Running the Roads!

I love going and doing! Family, friends, meeting new friends. Teaching, quilting, going to quilt shows, or just a Sunday drive on a beautiful spring day!

Seems I've been on the road a lot these past few weeks and I think I'm behind in documenting the Kronicles of Karen...

Here's a new purse I made today on my "day off". Several weeks ago I quilted a four yard piece of fabric on my longarm in preparation for future bags...yep, this self proclaimed bag lady just can't get enough bags! And the funny thing is, my bags have bags! Remember all those little zipper bags I've made in the past as well as the ones I purchased in Mexico on my cruise? You guessed it, they are safely tucked inside my new bag holding all those little important things that I just think I have to carry around with me (grin).

So...here's a recap of a few of the things I've been up to this month...some that I'd forgotten to post..

The first weekend in March I taught a Square in a Square technique class at Cactus Quilts in Texas City.

In this class my students (and my friends!) made a practice book demonstrating Options 1 - 9 of the SnS technique. They were really busy and really serious! Ah, but we had our share of laughter too. If it's not fun, why do it?

I thought you might also like to see how I packed my car coming home from our P&B Fabrics run prior to the Dallas Quilt Show last weekend - for the record, not all of this was mine, remember my side kick Trish? To protect us both I'll not disclose the actual split (grin). By the way, I think everyone should keep bungie cords in their trunk don't you? never know when they will come in handy!

While at the Dallas show I had some good friends stop by and say hi. Many were friends that I know only through the internet - either on Facebook or Blogger or some of the other lists I'm on. It was great to meet you in person! I wished I'd of taken more photos! Those of you who stopped by please know how much you blessed me by introducing yourself and encouraging me - especially those who shared that they were "forever friends" (as in we will spend eternity together because we share the same Savior) and who said they were praying for me. Oh how I needed your hugs and your prayers! The weekend was soooo much fun and sooooooooooo much work! Long days, short nights, only meal to speak of was dinner after the show. All good and I'd do it again in a heartbeat - but only after a few more days to nap! Again, it was such a blessing to meet you and hear that you'd been reading about my Texas quilt and other ramblings. Thank you for being so special to me!

My friend Tom Russell had a beautiful little quilt in the show and won a special recognition award. He stopped by the booth and we took time for a photo op.

Here we are with Kathy and Trish, whom we fondly call our side kicks. Enjoyed a great dinner out after the show and stayed up way too late considering it was the time change weekend. Who needs sleep when you are among quilting friends!

Another good friend, Sue Needle, came by to say hi. Sue also had some beautiful quilts in the show. If you are in the Fort Worth area and need a good longarm quilter I can highly recommend Sue!

Remember Justin? Our A-1 Tech and son of owner Stewart Plank ? Remember on our set up day he asked me to show him how I quilted my feather puff that I used in the Texas Quilt? Well, I'm hear to tell ya that Justin is a quick learner! Any chance that he had during the weekend he was on the machine perfecting his feather puff! At the end of the show he cut out a section of our practice quilt to take home. I have it on good confidence that he woke up his roommate, fellow A-1 worker Victor, at 0215 AM upon his arrival home Monday after the show to show off his feather puffs! Way to go Justin!! Stay tuned, Justin said he's going to go home and make a Missouri Quilt as inspired by the Texas Quilt.

Speaking of drive home - thank you again to those special friends who prayed me through this show, especially the drive home last Sunday night. We packed up the booth by 7 PM and hit the road after a great dinner ....didn't arrive home until 0130 Monday morning and in dense fog. Prayers are what kept me awake and on my side of the road (as well as the deer in their proper places and not in my lane!)

I'm hoping spring has sprung! These beauties were on the side of the road on one of my morning walks this weekend. Later that day the weather turned a little nasty with wind and rain and turning cold again, but I have hope. God promised that as long as the earth lasted there would be the seasons. Oh so ready for spring!!

In the meantime, a girl's got to have a little fun so I decided to finish up some UFO's. This is Lime Jubilee, a quilt I started on my birthday in 2007 and have worked on here and there ever since. This weekend I finally finished it up by adding a narrow lime green border and then using all the purple scraps from the blocks to make a braided border. Now it enters the "Quilts in Waiting" category... ah, but the joys of finishing a top!

As much as I'm enjoying working through some of my UFO's (clearing away some guilt perhaps) I can't resist starting something new! I'm taking a class with Winnie Flemming at Quakertown Quilts in Friendswood and this was part of my homework. The class is called Lone Star and we are using the strip piecing method. The final quilt will have 22 different stars. I'm a little behind in my homework for tomorrow night's class. Sigh.

As you can tell, I like color. I came to an important conclusion this weekend. The UFO's on my to do list are there for a reason. Either it was complicated and I gave up, orI ran out of time to work on it, or I was bored, or I just didn't like it. Some that I lost interest in I've discovered that I can always make the quilt smaller than I intended and then filter the remaining fabric back into my stash to be utilized another time. That's been a good way to finish up some projects.....but there are a few UFO's that I decided that I really just couldn't work on because the colors were not my pallet.....hum...new revelation - why not give them away! Why not indeed! I belong to several guilds that are very prolific in making charity quilts. So first chance I get I'm moving out some fabric that just isn't my flavor knowing that I'll place it in capable hands to fellow quilters who will add their talent and use it for good. It takes all of us sometimes - one provides the fabric/supplies and others provide the labor. It's all done in the name of love and caring about someone other than ourselves. Why didn't I think of this sooner? Hum, maybe that's why it's called Spring Cleaning! My fabric is going to get a good cleaning out this week and in doing so it not only blesses me by reliving guilt over unfinished projects but hopefully it will bless someone else in working with and enjoying what I've shared. One person's discard is another's treasure!

So that my friends is what my goal is for this week. Thanks for catching up with the goings-on of this quilt rambler!

A1 Quilting Machines loves Texas

Guess where I am? Setting up the A-1 Quilting Machines booth at the Dallas Quilt Celebration!

I'll try to recap the past few days, but I'm warning you ahead of time - typos and grammar will be questionable as it's now after 11 PM and I've been going strong for several days!

So, this is the completed Texas quilt I started last week...I have almost 3500 yards of thread in this one - 1500+ in the pink border alone. It was such a joy to quilt.

The interior of Texas was quilted with the little feather puffs that I just love making. Below you can see where I quilted my butterfly logo near Galveston Bay - this represents where the Texas A-1 dealer is located on the quilt map - ME! (grin)

Of course I quilted in the A-1 logo too, it's freehand so just a little rough around the edges... but I like it .

The last item I added was the nautical star in the borders - or as we call it down here The Lone Star of Texas!

Finished the Texas A-1 Quilt on Tuesday, putting the machine stitched side of the binding on late Tuesday night. Loaded the car early Weds morning and drove north on 45 until we came to the big D - Dallas. (for the record, hand sewed the binding down Weds night in the hotel!)

Can't come to Dallas without a detour to P&B Fabrics! Trish and I had a blast picking out bolts of fabric for our next projects.

Naturally I'm drawn to the bright colors, anything purple, and feel extra blessed when I find butterflies! So much fabric, sew little time. Sigh.

We ran into some longarm friends during our warehouse shopping and made plans to meet up for dinner later that evening. Lots of laughter and fun at the Genghis Grill.

Our plans today included more warehouse shopping at Moda/United Notions. They opened at 7:30 AM, and we signed in at 7:35!!

It was a blessing to get to see Sarah, our friend from Quilts by the Bay in Galveston who has moved to Dallas to work with Moda...Her mom, Patricia, owner of QBTB is also a vendor here at the Dallas Quilt Show so we enjoyed visiting with her during set up today.

So this is our booth!

Most people have no idea how things look before a big show. I just love watching things grow as everyone is doing their thing to get their booths ready for the public.

We arrived at 10 AM and were there until they ran us off at 5 PM (then back again from 7 to 9 for preview night - I tell ya', it's a great show!)

Justin Plank, A-1 tech/machinist and son of our owner Stewart Plank, worked really hard to get the machines set up while Trish and I decorated the walls. If you've been to my home studio you'll recognize some of my quilts - left the walls bare and took one of the quilts off the couch that Pixxie likes... all to make the booth brighter and more inviting.

One thing I like about having my quilts in the booth, besides that it makes me feel at home, is that my quilts are "just quilts" - not the show quilts, but what I like to call "real quilts" -- the type that most quilters make - the ones that are used and enjoyed. Kinda shows that as a dealer I'm a quilter just like my customers - I know what they want in a quilting machine and I do my best to service their needs. More than anything I love to quilt...and to teach....and Justin is a quick learner! I demo-ed my feather puff and poof! He was quilting them himself!

It's such a joy to quilt on an A-1, can't wait to share this joy tomorrow at the quilt show!

So...here's our booth, all ready and waiting for a fun filled weekend!!

Don't you want to come and play on one of my machines??

Hope to see you at the quilt show!

Flowers, Quilts, and Pixxie

I was awakened this morning to a bouquet of purple flowers, my husband said when he saw these he knew it was the right bunch. In honor of this being "Daytona Sunday" (as in THE Daytona 500 NASCAR event) I clipped the stems and arranged the beautiful flowers in our pop corn bucket to be enjoyed in the man cave as the race was run. Yes, while the rest of the world celebrates Valentine's, in our household it's NASCAR all the way (grin). Of course I've taken a little time out to work in the studio, after all, Sundays are my afternoons off.

So here's what has been going on since I last posted....

First of all, thank you for all the feedback (positive and negative) about my first You Tube. I know the quality and contrast were not good, but the video was made by a special request to "watch me while I work" and that was what I was working on at the time. I may consider doing more videos in the future, but that's not my primary focus, just a pleasant distraction.

Once the quilt on the frame was finished I decided I wanted to continue playing around with these feather puffs - this time on a larger scale and as an all over design. I really needed to work on a personal project as part of my play, and my therapy. Sometimes a girl just has to do what a girl has to do - me time is a part of a balanced quilter don't you think?

Sometimes on my Sundays off I work on piecing, and more times than not it's what I call a "throw down quilt" - just something simple to satisfy my urges to play with fabric. Last spring I pieced a top from a pattern on the internet called Wickedly Easy My goal was to use up fabric scraps from quilts made several years ago, you know the fabrics that bring back wonderful memories? Like the fabric from a quilt finished at a beach retreat, or fabric from a prayer quilt or two, or just fun prints that I've woven into several scrap quilts...

Well, I pieced the blocks and somehow it just didn't look right. Son #2 loves to call it "fabric throw up", he's rather descriptive sometimes, but in this case he was absolutely right. I didn't want to waste the day or my fabrics so I figured out a way to fix it by replacing a center piece in each block with lime fabric to give the quilt some continuity as well as a place to rest the eye. I called it When Only Lime Will Do, and placed it in the Quilts in Waiting category...you guessed it, the perfect personal project to practice more feather puffs.

When I place a personal quilt in the Quilts In Waiting drawer it could be months, even years before I get around to quilting it. Because of that I always prepare the back and the binding to store with the project, that way any leftover fabrics that 'match' can be recycled back into the scrap drawer to find their way into another project. As you can see behind Pixxie, I ran out of binding fabric. Sigh. I'll be digging in drawers later to find more, or using the trim from the backing to finish it off. Sometimes things like that happen in life, connections are missed, but life goes on.

These two photos show a close up of the all over quilting, of course I had to use lime thread! The orange scrap is from a quilt I made Son #2 when he graduated from 6th or 8th grade, I can't remember which as he did graduate from both. He's now 21 so it's been a while. The tropical flowers are from a quilt that he and I did together as a mother son project. His was from a pattern called Turning Twenty (as he was 19 at the time it was appropriate) and I used the same prints in the pattern called Turning Twenty Again (yep, I'd done that twice). We had them on display at a local quilt show that year and I couldn't have been prouder. In the photo below is a strip of blue floral that once graced my living room. I've redecorated since then. Things have a way of changing over the years, yet somehow remain the same. Yes, fabric holds memories...

As much as I love the wild assortment of scraps on the front, I have to say that I love the back of this quilt as much or more - when the light hits it just right you see all this beautiful texture of the quilt designs.....Ta Da....All Over Feather Puffs! The quilt only measures 68 x 84, the perfect topper for a queen bed, or a cuddle quilt for the couch, or a nice beach blanket or picnic quilt for that walk in the park. I used almost 4,000 yards of thread! If I were charging for this it wouldn't be at my all-over price that's for sure! Lots of dense quilting and many hours of deep thinking.

So, what else have I been doing with my time? How 'bout an 80 mile road trip (one way) to a local quilt show? Yes, 80 miles IS local if you live in the Houston area (grin). I had two main purposes for the 160 mile round trip (not to mention the toll fare) One - I had a customer quilt that would be in the show....

And I couldn't be more pleased. I told her when she picked it up last month that it would be a ribbon winner. Her colors in this quilt are stunning. And this was actually my first attempt at Feather Puffs, or rather a variation. For the complete story and more close ups click here to check back in the archives

The second reason for the road trip was to visit with my friend Tom Russell who was the featured artist at the show. Many of you may know Tom's quilts from Alex Anderson's Simply Quilts TV program or may have viewed some of his quilts on exhibit at national shows. The photos don't do the masterpieces justice.

Tom has spoken at several local guilds in the Houston/Galveston area and he keeps the ladies entertained with his stories of how he became a quilter and how he comes up with his designs and unique style. Everyone that has heard Tom agrees that he inspires them to try new things and loves that they have learned that it's okay to make little quilts!

Quilting is best shared among friends. Sometimes it's with fellow quilters as we learn together and discover new things or enjoy a quilt show together; sometimes it's with non-quilting friends who just appreciate the warmth and beauty in the creative process of quilting; and sometimes its just sharing with a cute puppy who very well may be my biggest fan - that or it's just all about the treats that is her payment for being my professional quilt model!

So, that about catches me up on the quilting side of my life....thanks for spending some time with the Quilt Rambler! to be continued (grin)

A Day Off to Attend a Local Quilt Show

And what a wonderful day it was! My friend Trish and I drove 60+ miles one way to attend the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild Show that continues tomorrow.

And what a pleasant surprise to find that one of my customer quilts won 1st place in the Professionally Quilted Category. This talented lady was the recipient of 7 ribbons in various categories! Her applique is indeed award winning!

You can visit my webshots to see close ups that I took of her quilt when it was here in my studio.



We truly enjoyed the day - I loved the way the guild had each little area 'decorated' by themes...I've shared a few group shots to give you an idea of how beautiful and inviting this show really was. Trish said she enjoyed reading all the captions as much as she enjoyed looking at the quilts. I think our favorite one was "Flying Geese From Hell" which read for my first quilt I chose this lovely pattern marked 'easy' however since I'm a beginner, many of my flying geese were done 2 times, hence the name. I practically did the top twice. I still love it."

Or what about this one on a garment "Too Tall and Too Fat Bog Coat" where the maker stated This reversible bog coat was my first serious attempt to make a quilted garment. I took a class back in 1998 where I was told I was too fat and too tall to make it. It took me a decade to complete it, and every time I wear it I smile, knowing I proved the teacher wrong!

The quilts were beautiful and I took almost 150 photos! I love coming home and seeing the show again. Many times I'm so caught up in the eye candy that I can't really remember what I saw and I want to be able to look at the quilts again. The lovely colors, patterns, and of course I have to check out the quilting!

Here's a few photos of the layout for your enjoyment. I thought the decorating committee out did themselves! What creativity!

The quilt in the corner had pooh bears on it

Loved the scrappy quilts!

Talk about school spirit! Texas A&M was well represented

By the way, one of my customers actually designed the quilt on the left and the pattern was marketed through Quilts By The Bay in Galveston I quilted the original....it's somewhere in my webshots around the fall of 2007 because it was in her booth at the Houston 2007 show...it was a popular kit that year.

One other thing I enjoy about a quilt show is being around a lot of quilters! We ran into so many people that we knew -- which I found really amazing and lots of fun, especially considering the distance. Ah but for quilters, there is no distance is there! Across town, across the state, or across the internet, somehow we all manage to connect. Truly was the icing on the cake for the day!

I typically don't shop at quilt shows. (gasp! please forgive me all you wonderful vendors) Just don't need anything and usually am on a tight budget. I sorta blew that today (grin). I've been working through my scrap drawer lately -- made a scrap quilt last weekend and have started one for this weekend (stay tuned) so decided that I needed to replenish my fat quarters with some bright fun colors....so I was on a mission....and got a little distracted when I came to a booth that had one yard cuts ($6.39, who can resist that!!) and oh did she have my colors! I bought 11 out of the 12 one yards cuts pictured below (paid regular $8.50 for the beautiful Kaufman on the bottom right, but it was worth it) and I did manage to find two fat quarters that met my criteria of bright and fun! I love things with black backgrounds and lots of color as well as anything purple or just bright. It's all good and it all came home with me today. That and a book and two magazines....needed some reading material for bedtime (grin).

By the way, this photo is sideways, I don't know why blogger turned it and I can't know how to change it, so just turn your head and put the fat quarters on the bottom and it really looks better.

Yep, it's always refreshing to take a day off and go to a good quilt show -- it's sew inspiring! Thank you Kingwood for a great show, and thank you also for allowing me to quilt your beautiful raffle quilt -- I hope you call my name tomorrow at the end of the show! I'd love to have this one hanging in my studio!

Setting Up

Set up actually started at home as I was trying to decide what quilts to bring to put in the A-1 Quilting Machine booth at the Dallas Quilt show. Pixxie decided she needed to get in on the act -- I think she was hoping to fit into my suitcase.

Poor pup. She's at home moping around on the couch missin' me.

In my planning for this trip I decided I needed a new quilting apron, so placed an order with my local embroidery shop to order one for me and to add my company name and my name. I thought I ordered it in plenty of time but as it was the apron wasn't ready until the night before my departure....and I just had to put my logo on it -- which meant getting up early the next morning and figuring out how to attach the apron to the longarm so I could add my "Karen's Special" butterfly.

Even though my name is is a solid color that I dearly love I decided I needed to play with my Rainbows thread. This design is hand guided by the way. The outlines are all pretty much the same, but the detail work turns out a little differently each time. Sorta like nature, God made us all the human race but we have different details. All beautiful.

I like the result and tomorrow will put it to good use, especially the pockets! I'm a gal that likes pockets!

So today was the official set up day. I thought it would be sorta fun to 'document' how the booth transforms from a empty draped area to an area promising a lot of activity over the next few days.

Here's all the fun little stuff I brought. Doesn't look too promising does it? Humble beginnings.

Stewart, company president, arrived and I started putting together the flooring. Okay, so I messed up and put two yellows together - I should know better I'm a scrap quilter, but hey, I'm on my hands and knees doing this so I just reached for the next tile and didn't worry about color! Life goes on! Enjoy the process. Besides, it's going to be covered with a quilting machine soon. I can't tell you how much I love putting down that floor because I know over the next few days it is going to be so worth it!!

We've got a few quilts hung, one of the tables has arrived. Starting to look a little more like a booth don't ya think? Potential!

No one can accuse me of having dull quilts! Can't say they are wow quilts, especially considering the beautiful quilts in the show, but they are mine and they make me happy. I hope they are colorful enjoy to catch someone's eye and make them smile.

I'm associated with a wonderful company! Not only do we have a fantastic quilting machine, but the owner/designer is just a master at his craft. The more I learn about the engineering of my machine the more I love it. Shoot. I just love it. It didn't matter to me all the parts and pieces when I brought one home (well it did but work with me here) what mattered to me was I had a machine I could truly dance with! Yes, I did my homework. Lots of research, plenty of hands on (ask me about all the hours I spent renting a longarm before I purchased mine). Truly a joy to quilt with. It was worth the wait to make the right choice!

With all the hoopla of trying to get out of town I haven't been on my machine much (except to add my butterfly to my apron yesterday morning) and I was itching to get my hands on the machines and quilt today! Couldn't wait until we had them up and the fabric loaded!! There are two tables in the booth each with two machine heads so I got to dance a little with each of them - testing out the tension ya'know (grin). Yeah right. I just wanted to dance.

Come tomorrow morning I hope to share my dance partner with several quilt show attendees. It's such a joy to introduce folks to my favorite quilting machine - whether they want to be a quilter or just want to see how it feels, I want them to enjoy the dance. Sigh. I just love my job!

Dreaming of dancing....