Best of Show 'Thread Nest'

OK, As promised, here is the thread nest on the back of the BEST OF SHOW quilt at MQS !!!

Sharon Schambers' "Flower of Life" won the Best of Show, but I took a fun picture of the BACK of the quilt where she left a HUGE thread nest.

OK, OK, don't get me wrong, this quilt is gorgeous and also won at the AQS show in Paducah in April. Lots of discussions going on as to how she managed to pry it out of the hands of the AQS people if she accepted the $20,000 in prize money (which AQS becomes the owner and displays the quilts in their musuem). I assumed that she already had it entered in this show, and just discussed it with them. Several people (probably sour grapes) didn't think it should have been entered since it had won at AQS. I didn't see the problem.

Oh, the other gossip from the show. Linda Taylor's quilt got disqualified because the office girl that filled out the entry form paperwork mistakenly checked 'wholecloth' and it wasn't. MQS disqualified it rather than just moving it to the correct category. Linda was a bit miffed and had it hanging in her classrooms instead. She asked that we not take pictures, so I didn't.

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!

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.