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This week’s post is filled with more travel fun! Last week I was teaching in Pella, IA and Madison, WI and this week I’m writing to you from Manhattan! Thanks to my dear friend, Maggi, who moved from Wisconsin to New York, I was invited to share my Mariner’s Compass techniques with the Empire Quilters!

I flew in on Friday morning and took a taxi to my hotel in Chelsea only to discover that my room wasn’t quite ready. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, so I headed to the High Line. My friend, Chiyoko, had recommended it and it was only a few blocks away. It’s an old elevated rail line that has been converted into a garden walkway with trees and plants (growing amongst the rails),

interesting art,

and fascinating views (like this one of the Statue of Liberty).

From there I walked to the City Quilter – a wonderful quilt shop a block from the hotel! And I just had to buy a few yards of New York fabric :-):

After lunch at a typical New York deli, I found my way to FIT – the Fashion Institute of Technology. In their beautiful gallery space they had an exhibit called Retro Spective. It included fashions from many different decades and “explored fashion’s relationships with it’s own history”. Being that I’m also I garment sewer, I found it fascinating.

By then my room was ready – on the 24th floor – and this was the veiw:

What a blessing, and I’d only been here a few hours! Once I got situated I hopped on a subway and headed “uptown” to visit with Maggi. We had a great time of tea and conversation.

The next morning I rolled my bag of quilts about 4 blocks to a lovely old church where the guild meeting was being held. The quilters began arriving as I prepared my quilts.

What a lovely group! I shared my Mariner’s Compass quilts along with their stories and even did my “I can draft a compass in under 5 minutes” demonstration.

Today was a Mariner’s Compass workshop. Another fun day with wonderful quilters. The group shot from class was too fuzzy to post :-(, but I do have a picture of my new friend Mary. We have gotten to know each other over 3 delicious dinners and she has graciously shown me around the city. Thanks Mary!

I gave myself an extra day here and have some wonderful plans for tomorrow, but that will have to wait for next week’s post. I do however have one more thing I’d like to share. If you’re interested in taking my “Mariner’s Compass” class, or the free motion quilting class I call “Beyond Meandering”, I will be offering both next month at the AQS quilt show in Des Moines, IA (another great travel adventure to look forward to :-)).

It promises to be a delightful show and you can get all the information, as well as register on their site at: http://aqsshows.com/AQSDesMoines/.

I’d like to close with one last New York picture – the view out my window right now! The Empire State Building is lit up so beautifully at night!

Praise the Lord!

This week I have a very uplifting story to share!

My dear friend Linda works with young girls in 4H and a few weeks ago she called to tell me about Josie. Josie is 14 and very talented. She has entered the Waukesha County Fair in many different categories, but is especially good at quilting. This year she decided to make an art quilt of her own design and was planning to enter it, but when she was in the quilting stage someone had hinted that it wasn’t good enough. Her mother and Linda were looking for a way to encourage her so Linda brought Josie and her quilt to my house. I wasn’t sure what to expect and had put on my best “face of encouragement” when she brought out her truly amazing quilt. It was a pictorial quilt of  a horses head and when I asked her if she knew this horse she said only in her mind. Josie had used black and white prints in raw edge appliqué on a blue background with yarn embellishment for the mane. She had done a bit of quilting and was adding the borders “quilt as you go” with piping. The quilt was wonderful! There was a bit of what I’d call “poofiness”, but I was sure that would be remedied with more quilting, so we talked about how to quilt it and finish the borders. I then shared a lesson I’ve learned over the years: We shouldn’t make a quilt to win awards or please a judge. We should make quilts to please ourselves. She left with a smile on her face and I felt grateful to have met her.

Linda called me a while later to let me know that Josie finished her quilt and not only entered it in the County Fair, but won the grand champion award and it would go on to the State Fair. I was so happy for her and glad that she persevered! This past week my dear friend Sharon Grinyer and I went to the Fair together and we were delighted to see a merit award hanging on Josie’s horse quilt!

I can’t wait to see what she does next!

After enjoying the 4H exhibit we decided to “eat our way through the Fair” (a term we borrowed from a winning photo album in one of the exhibits)

And began with the Lion’s Corn roast.

YUM!

I am a member of Patched Lives Quilt Guild and we sponsor 2 awards (non-4H) at the State Fair. So once we were sufficiently full we headed over to see the quilts. Our “small quilt – appliqué” ribbon was awarded to Nancy Gruenewald for her lovely hand quilted piece.

Our “small quilt – pieced” award went to Chris Motl for her delightful circular red and white quilt.

Congratulations to all the winners. The entire exhibit was a feast for the eyes.

From there we went to Oconomowoc to spend some time enjoying the Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show. The Milwaukee Art Quilters had an exhibit of our recent challenge quilts: “Objet D’Arc” hanging there. Each member was given a vintage arc that never grew up to be a Double Wedding Ring quilt and we all did something innovative with it. Sharon was enjoying the creativity.

The quilts and vendors were all very nice and we were glad we had made time for a visit to the show.

The next day I packed up to teach at the Sewing and Quilting Expo held this past weekend in Platteville, WI.

I even talked the ladies in one of my sessions into smiling and waving for you!

I was invited to present 4 different lectures on Saturday, so packing was an adventure. The students were great and I’m sure a wonderful time was had by all.

If you get to the Wisconsin State Fair be sure to look for Josie’s quilt :-)!

Did you get to any fun, quilt related events this past week?

Another year’s pilgrimage to Paducah is but a memory. In spite of a lot of rain and the coldest temps I can remember during quilt week, it was a wonderful trip with many highlights. The dogwoods were at their blooming peak! The quilts were stunning and inspiring! My classes were filled with delightful, enthusiastic and talented students! The vendors were way too tempting. Fun times were spent with good friends! And there were many giggles along the way. I wasn’t as good as I should have been about snapping pics, but here are some special times I did capture:

Wendy’s birthday lunch at Grace Church with a special rendition of Happy Birthday by Quiltman and Bobbin!

Yummy, good times!

Quilting on the back of the Best of Show quilt by Renae Haddadin and Karen Kay Buckley.

Hanging around with dear friends Hazel and Evelyn after a “Bubble Tea” at Etcetera.

Hanging the Milwaukee Art Quilter’s group entry: The Jenning’s Quilt and

Accepting the third place award from Bonnie Browning with fellow Marq member Judy Zoelzer-Levine.

Watching a very enthusiastic employee at Kirchoff Bakery doing the “basket dance” while waiting for our delicious sandwiches.

Dinner with friends at JP’s.

Making good use of car time on the ride home with the Quiltsissies observing (more on them in a future post :-))

A big hi y’all from sunny Kentucky!

Wendy and I began our adventure this morning

and for the first time we traveled to Paducah via Chicago so we could make a stop at Troy Fabric’s Fabriganza. Troy is a fabric manufacturer and distributor and this weekend they were hosting a big warehouse sale. There were shelves and tables full of beautiful bolts of fabric.

Wendy shopped for the kits for her “Block of the Month” at Frank’s Sewing Center in Waukesha.

Then a nice man helped us load the bolts into an already full van.

As evening neared we knew we were getting close when we crossed over the river from Illinois to Kentucky via the “Flying Geese” bridges. Here we’re approaching them.

And here the geese are flying overhead.

Upon arrival we hoofed all our things up 25 stairs to our B&B above a Mexican Restaurant. We were then able to set up our studio in an area some people refer to as a kitchen 🙂

Tomorrow we’ll help hang the quilts in the 2013 American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show and Contest.

We are very excited to be here and we are also very excited to share that we have some updated information about our May 2014 Baltic Cruise.

We’ve finalized the cruise details: dates, inclusions (daily shore excursions and a pre-trip extra night in Copenhagen!) and prices. You can find all the information at www.chrisquilts.net/trips. We still don’t have pricing for the airfare, but we do want to be sure we get enough cabins reserved. This is your chance to visit the site and reserve your spot now!

Stay tuned! Next week we’ll have pictures from Quilt Week!

To me, the best part of Spring is that it’s quilt show season. Last week was non-stop overcast and rain – perfect weather for being inside at a show. And last weekend was also filled with opportunities in our area.

The Crazy Quilter’s show in Mukwonago, WI is always a treat. The variety and quality of quilts was inspiring and the vendors were chock full of temptations! I had the pleasure of being one of the judges this year and it was a real blessing to be a part of such a well run show. My only regret was that I forgot to take my camera :-(.

This same weekend was also the date for the Sun Prairie Quilt Show. This is a unique show in that it has been run by the same person, Klaudeen Hanson, in the same location for 39 years! Amazing! I’m sure that’s a record! I have been a part of her group, the Prairie Heritage Quilters since I began quilting in 1987. This year we added a special exhibit of quilts by the 3 teachers in the group: Klaudeen, Joanie Zeier Poole and myself. We also each did some free demonstrations for the attendees on Sunday and were blown away by the response – standing room only. What a joy!

I did bring my camera and would like to share a few pictures of the show. This one is of the teacher exhibit. A few of my quilts are on the right, Klaudeen’s bright piecing graces the center and Joanie’s amazing heirloom quilting is to the left.

My dear friend and traveling companion, Wendy Rieves, won a Founder’s award for her latest block of the month quilt which she teaches at Frank’s Sewing Center in Waukesha, WI.

This room contained some of the smaller quilts and quilted items. My dear friend, Ida Porzky, made the flower table runner.

I was very proud of a student in my Open Lab. Louise Sundquist is fairly new to quilting and recently jumped into creating her own art quilts. I had to twist her arm a bit to get her to enter her sunflowers quilt (lower right), but doesn’t it look delightful?

There were great vendors at this show too. What a lot of inspiration for one weekend!

Then there’s just one more “show” I have to mention. It’s actually a Milwaukee Art Quilter’s exhibit taking place at UWW called “Inspired by Nancy”. Nancy Kimpel was a dear friend, talented fiber dyer/artist and marq member who passed away a few years ago. Each member of Marq was given a bag of her fabric and asked to make a small wall quilt for this exhibit. It is a wonderful collection of quilts. Here are just a few photos (but they really don’t do the exhibit justice):

If you would like to see them in the cloth, here’s the information:

MArQ “INSPIRED BY NANCY” QUILTS • FINE ARTS GALLERY • 1500 N. University Drive, Waukesha • Gallery open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.; Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.; Friday: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m., 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Through April 29.

This coming weekend Wendy and I will be packing up the car and heading for Paducah! I can barely wait. So next week I’ll be blogging from Quilt City USA!  I’ve already started packing for my classes – I just love Spring!

Does your guild have a Spring show? Are you a part of it? Do you have a photo you’d like to share? Please email them to me at .

PS Registration has begun for Summer classes at WCTC. All of the information can be found at wctc.edu. To find Wendy’s and my classes click on “Course Search” in the bar at the top; type “quilting” in the “Title/Subject” box and click on “submit”; Then click on each class for the details. Here’s a sneak preview:

Beginning Free Motion Quilting 6-14-13 (sorry, no picture)

Quilt In 6-28-13 (sorry, no picture here either) – this class is a one day Open Lab where the students work on whatever project they choose and I’m there to help in whatever way I can and I’ll provide a surprise or two also :-).

Our “Sew We Go” trip to Italy ended up being even more of an adventure than some of us had anticipated! Wendy and I departed with 21 quilters (and friends) for Rome on October 19th. We began our journey with wonderful weather and a delightful guide named Rudi. We toured and ate our way through central Italy and had a wonderful time. All too soon Wendy and 14 of the group had to head back home. I stayed on with 6 of our travelers for what was meant to be an extra 2 days in Rome, but hurricane Sandy had other ideas. Instead of flying home Monday, our flight was cancelled and we weren’t able to return until Friday night. We were forced to endure an additional 4 days in Italy :-).

I had intended to share insights and inspiration from the trip in this week’s blog, but I’m only half unpacked and haven’t yet begun to go through my pictures. This is probably just as well because there is another topic I’m anxious to share this week.

In a previous post I mentioned that I had been invited to be the Featured Quilter at the Slinger Quilt Show put on by the Ties That Bind quilt guild this past Saturday. Well, when I realized I wouldn’t be home until late Friday I had a problem – all 25 of the quilts I had promised to display at the show were in various and sundry locations throughout my home. So I sent my husband an email from our hotel in Rome asking if he would be willing to collect them up and deliver them on Friday. He had already been babysitting our granddaughter full time while I was away and yet he kindly agreed. All I had to do was show up on Saturday.

The guild did a wonderful job of hanging my quilts and my dear friend, Rita Rehlinger, was kind of enough to send me these pictures.

It was very exciting to have so much of my work exhibited in one place and a joy to be able to share some of my quilt’s stories. Praise the Lord!

There were many great vendors and so many wonderful quilts in the show. What an honor to be a part of it all!

I was able to talk with so many people and I enjoyed meeting each one. Thanks to everyone at Ties That Bind!