Some of my favorite quilts

I always like to take pictures of some of my favorite quilts at the shows. Here are just a few.
Sheri Coopers "Wish you were Here". She does such fun stuff.

Speaking of fun stuff, of course Laura's quilts are always a favorite of mine. "Yellow Chair Loves Apples"

Gloria Hansen's "Blushing Triangles 3" You can view all the winners at the AQS site.

And Cheryl See won with this gorgeous quilt "Fall into Spring" it was also a winner in Houston. I love this quilt the colors and of course the leaves.
I'll post a few more tomorrow

Headed home

It's our last night in Paducah and we are headed home in the morning.
We had a great dinner last night with my new BFF Stephanie at Max's with all the prom dates.
If you have never been to the Paducah show it is always Prom weekend here. So on Friday nights we, the quilters, get to relive or live for the first time prom, as all the kids are out eating before the big dance.
Tonight we had dinner with Caryl Fallert and the whole crew from the night before at a new place called Flamingo Road. You know, it is always about the food, where we are going to have dinner, what is the next meal and is the food any good. It was a fun place with good food and good friends at the end of a good week.
It was fun to see everyone from around the country, thanks to all of you who stopped in and said HI, it really makes the show special.

But I am really ready to go home, I can hardly wait to see George, Laura is fun, but I miss my dog. There is no place like home.

The Mary Jane

We are staying at a charming Bed and Breakfast called the "Mary Jane" named after the second owners wife. It is just two blocks from the convention center in lower town Paducah. It was remodeled on the inside and is very comfortable.We have our own little kitchen as well as two large rooms for sleeping and nice new bathroom with a great hot water shower, very important when you are traveling. It is a very pleasant place to come to after a hard days work. And as you can see the outside is charming and cute. Too bad we don't have any time to spend here relaxing on the porch. But the dogwoods and tulips are in bloom and it feels like spring, all fresh and new. Someone was mowing the lawn the other day and the smell of new mown grass was very invigorating.

Day 3 in Paducah

Last night we had a wonderful evening. After attending an opening at the Pinecone Art Gallery on 7tth street of Denise Havlan's art quilts (far left) Caryl Fallert had her annual gathering of friends for dinner and conversation. Caryl was excited to host this gala event in her new home and spacious new kitchen, which was a delight for all gathered. Judy Zoelzer Levin and her sister Nancy were some of the quilters in attendance as was Jan Wass, Claudia Meyers, Marilyn Badger, Annette Hendricks and her mother Kathy, Linda Lasko from AQS, and two editors, Yamakami Sanae and Ryoko Kabayashi, from Quilt NIHON Japan as well as Mary and our fabulous chef Susan the Shibori girl, Caryl's new neighbor and artist.

Judy and Susan chatting it up before dinner.

And yes Laura and I were there too. Laura was our entertainment for the evening, gracing us with her original compositions of the "Wasilowski song" and the"Geisha Song". Laura has a truly beautiful voice.
Needless to say fun was had by all.
Now back to work.

Paducah day two

For the last several years we have been renting bed and breakfast in Paducah. It has given us the feeling of coming home at the end of the day. This is a shot of the front of the "Mary Jane" where we are staying this year. There is a cute front porch, where if we had the time, which we don't, we could sit out there and have our coffee, or later in the day, lounge back on the wicker porch furniture with a Mint Julep and wave at the neighbors. However our time here is never so relaxed. We finished setting up the booth around noon and then went out and had lunch. After lunch we stopped by Caryl Fallerts, and saw many old friends and were invited to dinner tonight. Yea, we get to eat in Caryl's new home and have a gourmet meal served by a local shibori artist. Doesn't get much better than that.

Laura has re-discovered her roots. As a young girl she lived on a farm in rural CO. The urge to run over and milk this gigantic cow was too much for a country gal. She got her farming fix satisfied for the time being. You never know who you will run into in Paducah!!

Come see us in Paducah

We are finally in Paducah. It was a regular road trip with Laura giving bad directions. We ended up starting out by way of DeKalb, NOT on the direct route to Paducah. But she saved my keaster several times by directing me to the right, right, RIGHT HERE, keeping us on the correct highway south. Of course no trip to Paducah is complete without a stop at the Illionis Artisian shop in Rend Lake, where we ran into many old friends. Need less to say we made it safe and sound. It is hot and sweaty here, but the dogwoods are in bloom and the tulips are up and everything is green green green. My favorite color. We even had time to set up half the booth before they kicked us out for the night. We found a new restaurant to eat at, that had home made Tamales, yummy. But the not to smart ice cream shop closed it's doors before we could get our scoop after dinner. Just as well my pants are getting alittle tight. Anyway stop by the booth and say hi.

Paducah

Laura and I are off to Paducah! If you are coming down for the show be sure and stop by the booth.
ARTFABRIK booth #3111. See you there!

I blog students work

I always tell my students that I will blog their work if they send me a photo. So once again I am blogging students work. Nice job Chris.

Hi Frieda -I am sending you a picture of my my tulip wallhanging that I made at your class in Rising Sun, Indiana on April 5th. I enjoyed your class very much, and will use your techniques often. I plan to make a daffodil quilt with grape hyacinths in the same size as the tulips. They will make a striking pair.Thanks, Chris

Artgirls and bloggers

This is Allison and Tracy, sisters who run the ARTGIRLZ booth. What a great team, they are so fun and full of life it was fabulous to get to meet them. We want to combine booths won't that be a hoot.

Lots of bloggers showed up in the booth and I am happy to say that as woman we are powerful and engaged. In the quilting world as well as the world at large. Recently I was informed that women over a certain age are dismissed as a demographic. We have no power. I take issue with that. And these gals are living proof that we are important as a demographic. On the web and otherwise. GIRL POWER. Right on.

And Cheryl who stopped by the booth. We took a class together with Judy Perez doing Tsukaneko Inks. It is always fun to see friends at the show.

More Chicago Show

Here is a wenner!!

And another wenner!!

While at the show Pokey filmed for Quilting Arts TV several episodes. I did mine on Machine Quilting. It was quick and fun and of course we love Quilting Arts.

The Chicago gals. Deb, Laura and Judy Perez in front of Laura's PaintBrush quilt. We were all very busy doing demo's and filming, it felt like a big family outing. Of course we were missing Melody.

Student work

Students work from Laughing Leaves workshop. She used old and new buttons and beads. It looks great. I particularly like the twig rod.

Hi Frieda –

Just ran into you at the Quilt Show in Rosemont & mentioned I had taken a workshop from you at the November Mancuso quilt show in Schaumburg and just finished my little leaf quilt. So, as requested here are a couple of pictures.

Good to see you and look forward to taking another class with you someday.

Alexis

IQA Chicago Show

Setting UP the booth.

All set up and ready for business. The Chicago show has once again been great fun. Laura and I are seeing lots of old friends and of course making new ones. The bad weather and airline troubles have not seemed to keep the people away and everyone is happy to be out and shopping. It's a good thing.
We are busy selling fabulous quilting color. My new motto is "Color has no calories, so you can have all you want!!"

Spring Greetings

Visit Spring Greetings, a winner at IQF in Chicago April 11-13 in Rosemont, IL

and then visit Laura and Frieda at the Art Fabrik booth #1315 for all our and-dyed fabrics - cotton and silk, threads, shirts, and art quilts first hand.

Or if you are up for a wonderful spring road trip visit us at booth #3111 at the American Quilter's Society Exhibit April 23 – 26 in Paducah , KY.

Or if you can't make either of the shows come visit the store at FrieStyle! and indulge yourself, you deserve it especially if you couldn't come to either of the shows.

Happy Spring!

Quilting Arts

I am in Quilting Arts magazine again this month. The second part to my "Free Motion Machine Quilting" article is in this issue. I hope you all get a chance to read it. It also features a quilt seldom seen.
"Georgie Porgy Puddin Pie, Pie for my Birthday" one of my favorite quilts.

That's Judy Perez's quilt on the cover and I believe a view of Laura Wasilowski's new studio is in the issue too. Well worth the read.
Enjoy.

Rising Sun IN

I have just had the most interesting trip of my teaching career. I drove down to a quaint little town on the Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky border called Rising Sun, IN. It sits right on the Ohio River and across the way is Rabbit Hatch, Ky. This little river town is making great efforts at becoming an artist community. They started this year a small quilt fest and invited myself and Terry White as teacher, lecturers. That is Terry with one of her thread painted quilts, her specialty. While hanging out and talking Terry and I realized we grew up in the same town, we went to the same high school, and even lived on the same street, at different ends. That we would both end up traveling and teaching quilting, seems like there must have been something in the water of our childhood community to affect us this way. Terry is a delightful person and very talented teacher. She has a unique way of thread painting and a fun personality. Needless to say we hit it off. We both also happen to have the same astrological sign!
The other strange coincidence to this trip is that in this small river town is a Grand Victoria Casino, Elgin where I live has the only other Grand Victoria Casino in the world. Too weird for me.

These two little "quilts" where made of used postage stamps. I have never seen this done before and thought it was such a clever idea. As a whole I think quilters are so resourceful. There were actually five compositions all framed together. But my other images were blurred.