Houston, Paducah, Quilt Canada: Somebody Pinch Me!

This has been some week...First, With Glowing Hearts was shipped off to Houston where it will join the travelling exhibit "O Canada". This show opens at Spring International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati. With Glowing Hearts is also currently part of a fun online exhibit through The Canadian Quilter's Association. If you feel inclined to vote, my "With Glowing Hearts" is #22, you can scroll to the bottom to click "yes" and keep scrolling to click "submit". Voting continues to March 20 and is just for fun. Yesterday, my copy of Quilter's Connection magazine arrived with a really lovely presentation of my quilt Fandango. Today...the mailman brought two large, manila envelopes which contained more good news than I ever dared hope for. I have a quilt accepted into the National Juried Show at Quilt Canada in London Ontario and also one which is a semi-finalist at the AQS show in PADUCAH!

Houston, Paducah, Quilt Canada... I feel like I'm running the Triple Crown :)

A Window on Tempus Fugit

Yesterday, a display of my quilts and published works was installed in the front window of dayle's Department Store for the upcoming Fibre Arts Festival. It was very cool to be inside one of these big windows right on the main street of our friendly town. Lots of folks waved as they passed by, including a chain of little ones from a nearby pre-school. Here's the blank canvas when I arrived:
The first couple of quilts didn't do much to jazz it up.

Fortunately, the set up was spearheaded by dayle's on-staff interior design team...because I didn't have a clue what should go where. The very talented Jackie was in charge, with help from assistant Ashley. Mostly I held the pins and hammer and said "ummm...I don't know" a lot when asked where I wanted things. We all have our strengths, and decorating is not one of mine. Jackie is brilliant at this. The one thing I did know was that I wanted the silk New York Beauty to be hung in a prominent position.

It wasn't easy to get a picture of those very clean windows on a sunny day. I did go back after supper last night and shot some more, but they were not much better. I will watch the sky and try again another time.

This is the end of the window by the front door. Can you spot the quilt I have been working on?

This is Tempus Fugit. The name Tempus Fugit is Latin for "time flies". The centre of the quilt looks like the face of a clock, and I have hands quilted in, set for 1 pm.

Time has certainly flown by since Fibre Arts Festival last year. At that time, I was the frustrated owner of a cantankerous sewing machine which would not sew silk at all - it just jammed and sputtered and ruined it every time. Last year after presenting my last workshop of the week, I went to visit the Bernina Lady at the Bazaar with silk and silk thread in hand. When I left that day, I knew I needed that Bernina. Having that machine, and getting to know Jeanne Huntley (aka The Bernina Lady), has been a life-changing experience for me. I have learned so much from Jeanne and am greatly indebted to her.

The silk quilted beautifully with Wonderfil's very fine (100 weight)Invisifil thread. Tempus Fugit is backed with the same cream silk dupioni used on the front. The Bernina had no issue allowing me to stitch with black thread on the top and cream in the bottom. I showed the back of the quilt in an earlier post, and you can see that the tension of the stitches is perfect.

It was a delight to have such results. I can't say enough how much I love this Bernina 440QE. There are changes I will make in the quilt design and intend to sew it again (in burgundy next time, I think...but still with golden yellow accents) but it was a good start for a NY Beauty attempt in silk and I am not displeased with the results. If I could though, I would alter how quickly time flies...