Thursday, May 31, 2007



We leave for MQS (Machine Quilters Showcase) Wednesday! We're all meeting for lunch Monday to go over final details. Here is a picture from last year the first night as we were getting settled in. Barb & Sharon are checking out the catalog as we figure out where to start first.



Pictured (l to r) Sharon, Linda, Barb, Carla, Betty & Susan.

MQS is a show, classes, workshops and vendor mall geared to the longarm quilter rather than the general quilter Great place to network and learn the latest and greatest in longarm quilting.

We're having a quilting sew-in my house Friday. Good and bad in that. Bad that I have to clean house before they come, but good that my house will be clean before they come!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Custom Quilting - Meandering Paisleys

This has been a fun quilt to quilt. It's custom quilting, and I'm doing a freehand meandering paisley design. It's based on one of the ideas in Karen McTavishes book about McTavishing. Finally finished all the background (black thread on black) today, and used over 30 bobbins!! That's a LOT of thread.

This quilt was totally machine pieced, no paper piecing. It is not appliqued, so the dense quilting makes the flowers and vines pop out like applique would. I'm letting it 'rest' while I decide how to quilt the flowers. I'm thinking just highlights in the leaves and in the petals. Each block is different.

Guess I better get back to the studio, need to finish this one and get it back to the customer.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Peace Quilt - Cypress Texas & Afghanistan


Pam addressed a local quilt guild about the Peace Quilt and her project. I volunteered to help her assemble and complete the quilt.

After she delivered the children’s artwork squares and gave me the timeline I called two fellow quilters, Linda Grupa and Gail Snyder. We all serve on the West Houston Quilt Guild Board of Directors. The West Houston Quilt Guild (http://www.whqg.org/) is a non-profit organization founded in 1993 with the purpose of developing and nurturing appreciation for the art of quilting and its history. Simply put, we are a group of people who love quilts!


The process of putting the squares together was inspiring as each of us could see various messages of peace and friendship in the blocks. We saw the opportunity to add some patriotic novelty fabric depicting symbols of Texas and the US. The blocks were bordered with black fabric and at the corners of each square one of the symbols were included. The back of the quilt consisted of the signatures of the students.

The West Houston Quilt Guild receives numerous requests during the year to be active in the community. We assist in providing comfort quilts for many organizations such as nursing homes, Girls Scout Projects and providing children’s quilts for the Project Linus Organization.
Assisting with Pam’s project gave us the chance to share our love of quilting with children around the world.

Betty Baker
Web Mistress, WHQG
www.whqg.org

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Stashbusting - Charity Quilts Benefit

Our Thursday night Bee has been very busy the last couple of weeks. We participated in the guild Community service sew-in at the end of April, then had a couple of our own sew-ins at my house to finish up several Comfort quilts. At our May Guild meeting we turned in a whopping 25 completed quilts. Pictured are most of them hanging on Nita's fence before we turned them in.

Pictured at left is Michelle "adding the love" to the quilts as we fold them up and get them ready to transport.
A lot of this fabric is donated to our guild/Bee from our personal stashes, people cleaning out a loved ones stash, or maybe the need to downsize. In any case, we accept fabric donations, and any fabric we don't/can't use gets passed on to Carolyns' church who will use it in their missions work to help teach young women to sew.

Kudos to the Thursday Night Bee at West Houston Quilters Guild!

Friday, May 04, 2007

Tommy Dixon Benefit Fund

Dear Friends and Family,

My friend Sharon Dixon is offering a unique opportunity for you to win your choice of either a traditional log cabin quilt or a contemporary batik quilt. Both of these queen-sized quilts were ribbon winners in the 2007 West Houston Quilt Guild Quilt Show. If you win the drawing, you will get to choose the quilt you love the best! Shipping will be free.

The drawing will be held at the FML meeting on June 30, 2007, and the winner will be notified by phone.


Tickets: $1 each, six for $5, or A Baker's Dozen (13) for $10.

Tickets may be purchased in either of two ways:

1) Send a check payable to the Tommy Dixon Benefit Fund. Mail the check to:

Melody Montez
21 W. Woodtimber Court
The Woodlands, TX 77381

Please make sure your address and phone number are either on your check or included with your payment. If you would like your ticket stubs sent back to you, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. (You do not need your stubs to claim your quilt.)

2) Pay via PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com/ ) to this email address: dixonbenefit@yahoo.com
If you pay via PayPal, please add 50" if you want your ticket stubs mailed to you. Be sure that your name, address, and phone number are included in the PayPal payment comments. (You do not need your stubs to claim your quilt.)

Proceeds from this Opportunity Quilt sale will go directly to the Tommy Dixon Benefit Fund, to help offset some of the expenses incurred from his recent heart attack. As some of you may know, Tommy had a massive heart attack on March 27. He had to be transported by Life Flight to the Houston Medical Center for treatment and was in CCU for more than 5 days. He is home now and doing well, but the Hospital, Life Flight, Emergency Room, and Doctor bills are enormous. Due to Tommy's lifelong battle with Diabetes, he is unable to obtain insurance, so this is a devastating financial burden that Sharon and Tommy are trying to pay off in any way they can.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and I will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thanks & cheers,
Linda

Linda Teddlie Minton
http://fiberreflections.blogspot.com/