October-migosh!

Can you believe how quickly October has come upon us?!  We are full of anxiety and excitement about the upcoming Houston Quilt Festival… just a few short weeks away from the big week!!!  Of course, we’ll get to finally see the display of Mom’s quilts, which is the most exciting part.  But, I also plan to do a lot of picture taking, a lot of shopping, and a lot of learning.  I personally plan to purchase a longarm machine (Eek!), and have also signed up for a couple of longarm classes and an EQ7 class.  It will be a full schedule, for sure.  The folks at the Texas Quilt Museum also want to meet with us to talk about a Sue Garman show at their museum next summer.  How exciting!

In the meantime, we’ve got lots of other tidbits of news!  First, I know many people have asked about Mom’s fabulous Blue Heaven quilt that she had been working on.  The finished quilt will be hanging at the show, for anyone that is able to make it.  Also, our wonderful friend Cynthia finished the pattern for us, and the brilliant Winnie Fleming tested the pattern for us.  We have some updates to make, but I think we should be able to get it published on the website by the end of the year.  Yippee!!!

We have fabric on the website now!  Mom had planned to have a booth at Festival, and had stocked up on all of the products that she was planning to sell there.  After she got sick, that plan went to the wayside.  But… we still have many bolts of fabric here, handpicked by Sue, that we’ve posted to the website.  Right now there is an assortment of blues and greens available, and slowly but surely we will get the full array available to you.  If you’re in need of any beautiful fabrics, take a peek and see if there’s anything you like!

I think everyone knows how much Mom enjoyed seeing how other quilters took her patterns and made them their own.  We’ve got a few photos of those quilts to share, that we were lucky enough to be sent by their wonderful owners.  First, we have a Monsters! quilt, made by Rachel Hamar, on display at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK, in August of this year.  I absolutely LOVE the color choices and all of the small blocks on the sides.  It adds so much fun and excitement to the quilt.  And the addition of the hearts in the cornerstones adds warmth and character.

Credit: Rachel Hamar

 

Next, we have a Ladies of the Sea quilt, made by Barbara Graham.  This one shows that you don’t have to use every block in the original to still have a beautiful piece of work.  The embroidered panels in the middle of the quilt are a nice touch, both in keeping with the nautical theme.  Great work!

Credit: Barbara Graham

Lastly, we have a lovely All Around the Town quilt, made by Nancy McFall.  This one was entered in the AQS show, and I think it will do well!  Of course, the originals of all three of these beauties will be hanging at Festival next month.  NEXT MONTH!  EEK!

Credit: Nancy McFall

Last thing I have for the moment… a group of Mom’s friends and I decided that we needed to increase the number of small quilts that are entered in our guild’s show next year.  Generally, there are only a handful entered in the small quilt category, and that’s so sad, because the little ones can be so fun and challenging to make!  What we decided to do, particularly since the show is named “Celebrating Sue” in honor of Mom, is to make miniature quilts based on Mom’s patterns.  I think we’ll be seeing miniature versions (not all of the blocks, of course) of Quilted Gingerbread, Hugs and Kisses, and Sleeping Beauty.  I, myself, have finished a reverse Sleeping Beauty with black instead of cream shirtings and brighter colors.  I think my plan is to name it Midnight Beauty!  I just need to quilt it… my first foray into hand-quilting… and put the binding on.  Here are a few pictures of the work in progress…

 

The beginnings of spines...

Starting to lay things out and decide where to put it all.

Testing the standard layout for the pattern.

Testing an alternate layout for the pattern.

Ready to start quilting!

I think that’s all we have for now.  For anyone coming to Festival next month, if you see us, feel free to snag us and introduce yourself!  We love meeting other quilters!

Jenny Arkinson (left) and Mary Garman (right)