I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to logging some serious time at my sewing machine this weekend. Christmas is coming and I have projects to finish! I think I’ve been inspired by Quilt Market and Festival — even though I didn’t attend in person this year, seeing photos and videos from colleagues over the past week has invigorated me. With that in mind, today’s Scrap Bag is mostly concerned with the goings-on in Houston. And be sure to check back on Monday; rumor has it that Lori will be blogging about her experiences at Market last weekend.
This week’s top story from the quilting world has been and continues to be a roller coaster. On Tuesday morning, longarmer, teacher and owner of Quilters Apothecary Jamie Wallen reported that his trailer full of quilts (both his own as well as customers’ quilts), tools and rulers had been stolen from the parking lot of the Houston hotel he was staying in to prepare for International Quilt Festival. He posted a video describing what had happened on his personal Facebook timeline and the story got picked up by local news outlets. On Thursday morning, it was reported that the trailer and the quilts had been recovered. Later in the day, though, Jamie clarified that while the trailer had been found, all of the quilts were gone and most of what remained had been damaged or destroyed. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Jamie and his partner Rich.
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Speaking of Quilt Festival, it’s happening right now! As the largest annual convention in Houston it always makes the local news there. TV station KHOU has covered Festival a few times, including a live report and interview with best of show winner Cynthia England, as well as a segment on morning show “Great Day Houston” featuring Rhianna Griffin of Quilts, Inc.
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Don’t forget to check out all of the winning quilts in the “Quilts: A World of Beauty” judged show on the International Quilt Association’s website. Stunning work as always!
www.quilts.org
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Nancy’s Closet by Kathryn Wright
The judged competition at Festival gets most of the attention, but the World of Beauty exhibit is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amazing quilts on display in Houston right now. This year’s amazing special exhibits include “Fly Me to the Moon,” celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo missions; “Hands All Around” sponsored by Quilters Newsletter; “Christmas Quilts, Christmas Memories,” a collection of red and green quilts from the 19th century; “Comfort and Glory: Selections from the Briscoe Center’s Winedale Quilt Collection;” Western-themed leather quilts by Cathy Vandiford Wiggins, who was profiled in QN‘s August/September 2016 issue; Japanese quilts, modern quilts, French quilts and so much more. Click the link below to see a slideshow sample of different quilts as well as photos from Tuesday’s awards ceremony.
www.chron.com
Around these parts we’re pretty proud of our senior designer Kathryn Wright, whose Nancy’s Closet was accepted into the “In the American Tradition: Pieced” special exhibit. Quiltmaker readers may recognize it as a pattern in the July/August 2016 issue; it’s also available separately as a digital download. Having seen this quilt in person on a couple of occasions, I can tell you that it’s a truly spectacular scrap quilt and deserving of inclusion in the exhibit.
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In the aftermath of Quilt Market, the industry-only trade show that precedes Festival, Bonnie Hunter reflected on the things that meant the most to her during her whirlwind trip to Houston.
quiltville.blogspot.com
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Turning our attention to one of the other highlights of the quilting calendar, Road to California Showcase founder Carolyn Reese has announced her retirement at the age of 80. Even though she’s turning the reins over to her grandson Matt, who’s been working with her for years, she doesn’t seem to want to slow down much and is going to get back into teaching quilting classes.
What other classes will Carolyn be teaching in the future? “Who knows?” says Carolyn. “What ever strikes my fancy!!”
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Friend of QN Tim Latimer, who was the subject of Meetin’ Place in our December/January 2014 issue, recently returned to blogging on a more regular basis after taking a break from social media. Known mostly for his award-winning hand quilting, lately Tim has been finishing some projects by machine quilting them on an old treadle machine with no less exquisite results.
But I started to get comments like “I prefer hand quilting,” ”I wish you would hand quilt more,” ”don’t you ever hand quilt anymore,” ”hand quilting is so much prettier,” “I like your hand quilting so much better” ……….
and I was feeling guilty for machine quilting and felt like I was letting people down…this was a real conflict.
Visit Tim’s blog if only to view a video of him quilting with his treadle machine up close.
timquilts.com
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Quilt and Sew Shop is holding a Fat Quarter Frenzy sale through Saturday, November 5. Use promo code FRENZY20 to receive 20% off a wide variety of fat quarter packs, which are perfect for building your own scrap stash. You can get packs organized by color — creams, blacks, blues, pinks, greens, reds and so on — or by theme, such as kids, patriotic, Halloween, Christmas, repros, feedsacks and more. If you’re one of the quilters who tell us you want more scrap-friendly quilt patterns, then this sale is for you. Click here to view the different packs available in the Fat Quarter Frenzy sale this weekend!
