quilting Machine booth....Texas Style! By the way, for those unfamiliar - that's a bouquet of cotton picked from the side of the road around Katy Texas...

But back to my story...5 days at Market, then a day and a half preparing the booth prior to 4 1/2 days of Festival... being the proud Texan that I am I figured what better attraction that a quilted Texas flag - along with a split rail fence adorned by a Texas theme quilt, and a few Texas items...

And what Texas booth would be complete without our own Texas A1 Quilting cowgirl showing off her favorite quilting supplies - Legacy Pellon 80/20 batting and a bouquet of thread by Superior Threads and Fil Tec/Bobbin Central?

We even decorated the back of the back wall (grin) To the far right is the 2007 Award Winning Houston Rodeo quilt by Mainland Morning, and another Texas "map" quilt. Yep, comin' or goin' we wanted folks to see the A1 booth and stop by to visit.

And stop by they did! And not just quilters looking for longarms... Oh it's sew much fun to get hugs from your friends! This is one of my close quilting buddies Cindy. Even though she's just across H-town from me, we spend more time talking on the phone than actually quilting together. Gotta change that somehow!

And this is fellow blogger and longtime friend Elaine, she surprised me - hadn't seen her for several years. I met Elaine when we were working on the road as ice cream vendors. We hired her daughters to work in our Ben & Jerry's booth at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo around 2000 and have been friends ever since. Yep, the road is never long between emails!

Met up with several other gals I've known for years through longarm forums, blogs, etc. I wish I'd had photos of everyone - it's sooooo special to get a real hug and not just a cyper hug, and really special to have that face to face contact for the first time. Can't say enough about the joy brought to me when these special friends stopped by.

And here's to a couple of gentlemen in my quilting life. My "mentors" so to speak. Tom Russell, award winning quilter, who greatly encourages me to "develop my style" (and is helping me discover it!) and Jamie Wallen, national longarm teacher, who helped me discover the joy of quilting feathers. I'm truly blessed to have such talented friends, only wish a little more of their art/skills would rub off on me!

Of course Quilt Festival isn't just about vendors and meeting friends, it's about quilts! Oh my, there just wasn't enough time to view the quilts. I did take photos to enjoy later of all the inspiration and the award winners...but just wanted to share this next photo with you...a man on a mission...my hubby trying to locate the customer quilt of mine that was hanging in the Texas Guild Winners exhibit...Have to admit it was exciting to see my name on a quilt hanging in Houston! Of course, I do have several quilts hanging in my booth, but that's not the same (grin)

The weekend was full of reunions and special surprises - blasts from the past so to speak. Wow, I look up and who should be walking into my booth but long time East Tennessee friends who are now East Texans! Steve and Donna of Nevrdun fame (Donna is quite a gifted writer and has a e-zine called Nevrdun News - let me know if you want to connect to good wholesome inspiration). While living in Tennessee we shared homeschooling in common, and for the past 10 years (when we left TN for TX) have kept up through the internet. Now they are in the state and it was such a joy to see them after 10+ years. Nope, ya'll haven't changed a bit!

And then there's Holly....my best friend from High School. We reconnected last year after 20+ years for a brief one day in person visit and have attempted to keep up via facebook .... I'm tearing up again Holly, just like I did when you and Ken surprised me in the booth! We really do need to spend more time together my friend!

Oh! and did I mention that it's all about the new longarm customers? Wow what a show! Pictured here is Carol from Midland, one of many proud new A1 owners and the winner of my Bodacious Gift Basket drawing... more on that in the future as I do want to properly thank and acknowledge all the generous sponsors! That good ole Texas wash tub is FULL of wonderful longarm supplies for this lucky Texas lady! Congratulations Carol, can't wait until your studio is finished and we can set up your new A1 Quilting Machine!

The booth wouldn't have been successful without the help of many people. This is my friend and fellow A1 dealer Brenda Janovy from Sturgis SD helping a future quilter try out a longarm quilting machine. Unfortunately I didn't get a group photo of the entire A1 team - thank you Stewart Plank for making such a fabulous longarm; for Justin Plank who sets them up, tears them down, and maintains the classroom machines during the 7 day class period; the A1 dealers Brenda, Jamie, and Rosanne and my side kick Trish for working with our customers demo-ing the machines, answering questions, and writing up orders. Ya'll are the best-est!
One of the hardest things for this Quilt Rambler is to remain silent (grin) but that was a requirement earlier this year as I was blessed to be asked to quilt for an upcoming book... couldn't share photos of the quilt until the book was published...well, its published and now I can share photos! RaNae Merrill's newest book, Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts, was released at the Houston Quilt Market....here's a photo of her booth at Festival...The quilt on the right is called That's the Way Love Is and is the one I quilted for her book.

Since RaNae and I had only corresponded through the mail and over the phone concerning her quilt, it was a real pleasure to get to meet her and have her autograph my copy of the book!

I truly enjoyed this year's Market and Festival. It was a lot of fun planning my "Texas" booth and working with future quilters. So many folks are in the market for longarms, doing their research and test driving all the manufactures - it's a big decision! One thing I hoped to convey to my future customers is that we become a family - I was so pleased that so many of my existing A1 customers came and hung out in the booth - loved it that Vonnie & Ellen were there to welcome a new A1 family members. I truly have the best customers! And they are all so smart - they chose the best longarm!

Festival was "over" Sunday night 11/7 at 5 PM, tear down and loading up took about 2 hours, then there's the 45 minute drive home...but! we didn't go home - we went to Trish's, my "side kick" who helps me at shows to deliver her A1! Yep! Trish went home with one of the show table/machines and by midnight we had welcomed a new member to the A1 family!

The next morning we headed out to the Fort Worth area to set up and train Kathy, another new A1 Elite owner. I wish I'd of taken a photo of Kathy's babies - two beautiful Airedales!

Home again for a day or two and it's time for the Bayshore Longarm Quilter's quarterly gathering...We love show and tell, and so does Pixxie, my professional quilt model. Everyone got a chuckle out of her immediately getting on Robin's quilt to "pose" for a photo (and earn a treat!)

Cindy shared a beautiful quilt that she actually gets to keep for herself as a "shop sample" - love those feathers girlfriend!

Ellen is new A1 family member, having her machine since mid June of this year - she had several quilts for show and tell. Great job Ellen!

As if Market, Festival, two set ups, and a longarm gathering weren't enough for a couple of non stop weeks....on Sunday 11/14 I picked up another A1 dealer, Megan Best from Washington (state) to join me on a combined A1 Horizon and CompuQuilter (CQ) set up and training. Road trip! Shiner....population 2070... where we found ourselves without cell service - which meant no phone, no text-ing, and no internet for 3 days! Talk about withdraws!! Didn't realize how much of a city girl I was until I went to the country without my gadgets (grin) - but we lived to tell about it. Here' our quaint accommodations...

And yes, I travel with my own quilt (grin).

Megan is what I call a double dealer (grin) she not only sales and services A1 quilting machines in the west coast but also represents CompuQuilter (CQ) a computerized addition to longarms that allows the quilter to program a design and the computer implement it. We call it quilting with no hands. And it's sooo cool to watch that big ole machine quilt beautiful designs!

Carol has been quilting on an A1 Elite for over 12 years...she began before the days of stitch regulators and all the bells and whistles we have today... it was very intriguing to me to see the forerunner of the machine I run today...the handlebars are different, the "speed dial" on the side is foreign to me, and there's only one "button" on the handle bar that turns it either on or off - no single stitch button for basting...lots of changes in 12 years! The wonderful thing about an A1 is the casting is the same and throughout the years ANY upgrades could have been added to keep this machine 'current'. Carol's idea was "if it ain't broke don't fix it" - she's run a very successful quilting business without the desire to update her machine. Until now...now she's so successful that she's purchased a second machine...this little workhorse is still gainfully employed!

And now Carol has the newest A1, the Horizon, a big 31 inch throat space with all the bells and whistles PLUS the CQ computerized quilting. In other words, she just got a new employee! She'll continue to free hand on the A1 Elite while the CQ is running the A1 Horizon - doesn't she look pleased! Can't really say welcome to the A1 family as she's already family, but congratulations on growing the family Carol!

Yep, it's been a whirlwind of a month. Now it's time to get back to work on customer quilts - before we know it Christmas will be here! But in the meantime, I do want to slow down enough to take time to be thankful - Thanksgiving is less than a week away but I don't have to wait! I am thankful for the opportunity to have sew much fun in this quilting world, I'm thankful to have so many friends - both the ones that I can physically hug and the ones that I keep up with over the internet through emails, blogs, and online forums with cyper hugs. I am truly blessed.

So if you've hung with me through this long-winded Texas tale (grin) you now know why the Quilt Rambler has been silent, I haven't been AWOL or MIA, just two steppin' across Texas having a cotton pickin good time!

Working Overtime

I've had a busy few days, so thought I'd take a moment to catch up...

The beautiful fabric is a personal project I finished late last night, but more on that in a little while!

In one of my last posts I shared about the gift of giving, as in so many people giving Quilts of Hope, Blankets of Love this past year for Hurricane Ike survivors....

Well, here's a hurricane story with a different twist!

Last summer, through the wonders of internet, I was able to connect with my long lost best friend from high school, Holly. We discovered that we were only 60-70+ miles from each other, her being north of Houston and me being south....of course each of us have families and busy lives so we corresponded through email as a "catch up" and planned a day to make that journey through Houston to the other side to get together and see each other face to face.

For whatever reason, I kid you not, each date that we were able to set aside from our busy schedules last summer ended up being a hurricane evacuation! We tried at least three times, all three resulted in a hurricane - the final one being Ike. We decided that if we tried again that we needed to alert the news media and weather forecasters to just go ahead and declare a hurricane was in the gulf....

Such is life if you try to plan things. Sometimes the best things are just spontaneous! Just recently I joined the ranks of FaceBook, which has provided yet another way for my dear friend and I to try to 'catch up' or at least be current with each others lives....enter in a quick post from Holly that she and her daughter are on MY side of Houston looking for a car...I post back, 'keep driving south you're almost at my house' and the next thing I know the phone rings and I'm giving her directions!!


Here we are, 30 years post high school, 20+ years since seeing each other. And guess what? No hurricane! Even though we could use some rain (grin).

While she was here I of course shared my studio and one of the quilts I'd just finished. Here's a sneak peak - photos will be posted on webshots this weekend after the customer has picked it up - I never want my customer to see their quilt before they get here, I love the ah-ha moment when they see their quilt top turned in to a quilt.


As I said, I've been working overtime this week....Here's another close up of a quilt that will be picked up later today that I just finished last night...


And a close up of another one that I actually did between the two above. So lots of company coming this weekend to pick up quilts.


I have big plans for my weekend ( actually my customers are having to work around it to pick up their quilts) ....my church, Calvary Chapel Houston, is hosting a women's conference this weekend and I decided that I wanted a cover for my Bible....so after hours last night, this is what I made!



I do not understand the uploading process of blogger. It has turned the photo and I don't know how to right-side-up-it-again. But for what it's worth, this is the pattern that I used, It's called Wrap it to Go by Terry Albers I purchased the pattern last year at the Houston International Quilt Festival and knew it would be perfect for this project.


I loaded the fabric on my longarm (thankfully at 6 PM yesterday evening I had just finished the mariner's compass customer quilt and was able to slip on something of mine!). Since the fabric is a busy print I could have gotten away with any quilting, meandering, loops, even cross-hatching, but I decided to do little feathers to give it some texture (see the close up at the top of the post). The quilting took longer than the project I think, but it was enjoyable. As my hubby keeps telling me, enjoy the process, so I did.


This is the exterior of my Bible wrap. I decided to do a button closure instead of Velcro and was blessed to find just the right button in my small little baggie of button stash. (I'm not telling a fib, I really don't have a big button stash...now thread or fabric, that's another story!)


The pattern called for a pen holder, which is very important to me. I do take a lot of notes at church and am always searching for a pen. I added the tissue holder, which is just under the large flap that wraps the Bible. I did this because, again, I'm always searching for one. We have the most awesome praise and worship team at our church, they just lift us up to the throne in worship and more times than not there's cause for tears of joy, so a hankie is appreciated (grin) and then of course there's those convicting sermons .... anyway, I thought it would be nice to keep tissues in my Bible and used this "Almost Free" Tissue Holder Pattern from Ami Simms.
I only put in a few tissues instead of an entire travel size package because it was too bulky.

So that's my workin' overtime story. I have several other quilts to do today and in the morning before heading out to Women's Conference on Friday night. I'm hoping I can steal away a couple of hours this evening and make a tote bag or something...we'll see. So many ideas, so few hours!