2010 International Quilt Show Dubai

Had a blast in Dubai at the quilt show!  Don't really know how much more I can say about it.  It was very educational and entertaining.  I loved Ricky Tim's workshop on Thursday and took a half notebook full of notes on new ways to quilt and fun techniques to try out when I get the time.  I was definintely on information overload and just wrote down everything to try and process later when I could think again.
We had dinner with my friends from Louisiana that evening and that was a lot of fun catching up again.
Then Friday morning we met with the Bernina Switzerland representative to discuss some much needed topics before the show opened.

And, yes,  I won a prize at the quilt show.  Was it third prize, no, second prize, no.......first prize, not exactly!  But I did win a great cordless kettle in the door prize draw at the dinner!  Andrew said he was going to tell everyone that I won a prize at the quilt show.  Technically, that is true but it was not for my quilt!  But having said that, I do have a ribbon that says "2010 International Quilt Show Participant - Dubai"  and that for me is very exciting.  Not bad for my first attempt at an exhibition I guess.   It was  a great experience going through the process and now I feel that I have learned a lot to take back and work on for the next time.  We were very lucky to get written judge's sheets from all three judges.  If you are from the quilting world they are some pretty big names.  Ricky Tims, Sharon Pederson, and Bonnie Mc Caffrey.  I had 6 - Superb, 16 - Good, and 2 - Fair, checkmarks and some very complimentary comments as well at the bottom.  The two fair marks were for my quilting which is where I knew that I was weakest so not really surprised there.

All I can say is "What a rush" when we walked through the doors and saw all the beautiful quilts hanging side-by-side.  I had to go around three times before I could even start processing what I was seeing in any detail.  The colors and beauty of the work was just overwhelming for me.  Then we had to pick our "viewer's choice" to submit for the end of the show.  Still don't know who won that one yet.  Andrew, of course, voted for my quilt even though I asked him to vote for the one he thought was truly best.  I voted for "Wedgewood".  It was truly amazing and implemented so many different techniques.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.

We were all very happy to see that Cheryl's quilt won "Best of Show".  I know that most of us expected it to be the winner because it is by far the most amazing quilt I have ever seen.  Congratulations, Cheryl, so happy for you and your new Bernina is amazing.  That's right, for the best of show in this international competition the prize is a new Bernina that has the most amazing custom paint job on it.  They only produced 3,300 of this particular machine.  The Bernina rep. told me that it took four Thai women four days to do the painting detail on the front of the machine.  I would have loved to deliver it personally to Cheryl in April but didn't want the responsibility of such a precious treasure.  Sorry, forgot to get a picture before they whisked it away!



Saturday we spent by the pool relaxing in the sun and stitching.  Yes, we are special!  Got a little sunburn on my right arm before they moved the umbrella for us but all-in-all it was a fun day.  I am almost finished with my cross-stitch, Chez Houston, and ready to have it framed.  With any luck I will enter it in the Kuwait exhibition in May.  We had a quiet dinner that night and flew back to Kuwait Sunday morning.  After unpacking I went straight to my sewing room and started working on my quilt in progress.

I think I shared the fabrics with you previously thought I would share the progress with you now.  I had to sew 25 different fabrics into stratas (fabric strips) that were at least 21" wide.  Sounds easy but it took me about four days because of the method you have to sew them which entails flipping them back to front and up and down so they don't bow or become a big banana.

Then I had to cut out 6 1/2" squares out of my "new" fabric that I had created.

Then I placed them on my design wall to see what I have to work with and can't wait to start piecing together the top.  I think it is going to come out really great and I was looking for a particular affect that I am hoping comes through in the finished product.  I can't really say too much about this quilt other than I am making it to give away to someone that means a lot to Andrew and I.  So, I am curious if you see what I see in the blocks?  Tell me what is your first impression when you look at them.  Do you get a feel for anything in particular?  (Except you Cheryl, because you already know what I am trying to achieve and who the quilt is for so please don't give it away as the receiver of the quilt reads my blog too, please!)  I have already picked out the name for this quilt but will wait to share it because I don't want it to influence you until you have shared your thoughts on it with me.

With any luck I will have the top pieced together before Wednesday morning.  We have a fat quarter quilt challenge for quilt group this week and all these blocks were made from fat quarters.  So, back to sewing I go......

Fabric shopping

I got the call that every woman waits for.....the new cottons are in the shops!  My quilting friend, Kathi, and I hit the fabric souq yesterday and the choices were absolutely overwhelming.  We didn't know where to start because we really have just a handful of shops that we frequent because the merchants are used to selling the fabric to us for 1 KWD ($3.46) a meter which is about four inches more than a yard.  Not bad, huh?  I have a friend from Texas via Kuwait that just moved to The Netherlands and she said cottons there are going for 28€ a meter.

Anyway, needless to say, I really didn't need any fabric but the colors were just too much for me and I gave into temptations.  I could have bought a lot more but I told myself that I would save those for another day.

Here are some great variegated pieces that I think will produce a bunch of coordinated shades of different colors.

And then I moved on to some browns and reds that I thought would be just good sense to add to my stash, of course!

There are a couple in here that I just can't wait to work into a project.

Then on to some purple, green and blues.

Not sure how I will work these in either but I have to say the thought of working with those purple and green stripes in a border or binding I think will be great.

I moved on to a few pieces of black and whites.  I won't show you the whites because they are just white on white.  But I think these black have a good chance of making it into a black and white quilt this summer.  I particularly like the middle piece and think that it will find a place in my 'Africa' quilt.

And then there were some great novelty prints that I just couldn't pass up either. 

I am thinking of an apron for myself out of the red and white newsprint perhaps.  Not sure about the geisha but she was just too pretty to pass up.  The tiger print will go into the Africa quilt.  The dogs are probably for a footsack for Andrew.  The horse will make a debut in my 'Texas' quilt.  The lime green is for one called 'Sweet and Sour' and the red is for one that I playing around with in my head based on intense colors such as yellow, orange an reds.

But by far, my favorite buy of the day has to be this piece I bought for Andrew. 

It reminded me of Cassie's hunkholders and I just had to have it.  Of course, when I showed it to Andrew he thought it was great but his first response was 'you're not making something that you expect me to wear are you?'   Not sure what I will make for him yet.  If you crafty girls have any ideas I would love to hear them?

And the best part of my day is that I got a little over 80 meters of fabric for around $210!  Woohoo!

Now I just need to spend the day sewing so I can finish up my project and start on something new with some of  these great fabrics!

A very long post

You're probably going to want to grab a cup of coffee before you start this one.  You may need it!  Sew, (because that is all I have been doing lately) I feel like I have not had much time lately to attend to my own post but thankfully have been able to squeeze out a few minutes to at look everyone else's great work out there!  Here is a bag I made for my friend Becky in Dubai.  She is from Louisiana and she used to live around the corner from us.  We had a lot of great afternoons just sitting on the sofa for some good girl chats and I really miss her.  I went to visit her a couple of weeks ago for just two days but it was well worth it.  I thought since Valentine's Day was around the corner I would make her a bag.  I think it came out really cute and unfortunately, you can't really tell but I had Cheryl, the teacher from Vancouver, do the quilting on it.

She even added Becky's name to the inside which I thought was a nice touch!  It was really great having a house guest for the first time and it also meant that I had some one-on-one lessons with Cheryl.  She is working on a quilt for herself that she is designing as she goes.  If it is anything like the one she just entered in the Dubai show it will be amazing.  This is what she did while she stayed with us.  I thought it came out a little arabic feeling so I told her that when she shares the story of the quilt that she would have to say this part was born in Kuwait!

I know she will probably kill me for putting her picture here too but wanted to share it anyway!

What are friends for anyway, eh, Cheryl?!  And the process she used to put the part with the stripes in is somewhat like reverse applique.  I thought Alisha might find that interesting since she is enjoying that process right now.  She did the design work with freezer paper.

  She also showed me how to do this for some quilting on my french braid quilt.  I wanted a fluer de lis for the centers so we drew one and I applied it to the block and quilted it with gold metallic thread.  I actually really like the affect but wish it had stood out more considering the time that was put into the technique.

Sew here is the begining of the quilting process.  I have to say I love my new Bernina 830 and all the neck room that it affords me makes a world of difference.  I tried to use my BSR foot but just couldn't get the result that I was looking for so ended up removing it and using a quilting foot and the foot pedal which was a bit of a challenge since I was standing the entire time.  My hip was killing me by the time I finished it but no worries, Andrew, my engineering husband, has already come up with an idea on how redesign my bernina to alleviate this in the future.  We are just waiting on some motorcycle handlebar parts to arrive from the states.  I will post pics when he has it finished.

Since this quilt was intended for an exhibition I decided that going through the thread changes was the only way to go!  There were a lot of thread changes!  But it I think it was worth it because they matched the fabrics very well and hopefully will hide a multitude of mistakes.  Then came the binding work.  I miss G'ma and Jawana, my professional binders!  Thank goodness this was just a wallhanging and not a bed quilt.  I finished the binding in a day but by the end of the day my finger was so numb that I couldn't feel it when I went to take out my contacts that night!And when it was all said and done here she is.

 I am really happy with the result and the quilt was delivered to Dubai last weekend to await the International Quilt Show February 18-21.  Not really expecting to win anything there but thought I should start somewhere with exhibiting my quilts and Ricky Tims from the US will be one of the judges.  He's a master quilter from Wichita Falls and I was hoping to get a critique from him and perhaps a picture with me and my quilt.

For those of you that don't know yet there is a very good chance that we will find ourselves in Texas in April.  I am so excited needless to say especially with a new grandbaby in the family.  Still can't believe I have two grandkids now!

But just as I was finishing this quilt Andrew told me that he would like for me to try and complete three more quilts before I leave at the end of March.  Now that sounds a little overwhelming but when you add that for the next three weekends we are traveling away and probably looking at a few days in the UK in early March it gets a bit manic!  I do think that two of them will proabably end up as a take on the french braid because I really like it and now that I have done one it should in theory be easier to duplicate.   The other is a new pattern that I am trying and here are the colors that I am working with.  I can't really share too much because it is a surprise for someone that I know reads my blogs.  I've already said too much.....enjoy.  But I do like the 25 different colors that are used here.

I thought I carefully put them in an order that would work and then when I read the pattern again it said 'If you are one of those people that needs to be organized and follow a pattern then now is a good time to let go!'  Apparently, you just willy nilly join these up in any order.  Oh, it is hard to let go!  Really, it's a lot harder then you would think having no clear path on order and just picking up a strip and sewing it with another.  I will try to keep you posted on how it is going.  I think the end product will be very nice.

But alas, today I am off to the fabric souq with a couple of friends as they have put the cottons out early this year since we really haven't had a winter.  I can't wait to see what they have brought in for us.  If you skip back up to the picture of Cheryl holding the quilt piece you can see a couple of my fabric cupboards behind her.  I have another on the opposite wall that is full too but Andrew keeps telling me to buy more fabric and don't come home with anything less that two meters of each.  Got to love that man!  But now I am looking for more cupboards to store it all in as well.  But when you consider the price of fabric in other places in the world it does seem silly not to buy it when it is so cheap here.