Blue Squares

Blue Squares was juried into the Moss Mansion Celebration of Quilts display.  My personal thought is that they did not have may applicants (applications were due December 31 with $20) so they accepted everyone they got.  Later, at WAV, Brooke A. was pitching for more quilts for the Celebration of Quilts exhibit.

The Moss Mansion offered to put a price on the item with a percentage going to them.  I do like this quilt so I really didn't want to sell it so I put a high price of $925 on it.

The Celebration of Quilts display will be at the Moss Mansion through October.

Blue Squares is now back home.

Hot Flashes - #51 March

I needed some quilts with completely white backings to use to pin smaller items on during the Big Sky Quilt Retreat.  Hot Flashes, a Strip Club quilt, was finished in time to serve this purpose.

I started Hot Flashes as a class sample for the September 2016 Strip Club I was teaching at Trackside Quilting.  I think I finished hand sewing the hanging sleeve on it Monday, March 6, 2017 right before I needed to use this quilt at the Big Sky Quilt Retreat.

Hot Flashes is a Strip Club pattern by Cozy Quilt Designs in El Cajon, California.  The pattern was designed by Daniela Stout.

Hot Flashes started visiting Trackside Quilting in hopes of selling patterns beginning 3/13/17.

The Crumbs That Started It All - #50 February

I started crumb quilting a long time ago in an effort to conserve the fabric from deboned shirts of Grandpa Ben and my brother, Dustin.  At some point, I decided I needed to just be done with this project.
The Crumbs That Started It All visited the Big Sky Quilt Retreat March 8-11, 2017.

Bitty Hearts - #49 January

Bitty Hearts started as the Bitty Blocks challenge through Quilt By Association the beginning of 2016.  We were supposed to have a finished product by June 2016.  I had the body of the quilt done by then.  I did get it completely done in time for the MSU-Billings Library show in February 2017.

Bitty Hearts visited the Town & Country Quilt Guild meeting 1/12/17.  When we take a completed item to the Town & Country meeting, we get our name in the drawing.  The random drawing winner at the end of the year receives $50 gift card.

Bitty Hearts also was in the Big Sky Quilt Retreat show March 8-11, 2017.

2017 Big Sky Quilt Retreat Entries

The Big Sky Quilt Retreat took place at the Shrine in Billings, Montana on March 8th - 11th.  Setup was on Tuesday, March 7th and tear down was Saturday, March 11th.  We dropped the quilt racks off at the storage shop on Sunday, March 12th and called it a year.

Following are the quilts the boys and I entered in the 2017 Big Sky Quilt Retreat.

We of Artistic Vision had a special display during the show.  I put 2 items in their show.

Handwork Category:

Art Category:

Vintage Category:

Small Quilt Category:

Machine Quilting Category:

Picture of Wrought Iron Daugherty hanging at the Big Sky Quilt Retreat:

I didn't think the picture of Wrought Iron Daugherty hanging at the show was wonderful so I took another photo when we arrived home.  This may give a better overall idea of what the wall hanging looks like.

Challenge Category:

Picture of More Than A Double Wedding Ring at the Big Sky Quilt Retreat.  It was hung near the top of the quilt rack on a sheet so the picture did not turn out very well.

More Than A Double Wedding Ring photo when we arrived home.

Large Category:

Glacier Star hanging at the show:

The Big Sky Quilt Retreat has People's Choice voting that takes place Thursday and Friday of the retreat.  Then, results are tabulated and ribbons are placed on quilts on Friday night.  Viewers on Saturday see the ribbons all day Saturday.

Glacier Star received the third place ribbon in the Large Category.

The top 3 quilts in the Large Category were all Judy Niemeyer patterns.

Miscellaneous Category:

Medium Large Category:

Although I had 3 quilts in the Medium Large Category, they were not seen.  I quilted them with white fabric on the back.  Then, I used these three quilts to pin smaller quilts on during the show.

Keegan entered 2 quilts in the show.

Youth Category by Keegan:

House by Keegan won a third place ribbon in the Youth Category.

Dillon entered 2 quilts in the Youth Category.

  

 The boy's quilts hanging together at the Big Sky Quilt Retreat:

I was in charge of organizing the quilt show section of the retreat.  This is the first year that we have had the category of Machine Quilting.  I thought that may need a bit of additional explanation if we had non-quilters in the viewing audience.  I had used these two small split rail fence tops as a border demo with Mary L. at QBA.  So, I quilted one and used both as a machine quilting demo.

As with everything, there is room for improvement.  I just have to keep getting better - I hope.

Strip Club

In 2016, I taught a Strip Club class each month.  Actually, I was on vacation some months so Sue H. had to teach the class.

After Big Sky Quilt Retreat, I had two Strip Club quilts complete.  I sent them to Trackside in hopes a sample would help sell patterns.
Dream Weaver:

Hot Flashes:

The Strip Club patterns are from Cozy Quilt Designs in El Cajon, California.  Many of the patterns are authored by Daniela Stout.

YVQG Block Exchange

I had created enough block exchange blocks for other people that I was able to present a request for blocks at the January YVQG meeting.  I presented Springtime on the Ranch/Farm.

My request:

I am ready for brightness, sun, and spring!  Create a block that portrays new life and growth on the ranch/farm.  Baby animals, blooming flowers, sun, barn, tractors - anything you want that represents spring or ranching or farming.  I would like to focus on the happy parts of spring – not snow J  It appears that my imagination is very limited but I suspect that yours is not J

I created the sheep block from Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt as one of my sample blocks.

One of the requirements is to leave a sample block with the block exchange coordinator.  I left this block with the block exchange book.

We are supposed to have the block exchange blocks made into a quilt for a guild show at the May meeting.  I hope that works out :-D

2017 MSU-Billings Library Show

The boys and I entered some quilts in the MSU-Billings Library show that took place in February.
I entered these quilts:
Bitty Hearts:

Red, White, & Blue Bench Cover:

Best Friends created by Berta Love:

Dillon entered two items in the MSU-Billings quilt show.

Pink Flowers:

Purple:

 Keegan entered two items in the MSU-Billings quilt show.
House:

24 Checkers:

Some of our quilts hanging together at the show: