A Visit With Linda Schmidt

At our last quilting guild meeting, quilt artist Linda Schmidt came for a visit and it was simply fabulous! She brought dozens of quilts to talk about and gave us some insight into how she creates her works.

One of my favorite thing about Linda’s quilts was that she said she likes to make the backs as interesting as the fronts. All of her designs were original creations and she’s won many major awards for her quilts.

After viewing quilts of this caliber at Road to California last month, I felt right at home with Linda showing us her amazing work. Everyone around me kept saying, “I could never do that!” I had quite a different reaction. Mine was, “I can’t wait to follow in her footsteps!”

Lord of the Rings Quilt

This was my favorite quilt that she displayed. She told us how she made it for her teenage son. She created the middle part of the quilt, showed it to him and his response was, “Where’s the rest of the story?” So she created the individual scenes as side borders. It was truly a work of art.

What My Heart Desires for Valentine’s Day…

What I desire for Valentine’s Day is more time to quilt! I recently helped my quilting guild, the Desert Quilters of Nevada with a quilt challenge. The rules were simple: take a piece of Challenge Fabric and create a quilt with the theme “What Your Heart Desires”. I provided the fabric (red Hoffman Cardinal batik) and helped organize the hanging, count the ballots, and present the winners.  Each of the members of the guild got to vote for their favorite quilts and winners were selected based who received the most votes in their category: pieced, applique, mixed, group, mini, etc.

This is the quilt I put together for my quilt circle, Rainbows. Each member submitted a heart block and I added novelty fabrics surrounding each representing what they desired. Themes were things like more time, money, happiness, sleep, travel, chocolate!, peace, tranquility, wisdom, good health, fabric & thread, etc. Although we didn’t win, we sure had fun trying!

Below are just a few of the quilts other guild members made. I am amazed all the talent we have in our group. They never cease to inspire me! Click each picture for a larger image.

Such beauty and workmanship!

Here’s a group shot of our quilting guild. We have big events each calendar quarter.

Ballot Counting

Finalizing the Winners

It sure was fun to be behind the scenes and  see all the work that goes into running a successful quilting event.  With the help of several members, we got the ballots counted in record time. Each winner received a gift certificate valid at the quilt shop of her choice (including mine!)

On my next blog post, I’ll write about the special guest speaker we had and show some of her beautiful quilts!

California Dreamin’ Pillows

Megan from Australia emailed me this picture of two fantastic pillows she made using Jenean Morrison’s California Dreamin’ fabric from Free spirit. Aren’t they gorgeous? It only took about 1/2 yard of each fabric to make them.

She just converted a bedroom back into her sewing studio,  so she wanted something nice and bright to replace the cushions on the worn out sofa in there. Nice job, Megan, and thanks for the inspiration!

Teach a Child to Sew…

And she’ll become quilter for life! I helped my daughter make her first quilt last summer on my Bernina. For Christmas, she got her very own sewing machine – a little Janome.  Today we finally set  it up and started teaching her to sew on her own.

I want to teach her the basics first, so we practiced loading the thread, winding the bobbin, and threading the needle. She got the hang of it quickly, and it’s just the right size for her.

I wanted her to practice straight lines so she sewed on pieces of lined paper for awhile. She had a lot of fun with that and picked it up very quickly. For our next lesson, we’ll practice on fabric and I’ll let her rummage through my scrap pile. We had a great Saturday afternoon!

Flower Fairies Bag and Pillow

Take a look at these nifty projects fellow sewing enthusiast Gwen just made:

She ordered the green Flower Fairies and Fairy Frost fat quarter combo from me plus a little extra of the green Fairy Frost. Isn’t this bag simply adorable? She used Penny Sturges’ Big Bag pattern and adjusted it to fit the size she wanted.

She made the tote bag and matching pillow as a gift for her daughter in law who’s favorite color happens to be peridot green.

Gwen loves to make bags and totes as  gifts for Christmas, birthdays and weddings. They are fun and quick to make and really let you show off some pretty fabrics. Way to go, Gwen!

More Beautiful Road to California Quilts

This about wraps up my journey on the Road to California. If I had enough time and no other obligations, I could have photographed all the beautiful quilts I have seen! Hmmm, now what am I going to do THIS weekend??

This quilt is an absolute Super Star as it’s name implies. Made by Marilyn Badger of St. George, Utah it contains lots of sparkling crystals that are hard to see in the photo.

ICU – Do UC ME? by Birgit Schueller of Germany. Imagine my surprise when I saw a photo of this quilt in a magazine just a few days ago, then went to California and walked by the real thing hanging up in the show! These quilts are all award-winning magazine-worthy quilts. I am in total awe of these quiltmaker’s talents. They truly inspire me. Notice the sparkle!

This quilt was amazing on both the front and the back. Click to see closeups of all that gorgeous colorful quilting!

The Magical Mermaids Castle was made by Claudia Pfeil of Germany.

This fun bright quilt is called “American Woman”, made by Jo Ann Blade & Kim Diamond of Sedro Woolley, Washington. I think it’s simply fantastic. During the quilt show, there was a vendor selling bright “quilty” shoes similar to those depicted in this quilt!

There was gorgeous quilting and embellishments galore in this quilt. I simply couldn’t get enough! This one is titled “Jewel Box”, by Cheri Meineke-Johnson, quilted by Linda V. Talyor of Corinth, Texas. It contains over 20,00 Swarovski crystals. Amazing!

Last, but not least, this was probably one of my favorite quilts of the show, “Ms. MacDonald Had a Farm.” I love how the quiltmakers used different printed fabrics to get the dimensions and details they wanted. There are lots of bright and colorful Kaffe Fassett fabrics in the piece, and it’s “sew” fun to see them being used this way! This quilt was made by 12 ladies of the Hanging by a Thread Quilt group from Chehalis, Washington. It was quilted by Bonnie Keller and Audrey Prother.

What a week in quilts! I only hope that some day, I could achieve this level of workmanship. All pictures were taken by me at the Road to California show. They are for personal use only, and of course, can be the source of much inspiration!

Oh, The Quilts I Have Seen!

Last but not least in my Road to California excursion, I want to share with you just a few pictures of the many beautiful quilts I was able to experience. Of course, there is no substitute for seeing them in person. The details, exquisite quilting and gorgeous embellishment can only be hinted at here. I encourage you to attend as many quilt shows as you can and look for inspiration wherever you can find it! All pictures were taken by me and posted with permission of Road to California for personal enjoyment only.

This is called The Gossip Garden by Debbie Martinez of Hobart, Indiana. I absolutely love the mouth pieces. It reminds me of a fabric I have in my stash! Debbi states, “There are many ways gossip circulates and there are many symbolizations of gossip in this quilt.”

This quilt, Bright Baja Bugs, was part of a youth exhibit of quilts all made by students aged 8-17. I’m really partial to fun, bright quilts. How fantastic to get a jump start on creativity so early! This one was made by Jordan Phillips from California, age 14. My husband drove a Baja in high school, but never one that looked like this!

Although you cannot see all the wonderful quilting in the picture, this quilt really spoke to me. It was heavily quilted and hung perfectly straight. It took over 120 hours just for the quilting! This is absolutely what an award-winning quilt should be. It’s entitled, “Dresden’s Dilemma” by Deborah Poole and Sharon Del Pino of Shelley, Idaho.

I thought it was very interesting to see the same quilt design interpreted in two different color schemes. These were both fantastic and all of the individual designs were done with machine embroidery using Sarah Vedeler’s digitized designs. The bright one, “Bedazzlder” was made by Linda Sipes of Colby, Kansas and the muted one, “Go! Be Dazzled” by Sandy Lawrence of Phonix, Arizona.

This quilt took my breath away! It’s called “Venetian Menagerie”. Yes, it’s all one quilt depicting a menagerie of exotic masks and oddities seen on an evening stroll in Venice by quilt artist Melissa Sobotka of Richardson, Texas. She made it from batiks with fusible applique. My kind of quilt!

I should be able to post the rest of my Road to California quilt pictures in my next blog entry, so stay tuned!