Sewing and Quilt Expo

Went this weekend to the Sewing & Quilt Expo in Shaumburg, IL, and was easily separated from my money at the show...  I had a good time with my quilt friends Steff and Catherine.In this picture you can see my take from the show.  Some of the things i was happy to find here, like the discharge paste, the ruffling foot, and the "magic fabric" that texturizes.  It's that kind of weird stuff that I look for at a show like this; stuff you can't get in the average quilt shop.  I also was taken in by a booth with some antique textiles, and got the lace and beaded motif in the lower left. It was a fun trip!


Not much quilty has gone on lately as I have been cleaning my sewing studio and getting ready for the next project.  I have a design, it's been blown up to the size I need, and now I just need to work on it. Some long weekends are in order to really get it done.

 

Where in the world is Cheryl?

Every where it seems!
Thanks for all my quilt friends for the shout outs! To see some silly pictures of me click the linkies...

Pokey Bolton/ Quilting Arts

Melanie Testa

Catherine Redford

Quilts.com's Festival@Home

Party like a Rock Star!

I had an amazing weekend at the IQA Chicago quilt festival. Lots of cool things happened, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I spent each day at the show until it ended, so I had little time to "live blog" the show like last year, but here are the highlights! (Pictures from the hallways leaving the show, because I hate posts without pictures.)
Thursday: I spent the day in a full day class with Maggie Wiess on Thermofax screen printing. It was great fun, and I think Thermofax screening is right up my alley. While I love my Gocco, the supplies are getting more and more expensive, and hard to find. Thermofax printing is similar enough, and there are enough services out there to provide me screens without buying the machine that I can make use of it. I can't wait to finish my project from class. After class, the show floor opened, and I walked the floor, spent money, and took a Make It University class on Little Windows resin. When Pokey Bolton called my name, she said "Oh I know her!" and even gave me a little hug. Wow!

Friday: Bright and early I got to the show and took the Embellishment Know How seminar, which was about 8-9 demos on embellishing your work. Afterwards, I had lunch with Steff and Catherine, and did some shopping with Steff. I made it through the whole vendor area, and had some time for some of the quilts. The Art Quilt reception was Friday evening, and Steff and I attended. I made a tiara last year that I didn't wear because I could not stay, but entered the "tiara parade" this time. Now, style counts, so I entered as the "queen of mean" and my skull pendant on my tiara even has a crown on it. Instead of a Miss America wave, I threw up the "heavy metal" horns and rocked down the aisle. Well, I guess this paid off, I was a runner up! Best of all, my co-runner up was none other than Melanie Testa, and we chatted for a bit and really hit it off. We also got a chance to speak with Karey Bresenhan, Bonnie McCaffrey, Laura Krasinski, Maggie Weiss, and many others! Melanie, Bonnie, Steff, Catherine and I went to dinner. Bonnie even taped us doing our "Shopping Show and Tell" for one of her video podcasts!

Saturday: Wow, how could you top yesterday? By hanging out with Melanie Testa for a portion of the day, that's how! I took her MIU class first thing, and we shopped a couple of booths and looked at some of the quilts afterwards. My friend Amanda and her friend were visiting the show from Baltimore, so I went to lunch with them, and then got to hang out with Melanie a bit more. It was really good to get her perspective on art quilting, and her story on how things in the art quilting wold are going. It gave me a lot to think about. At that point, it was time for Surviving the Runway. It's was an 80's Prom theme, and I made my Prom Queen tiara in ridiculous over to top fashion. I am sure You Tube Videos will surface. It was silly, and lots of fun. I didn't win, but had a great time with everyone. Bonnie McCaffery even gave me some sideline help. So fun!

Sunday: I got to sleep in a little bit (one extra hour). Arriving at the show at the opening, I did the last of my shopping, and got a call from Steff, who was there shopping with our friend Pika. We all took the "good girl Doll" class from Debbie Crane at MIU, did some more shopping, and took one last gander at the quilts. I spent literally my last dollar saved for the show, a grand total of almost $700 spent on the show overall. It was an amazing time. I felt like I really was part of the "it crowd", and was a bit of the MIU groupie, but had a fantastic time, and can't wait to see the shak out of the many things I discussed with everyone.

I'll post my "Show and tell" things I bought on the next post!!

Getting back to normal

I know I have been away for a bit. I know I said I would run a giveaway last week, but life intervened. I've been dealing with a family crisis for a couple of weeks now, both in a "hands-on, getting things taken care of" way, and a "why can't I think about anything else" kind of way.
I did take some time to go to Judy Coates Perez's wonderful Fiesta Ornaments class this past weekend, and it was great fun. You can read about it on both Judy's blog, and my friend Catherine's blog too. I really like taking classes with my friends, and Judy is a great teacher.

I plan to run the giveaway next week, just in time for the holiday spirit, of which I could use some. The tree is up, but not decorated other than lights, and I don't have much energy to get it done.

Tonight I spent hours winding a box full of tangled embroidery threads onto floss card bobbins... Just could not do much else that required thinking. I also spent an hour cleaning my studio, which has not really recovered from the weekend class supply "grab" and coming back from Baltimore. I did finally remove the suitcase out of the room... Shows how behind I am on everything.

For something quilty, the above is a custom Spencerian script that was made of my name and turned into a rubber stamp. It was made by Victorian Trading Co., whom I love and have been using to slowly decorate my front "parlor". I plan to use the stamp on the labels of my quilts using permanent stamp pad ink.

My next few posts will show all the STUFF I have made lately, I think you'll like it.

A graphic update!

OOO! Pretty pictures!

On the way back from a work trip, I saw this neat pumpkin patch. Fall is finally here.

The troublesome trio were at it again when Catherine (center) was speaking at the Wheaton IL guild. Steph (left) invited me along, and we had a blast. We also decided to take a class together at the Mancuso Quilt show next month.


My guild, the Riverwalk Quilters Guild, had their annual small quilt auction so I made this altered spoon, and attached it to a quilted background. The spoon was inspired by directions in a recent Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine article written by Kelli Perkins. I wanted to try this and also wanted to figure out attaching the spoons to quilts for a project I am making for my house.


I also made this small 6 by 18 inch wall hanging, that the DH loved and didn't want me to give away. I forgot to photograph it before I gave it to the guild, so this picture is taken on the hood of my car.



Speaking of Kelli Perkins, she recently did a giveaway on her blog of supplies from her studio, and I tossed my hat in the ring. I got this package today.



Here is what was in it! My cat, Lillith, is modeling some of the lovely bits of ephemera and yarns and buttons and other amazing stuff Kelli sent me. Thanks Kelli!

Lastly, I went back to this for the first time in over a year today. I'm back on the wagon!

Aren't we "trouble" personified?

My Riverwalk Quilt Guild friend Catherine Redford has a picture of my buddy Steph and me on her blog. Check it out!