Louie Bluie Festival Quilt Show

I almost forgot to report on the Louie Bluie Festival Quilt Show. Mom and I had fun and both got third in our categories. The weather was a bit iffy going up there but it cleared out and was a great day to be outside. We got to visit the other vendors and plan on hopefully joining next year. We also got to hear some fabulous music. A band I hadn't heard in a while was there so I was thrilled to catch the, They're called Cutthroat Shamrock and they are a punk/bluegrass band with some Celtic influence. I know strange but they are good.

The quilt show had a good number of quilts and was in an indoor area. They also had a student art show that was fun to see. I'm going to try to include as many pictures of the quilt show as I can here.

2020 Mountain Quiltfest

I wanted to go to Quiltcon this year but it just wasn't in the cards. There is always next year. I did get to go to Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge. It's in my own backyard so it doesn't make sense to not go. Unfortunately, I only got to go the last day. I was unable to make it to any of the special events or classes but I did enjoy seeing the show.

Mom and I got there a little after 1. That meant we had 4 hours and we had missed all the antique quilt bed turnings. We did get recognized by some of the ladies from our area shops that we visit. I am on a budget this year because I'm planning a trip to Florida in May, so I have a small haul. I got three mystery charm packs from Missouri Star and three fat quarters from Mountian Creek Quilt Shop.

One of the fun things was a lady brought her pet monkey. It was cute as can be. She said he was a baby and could not be left alone. I didn't try to pet him because he was very agitated by the crowds. Of course, the quilts are a major highlight. It's always fun to see what people have done. One year I'm going to submit one of my quilts. I just need to get the guts to do it.

I have more photos available to see on my google photos album. I took over 50 photos, so there is no way to include them all here.

I'm going to do a double tea today. Normally just one tea spotlight a day but since I didn't post much I've got a few extra photos. I have a holiday tea to share. It's the Harney & Sons 2020 Lunar New Year Tea. It's got a toasted rice and coconut flavor to it. I would say it's not something I want all the time but it was a nice specialty tea. I did buy it and the Birthday Party tea because they had a special of two for $15 going on. I also recently found a vintage storage jar at a thrift shop. I reorganized my tea area upstairs so that I would have more space and store things better.

Fairest of the Fair?

Mom turning in her quilt

Mom's pillowcase.

It looks like Skipped a few months but it's not because I wasn't busy. Quite the opposite really. I submitted quilts to two local fairs. Two quilts to the Anderson County Fair in July and three to the Tennessee Valley Fair in August. Mom also submitted quilts to both of these fairs. She was reluctant at first but because labeling and prepping is not as strict as a quilt show I convinced her to do it.

 I think we did really good at both fairs. I placed on most of the things I submitted. Anderson County is a small local fair they do get a lot of entries but not as many as the bigger fairs. At Anderson County I submitted two quilts, my Rose for My boyfriend in small bed quilts and the Fruit Salad quilt as a baby quilt. I won a blue ribbon for Fruit Salad, and third on the other. The larger bed quilts category is usually got so many quilts I'd never place due to the competition. I was still thrilled about what I received.

Quilts hanging at Anderson County Fair

Mom submitted a pillowcase and a quilt in the first time category. Since it was her first time ever showing something she felt that fit her. Her pillowcase won first place and she got second for her quilt. It was successes like that that fueled us to enter the next show in the regional fair in September.

At Tennessee Valley Fair we submitted three each this time. In table toppers and placemats I submitted my camera and then the same two quilts I submitted for Anderson County. The larger quilt had to go into the general bed quilt category because they didn't have a baby quilt category for this fair and Fruit Salad is too small to be a bed quilt. I did not win anything on Rose for my boyfriend in this fair but took home second for the other two projects.

Ribbons won at TN Valley Fair

Mom submitted her quilt in the same category as fruit Salad and got third place on it. She submitted an appliqued placemat in the table topper category and got third there. The pillowcase won second in Tennessee Valley also.

Overall the experience was really fun and it's always encouraging to win. I am going to try to submit to a quilt show one day. I keep telling myself I plan to.

Today's tea is another specialty tea I got from my travels. This one came from a shop in Pensacola, FL. I don't remember the shop's name and I'm surprised I had the tea as long asI did but it was tasty and now it's gone. It was a Belgium black chocolate tea. It was very nice with a dark chocolate hint. There were actual chocolate chips in the blend. I hope to find more in the future. I just have to remember the name of the shop I got it from.

Mountain Quiltfest Day 2 Antique Quilts

Friday was a good day for demos and visiting the bed turnings as they call them. They're about 30-minute shows where they go over several antique quilts. They give you the history that is known and who made the quilt. Of course, the sad part is lots of quilts are never labeled so we don't always know who made it.

They also have a display of crafts done at the time that use the same techniques and fabrics like a quilted vest and pillowcases made out of feed sackcloths. If you have antique quilts you can have them appraised at the show for a very reasonable rate.

The presentation was very informative and sparked a bit of interest in antique quilts. I have lots of the quilts shown in both presentations in my Mountain Quiltfest photo album.

Many of the quilts are made out of feed sackcloth and some are made out of scraps of different types of fabrics. The backs of some of the quilts are done from sackcloths.  The history of feed sackcloth in quilting is a very interesting and ingenious use of fabric that could have been thrown away at one time.

Mountain Quiltfest 2019 Pigeon Forge, TN

So this week was the Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge TN. This is actually my third time coming to this convention. It's been several years and this is actually my first time going to it's the newer location. The convention has been held at this location for the last several years I just hadn't been able to go for one reason or another. I think the last time I went was 2013. It was in two hotels at that time and both hotels were at different ends of the main parkway.  The current location is a large event space called the Leconte Center. It shares a parking lot with a location called the Island which has restaurants, arcades, shops, and a huge Ferris wheel.

The Quilt show this year went for March 20th to March 23rd. They had lots of classes but several of
they filled up fast. Next year's show will be March 4th to the 7th. My original plan was to go one day to the show on Thursday and Friday we were going to Nashville for a concert. I had won tickets to through the local radio station. We left the show Thursday night and were heading home for some sleep and the station I got my tickets from no longer existed. It had been sold and changed hands while I was at the show. I called the venue for the concert and no one had turned in the list for the will call tickets. So my Friday plans fell apart and so we went back to the quilt show.

They had a passport/ scavenger hunt game going on that we didn't notice on Thursday so we did that and went to several of the demos and antique quilt turnings. I will do a separate entry on the antique quilts but I am glad I went back. We got a lot of things on our first day and the second day but I did pick up some thread.

Thread from Friday

Loot from Thursday

I have part of the photos taken on my google photos album. My battery had died halfway through the show and I had given my extra batteries to mom. Once I get a chance I will get a copy of her photos to put in my album also.

The tea for today was a Pomegranate Green Tea. We had stayed at a hotel weds night so we could get to the show early Thursday. Breakfast was left overs from dinner the night before and I grabbed the hot tea in hotel breakfast area. We also ended the night at the Apple Barn for a fired pie and hot cider for dinner. It had gotten cold so that hit the spot.

Quiltcon 2019 Nashville Experience

#QCGreetingsfromNashville

So for my first Quiltcon experience I loved it. Now as said this isn't my first show but one of the biggest I've been to. But this is the first one to feature exclusively modern designs. I loved the experience and was very happy to get a chance to go. I only had one day and bit of a drive to get there. The weather was terrible. It rained very hard all day all over Tennessee. All the way there we had flood warnings going off like crazy.

Getting there we first went to the vendor area. Now all the quilts in the show are in front of that but I wanted to get to certain booths to make sure I got some things I was looking for. We spent the majority of the time in this area. I got tons of deals and great patterns. I made sure I went by the Soak booth and picked up two bottles of flatter. When I went by the Pink Door Fabrics booth Tula Pink was there. The crowd was crazy and I didn't really want to stand in line, so I did not get to meet her. I did go back to the booth and got a pattern I had been looking at before.

One of the first few booths I visited was the Sewing Party booth. I met the designer of the "Rose for my Boyfriend" quilt pattern and was able to see the original one done for the magazine. I also showed them a photo of mine and they asked me to email it to them so they can post it on their Instagram! I love sharing my quilts and am so happy the designer liked mine.

One of the fun things about the show is they had a lot of areas you can sit and sew. They had booths that were doing charity quilt blocks. They give you a pattern and you can go through scraps and sit down and sew the block for them. These blocks will go into a quilt that will be sold for charity.

They also had a hand stitching area where you got to try out a free hand stitching design provided by sulky. It was printed on a dissolving interface so you can put the guide on and not worry about it messing up the final look. This was a nice area to go visit cause I was really exhausted and needed a bit of time to rest. Also this lead me to go back to the sulky booth for another free design. I found glow in the dark thread that was a must have.

After that it was time to go through the quilts. They had a collection of antique quilts and a collection of youth quilts that were both very interesting. There was a feature of quilts using a mix of fibers like faux fur or knitting. I also got to meet a few of the people with quilts in the show walking around.

Afterwards we went to the Flying Saucer for dinner. I have been to this place before. It's a pub/taphouse type place that has tons beers and ciders on tap as well as in cans and bottles available. I have been trying to do a low carb diet so I did not get one of the ciders that I wanted to but did get a burger. Mom's sandwich ended up being too spicy for her so we swapped what we got.

In all the trip was a success. Mom and I had a huge bag of stuff to split when we got home and I've got a lot of new projects to add to my to do list. I have sprinkled pictures through the post of the different things I saw but I also have more photos available on google photos.

AQS Quilt Week 2016 in Chattanooga

Wednesday was my birthday so I took the day off to go to Chattanooga and see the show. I have been to Padukah's quilt week but not the one in Chattanooga. Usually I don't have the money for a trip so soon after Dragon*con but I figured I can stretch it this time.
It was fun. Mom and I spent the day running around playing Pokemon Go and it's big brother Ingress as well as oohing and Aching over all the quilts. I got some fabric and ideas for new quilts. I always see things I want to try or that looks so fun. The quilt to the right was done by the ladies of Spool. You can find them at the Badass Quilter's Society. I've got a couple of my favorites from the show below. I did catch the name tags in the photos. I'm sorry it they're too small to read.

They had a few special showings like one with a theme of the Lion King and another with the them of unusual materials. There were quilts made out of chicken wire, duct tape(below), tin cans and more. Over all a blast was had and it was a fabulous birthday.