Mountain Heirloom Quilt Faire

The Independence Hall Quilters held their 35th Annual Mountain Heirloom Quilt Faire at Ironstone Vineyards  (above is the scholarship raffle quilt).  With many booths outdoors, our exquisite fall weather made this the perfect weekend outing.

Before I get into sharing, I’ll remind you of Robin William’s imitation of William F. Buckley Jr. while he was the genie in Aladdin – there are a few restrictions and quid pro quo’s:

Etiquette at any craft or quilt show is always to ask each vendor if it’s ok to take pictures – you’ll see some folks get visibly nervous if you’re waving a camera around their creations.

Do get inspiration from others’ work. But remember, most of these folks are small family owned shops investing their heart and soul in their designs, please don’t violate the copyright for their patterns or kits by making an exact copy.

I tend to not take shots of traditional quilts, but limit myself to those with some feature I personally want to recall.

My friend and I started with the vendor booths as she wanted to introduce me to Elizabeth Schlarb of 27 Blossoms (latebloomerquilts.com). 

In addition to making and selling beautiful items (close ups let you see how cleanly these are made), Elizabeth also has her own fabric line. 

Everything at this show was crafted superbly. I’ve actually seen wobbly lines (meant to be straight) and loopy back tension on things for sale when I’m browsing the web. I always think whoever gets those items would be so disappointed and might never buy online again. Having many craft artist friends, this is more than disappointing. 

Maise Blue, a local yarn, book and gift store was out supporting this event with their fantastic selection.

You can also order from them online.

Bearly Quilting of Sonora was out in force. I didn’t capture kit/pattern names but you can always email them (or any vendor noted) with a link to a pic if you want to track something down.

Inuit art isn’t as common in the stitching world and this one looks to be part of a beautiful collection.

One of the most famous structures in Sonora, Ca is the Red church historic landmark built in 1859. This kit from Anita Goodesign (Country Church Tile Scene), crafted with a red church instead of the white, is an almost perfect rendition of the local landmark.

The ‘Christmas Pine Pillow’ kit fromThe Quilt House comes with those delightful little buttons – love the little cookie cutters.

Bet most of the folks reading this don’t know that in all the stitching blogs folks are now calling themselves “sewists”. I can see where creative folks are not “seamstresses”, but if I were coming up with a name I’d stick with craft artisan, which has been in use for awhile. Anyhoo, raggedy flowers are the current rage with all the sewists. I have a few machine embroidery quick stitch ones I hope to knock out in time for Christmas presents – as pins or barrettes they’re great for stocking stuffers. I do like how The Quilt House had these on quilts in a few different color schemes.

My very favorite shop, the Country Cloth Shop, was well represented, as always.  Ginger and Peggy quilt, sew kits and have a fantastic eye for pattern and color. They’re always happy to help folks match fabrics and have a great selection of classes. I’m so lucky to have this store nearby.

The Independence Hall Quilters is a phenomenal group (they meet during the day and I work, (rats).  The proceeds from the annual Quilt Faire go to The Resource Connection, including the Women’s Crisis Center and Child Protective Services, area youth with catastrophic illness or accidents, Shriners Hospital, area schools, parks, libraries and other community organizations, plus scholarships to Bret Harte High School. 

 

Guild members craft and donate so many items for the faire’s boutique and the “Scholarship Quilt” raffle. 

They also bake and sell beautifully presented items. I didn’t get a “long shot” to show you how many quilts and handcrafted items they had for sale. I can only say that they are one generous group.

Every year more than 160 Comfort quilts are created and donated to Calaveras County’s Child Protective Services, Shiners’ Hospitals for children undergoing treatment, surgery or therapy;  Ebbetts Pass Fire District for “Post Trauma Kits” and any local child involved in an accident or with a serious illness.

Local professional long arm quilters donate their time to finish each quilt. Anyone needing a quilt finished should contact these women -their work is simply beautiful. The five generous and talented ladies are listed here (along with more pictures).

A Bit of Easter Sparkle

April, it’s that time. Let’s talk about Easter bling. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll see me repeating the same suppliers for napkins, designs and fabric as well as the notation that I like to ship fun little gifts off to folks. I made this Easter runner a few years back with fabric from JoAnn for myself and my sister. They no longer carry the really nicely done glittered fabrics. For these, I’ve had to turn to elsewhere, but this fabric was a find and the glitter is oh so perfect. I simply cut my long rectangle, cut a piece of light interfacing (sew-in) and a back. Sew around the edges, turn out and top stitch in a bit from the edge. La Voila! Instant table runner.

The hemstitched napkins, as usual, are from Napkins Online at eBay. I must allow myself to digress here and alert you to the fact that Napkins Online currently has 6 foot linen table runners in various colors for $4.00. Depending on the amount you pick up, you may be able to get free shipping. Being the noodge I am, I ordered mine before posting this to avoid the rush J . I believe the egg design is a Husqvarna Viking free monthly design from 2009 that you could purchase from MyEmbroideries.com; I did look but couldn’t find the design at either Embroidery Library or My Embroideries. This month they are offering an Easter design you can edit/crop back to look very similar to the eggs I’ve used on the napkins.  Sulky 40 weight embroidery threads that I pick up on sale or with a coupon from the stores or online is my thread of choice. As long as you don’t use bleach, they stand up to washing and light wear pretty well.

 The kitchen towels are from New England’s Christmas Tree Shops. My sister mails them off to me; I decorate and hem them, and mail them back. They’re the microfiber towels that you can also pick up in packs at places like Ross. The hem on this set is simply purchased Wrights extra wide double fold bias trim. The basket is from Embroidery Library, the design that is on their drawstring bag. Yes, the baskets aren’t lined up perfectly – originally I was going for one for me and one for sis when she let it be known she likes three for her stove – so the bottoms are a tad off as far as matchy matchy. If you’re planning to put things together – best to always measure from the bottom edge when placing your design. I usually change the colors and size of any design to suit my needs. The egg design on the turquoise kitchen towel is a monthly free design (March2010) from Husqvarna Viking that you then download from MyEmbroideries.com (or purchase if you don’t download it in the month offered). They also offer free monthly embroidery projects and sewing projects if you’d like more sewing ideas. I’d tagged a slew of the sewing ones to add to my “to do” list.

 For the bath, I use the pack of white hand towels from Costco. Just make sure to use colors that match the main bath when choosing embroidery threads. You might not notice that in the pictures I post as many of these holiday decorating items are gifts and you don’t see the hand towel sitting on top of a color coordinated bath towel – it does look nice. So, the first time I gift them I may buy two plush bath towels for the recipient that match their color, note the thread that most perfectly matches the towels I picked so I can always incorporate it into the design to yield a matching set, and gift those bath towels with a few holiday decorated hand ones. Then, for close friends and relatives, they may periodically receive a matching holiday set in the mail. The design is Embroidery Library’s Spring Stitches – Bunnies. If I were to do it over, I’d make the callas closer to yellow so they’d stand out more. In person, you can see them do to the texture and light created by the thread and design. With the dense designs on towels, it’s best to take them out of the dryer a wee tad less than dry and press the back of the design with an iron so it’ll lie perfectly flat and look new.

So celebrate spring with a bit of fresh décor and fun colors. As always, you can build on these items by using hand embroidery, appliqué, stencils and fabric paints if you don’t machine embroider.

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