4th Anniversary Quilt Show Pix

Hello Pieceful Quilters:

Wow! What a weekend! Our 4th Annual Anniversary Celebration, Barbeque, Quilt Show, Registration and all around good time, was wonderful. I put a lot of pictures on Facebook, because it is much easier to upload things there, but I know some of you haven't taken that plunge yet, so here is a little bit of a virtual quilt show for you. I will probably add more pictures and captions in a day or so, once I figure out who all the winners are, and get pictures of the winning quilts with their owners. For now, here is a pictorial synopsis of the day:

Katie & I before the show - Yes, we were actually ready before the doors opened!


Katie with Vonnie, one of our Longarm Quilters:

My Wonderful Husband, Tony with sons, John on the Left and Mike on the right.

Ready to get things going!

So many wonderful Vendors and Local Businesses to thank! Our show would not have been the success it was without them:

Please be sure to visit these local Businesses:

Vicki Madigan
Quilts2Go Trips, Tours, and More
(224) 848-1990

CarX Auto Service - Fox River Grove
(847) 639-1597

Brunch Cafe - Fox River Grove
(847) 516-0409

Atrium Arts, Ltd. - Cary
(847) 516-1413

Kathy Dzubin at Sheer Madness - Cary
(847) 530-6490

Susan Peterson
Massage Polarity Therapy - Crystal Lake
(815) 444-9910

Sandy Schweitzer
AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser - Crystal Lake
(815) 459-5545

Jennifer Koralik
Cary Grove Photography - Fox River Grove
(224) 622-4671

Ringers Landscape Services
(847) 989-5593

Cary Physical Therapy
(847) 516-8095

Distinctive Designs by Roberta Lynn

Flowers & Gifts - Island Lake

(847)487-2241


Debbie, Demi & Jessica waiting for the Show to start

Rebecca's Madders Quilt - Owned by Sandy Schweitzer

This is the quilt that my fabric line is based on. It is now supposed to come out in December - I haven't turned blue, yet.

Famous Person Siting! Kathy Tracy came to see the show. She has a tiny picture of her next book pinned on to her blouse. The title is still a secret, but I can tell you it is going to fit into our shop perfectly - as usual. Can't wait to see the book in real life!

Julia T. and Mary Z. a couple of our sainted White Glove Ladies

Madelyn Anderson and her helper judge the quilts. This section had the quilts from our Sarah's Circle Sewing Club.

Some Pix from the Show

A Few of the Entrants and Winners
(more to come)


Izzy - our youngest entrant with her cute little pink and green quilt.

Tricia with her Sew Simple Pineapple Quilt

Violet Klein - the big winner of the show - Second place in the bed size category and Viewer's Choice! Congratulations Violet!

After the Show

Diane and Mary L relax on the deck

Demi & Dave --- Waiting for more great food!

Tony with my Dad ----- Samantha

Jenn -Mike's Wife ----- Katie, B-I-L, Luke & Husband, Mark

John & Girlfriend Kristen ----- Tony, my long-suffering Husband

That's all for now - I need to get the weekly newsletter out. We have much to do before the end of the session! Yikes!

Thanks to all that came to our show, put your quilts in our show, and especially all of our wonderful staff members and volunteers that came together to make this happen.

Happy Quilting,

Carrie & Katie

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

I want to mention some upcoming events that we are involved in so that you can mark your calendars.

Demi hanging last year's show

First, of course, is our 4th Annual Anniversary Celebration on August 7th. We have a nice quilt show featuring quilts by our customers. The show takes place in the renovated warehouse building adjacent to our parking lot. Last year we had over 100 quilts! We hope to have just as many this year. Entry forms are being accepted now. Copies are available in the shop, on our website, or click this link: http://www.piecefulgathering.com/pdf/2010_Entry_Form.pdf.

We are pleased to have Madelyn Anderson judging our show this year. She is in the process of obtaining her Professional Quilt Judge Certification. The quilts will be judged in various categories, with great prizes for the major winners. Our vendors and a host of local businesses have been kind enough to donate some great prizes for winners, and door prizes that will be awarded to anyone that turns in a viewer's choice ballot. Tickets for the show will be $2.00 this year. There is no fee for entering a quilt, and anyone with a quilt in the show will receive two tickets to attend the show.

In addition to the show, we will have our Annual Barbeque featuring cooking by the men in our lives. (Believe me, they are better cooks than we are).

August 7th is also early discount registration day. This is your first opportunity to register for our wonderful selection of classes for the fall. We are really excited about the classes we have coming up. The girls that attended market with me came back full of enough great ideas to last us for awhile, and Iknow there will be something for everyone. You should receive your fall class schedule via snail mail in a week to 10 days.

SALE - of course we will have some kind of sale, just to sweeten the pot. What that will be remains to be seen. You know I haven't thought that far ahead!

Our next big event is the Quilt Expo in Madison. Pieceful Gathering will be vending again, and we are really looking forward to being there again! This is a great show - not as large as Rosemont, and easily done in a day. It is just a little over 2 hours from here if you want to drive, but I highly recommend taking Vicki Madigan's Quilts 2 Go bus trip. She has buses going up on Friday and Saturday leaving from various local spots. If you click on the mini registration form below, it will get big (isn't technology amazing) and you can read all the details and print it off. It's a pretty good deal considering that it includes breakfast, admission and a goody bag! I don't know why you would even consider driving yourself!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

I should also mention that I will be participating in a Stage Presentation with my friend Sandy Schweitzer. The presentation will be on the importance of labeling your quilts along with ideas on the best way to do labels and what you should include on your labels. Sandy is our local AQS Certified Appraiser and expert in quilt repair and all things quilt related. I will be there for comic relief. I can promise an information filled presentation along with (we know what you really want) a trunk show of quilts. Here's Sandy doing an appraisal with Abe! Click on the picture to visit her website:

I am also doing a Lecture/Demo on my Snippet Stew method for creating quick scrappy quilts using Snippets (10" squares). The lecture is only$10.00 - such a deal! Be sure to go and register online right away! To make it easy, here is a link to my registration form:
http://www.wiquiltexpoorders.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=329&category=5

If that doesn't work - just go to their website - classes and click the word "online" and look for my class. Of course, I didn't get my picture in on time - so just scroll down to Snippet Stew.

Last but not least, I would like to tell you about a wonderful opportunity that Vicki has put together for us again! On Octover 1-2 she will be taking her Quilts 2 Go tour bus to Shipshewanna, Indiana again. I was not able to go last time, so I am really excited that I will be able to attend this time! The tour includes transportation, overnight accomadations, box lunch, museum admission, shopping, quilt lecture, and a meal on a traditional Amish farm! If you register by August 31, the rate is $195.00, after that it goes up to $225.00. So - join me and Vicki for some serious quilting fun and adventures - call Vicki today to register 224-848-1990.

I hope I haven't totally overwhelmed you with too much information at once - I just wanted to get everything in so that you can get your calendars up to date!

Feel free to call me if you have any questions about any of these great events!

Happy Quilting,

Carrie

Antique Schoolhouse Quilt

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

I want to share one of my current projects. Andover fabrics has reproduced the fabrics in the Schoolhouse Quilt shown below. The quilt is from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska:

IQSC Schoolhouse Quilt
Click on the quilt to visit their website

I ordered some of the fabrics from the collection, including the great fabric you see in the alternate blocks. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the fabric really gives the quilt wonderful movement. Some of the fabrics are below - again, it is hard to see the detail in the pictures, but if you click on the pictures you get a better close-up view.

I am working on reproducing this quilt, and making it easier - as usual. Not quite sure which of my favorite methods I am going to use, but I will let you know as soon as I figure it out!

Happy Quilting!

Carrie

Sarah's June Quilt

Hello Pieceful Quilters:

Believe it or not, I actually got the top of a little quilt finished for Sarah Club sometime between my two weddings and a baby! It is still not quilted, but maybe this week I will get it done.

In case anyone missed the quilt from last month, I will show that first. The first one below is the antique quilt that we started with. It belongs to Deb, and it has been in her family for a long time.

Antique Broken Dishes Quilt

The pattern is sometimes called Broken Dishes, so we called our quilt Sarah's Broken Dishes:

Sarah's Broken Dishes - I think we captured the feeling of the original - don't you love it?
Kits are available on our website

This month we reproduced a quilt from my collection. The block, when it is pointing up, is called Little Pine Tree, but this quilter had her blocks pointing every which way. I think that when they point sideways they look like the Birds in the Air block, or maybe fishes. The fish thing didn't appeal to me, so I called it Birds in the Pines.

Carrie's Antique Quilt - Birds, Fishies, Pine Trees?

Sarah's Club Reproduction - Birds in the Pines
It is a bit smaller than the original at 23" x 19"!
Kits include Pattern, Backing and Binding for $29.99.

This four-patch on point is an antique doll quilt that I recently aquired. We are thinking about using it for one of our selections next session. We will be adding a daytime group for those of you that get nervous going out at night. Be sure to register on August 7th at our Quilt Show, Barbeque and Discount Registration Day!

Hope to see you all soon!

Carrie

Memories of the 4th

Hello Patriotic Quilters,

This weekend is the 4th of July, a time to celebrate America and to reflect on all the blessings that we have here in this great country.

My own reflections have to start with my dad. He is the most patriotic person I know, and he saw to it that his family celebrated the 4th in true American style. He would start the day by waking us up to a LOUD recording of Stars and Stripes Forever, followed by a bunch of other patriotic selections. After feeding us a wonderful brunch on the patio (Mom, like me, was not the head chef in our household), we would all pile into the car and head over to the Parade.

I grew up in Deerfield, which had a wonderful traditional parade. We had our spot - right in front of the Duraclean Store (it hasn't been that for years and years, but it will always be that to us). The store entrance was set into the building just enough to fit two lawn chairs and a cooler. The "sun-shy" would sit there, or we would all smush in if rain threatened. I only remember 1 complete rain-out in the 30 plus years that I attended. Back in the day, everyone knew my dad, and that spot was always open for us - more recently, we had to stop down there early in the morning to stake out our spot with old chairs and blankets. Deerfiend is not the sleepy little town I grew up in.

The parade was always magnificent - During the time I was growing up, Deerfield always hosted a Drum and Bugle competition the night before the parade, with groups from all over the country. The groups then appeared in the parade, so we got some amazing musical entertainment.

Remember when the kids used to wear clothes?

There was always a bunch of convertibles carrying the local politicians. We only liked the ones that threw out candy! The Shriners and Kiwanas (sp?) groups would have BIG men in tiny cars that looked like flying carpets or on tiny motorcycles. We often wondered how they got those guys in and out of those vehicles - mostly out... The lady that owned the local shape-up place always had a float full of fit people doing exercises - on hot days we wondered why they didn't keel over! We also wondered how the owner never seemed to get older or droopier - could it be she made a deal with the devil? Ok - I was already jealous of her figure by the time I was in High School. It's just not right!

After the parade we would head over to the local Country Club for great games, food and more food and finaly, the fireworks. That was back before people realized that goldfish had feelings, so they would release hundreds of them into the highly chlorinated pool for all of us kid to try and squish - I mean catch. Mom would hold a plastic bag full of fresh water for us to drop them into. By the end of the day, most of them were floaters - if it was hot we called them boil-in-bag fish. But at least one fish always survived in it's algi filled bowl - with little or no food - usually until the end of June of the following year. Goldfish are amazing little creatures, aren't they?

Besides the Goldfish Boil, there was the penny toss, races, pony rides and various other games we would play in order to win all kinds of cool platic junk. Remember the cheap paddleball games? After we lost the ball, dad kept the paddle in the linen closet to remind us to be good - and we never even considered reporting him for child abuse!

The club back then was awesome. I lived there in the summers. It was still a small town club - now it has moved and become pretty ritzy - I liked it better then. I believe the french fries there were probably what started me on the path to obesity - or it could be the beer in college. Hmmm - I guess we will never know for sure. Anyway, I digress.

The fireworks there were always the best - a perfect end to a perfect day. I remember watching them on a blanket on the driving range with my first summer love. He was so cute. I wonder what happened to him. Probably fat and bald - but then, so am I (fat that is).

My memories of the 4th will always remind me of what an awesome country we live in. Even though the 60's were not the best time in our history, we still managed to celebrate this great nation. I will never take this country for granted, for no matter what problems we may have at times, it is still the greatest nation on earth. This weekend on the 4th, try to forget your troubles, and remember how lucky we all are to be living here. I know I will!

Three Cheers for the Glorious 4th of July!

Carrie

Mystery Quilt Photos

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

I know I promised photos of the quilts my Mystery Group made - for those of you that don't do Facebook yet. So without further ado - here they are:

First, and far from the best, is mine. Not nearly enough contrast to show the pattern. Luckily the class listened to me better than I listened to myself:

Carrie's Quilt - Almost Done! Just need to finish the binding.


Marcelline - hers is actually done and waiting to be quilted. I will get her picture with it when she comes to pick it up. It is gorgeous! (Of course I am not laughing in the back there)


Mary L - liked it so much, she did a baby one! (No, she's not an over-acheiver)


Mary K - You can really see the pattern in this one - Good Job!

Mary L2 - Gosh we had a lot of Marys! Maybe that's why we had such a Mary time!
Don't you love the way that cheddar pops in this one?


Laura - aren't those colors fabulous? Great border treatment!


Geri - Picked fabrics based on one border, and didn't like it in the end. It took serious courage to scrap the original border and choose a different one. It was worth the risk - this border really frames it nicely. Beautiful!

Marilyn - Beautiful colors, stunning quilt. Bravo!

The pictures really tell the story. The "Mary" group did an amazing job at making my pattern look faboo! Thanks to all that participated, and - I PROMISE next time the pieces will be bigger and not as numerous! It sure is pretty, though! Good Job!

Happy Quilting!

Carrie