Berry Dusk : Mosaic Entry

Here's my second entry for the Mood Berry Mosaic Contest over at Stitched in Color! Again, fabrics are from Fabricworm.com as specified for the contest - so much fun to fabric play and curate a specific group of colors & prints. 

Night Blooms : Mosaic Entry

Hello friends - do you love playing with color & fabric combinations? Check out Stitched in Color's blog for her latest Mosaic Contest- Mood Berries. Choosing only 9 fabrics from a whole shop can be challenging, but here's my first entry.

May I present Night Blooms. 

These brought to mind gardens full of colorful blooms at twilight in the late summertime. Fabrics from Fabricworm online shop.

Fall Paducah Quilt Week

A couple weeks ago we had the 2nd ever Fall Paducah Quilt Show in town! We were a bit more prepared this time around and it was a week of quilts and fun and quilters and work. My work hours were fairly normal for a Quilt Week (hooray!), and I managed to duck over to see the show & exhibits on occasion.  Mostly, my duties include manning a register, taking pictures for social media, helping out when artists visit and agree to photos &/or a video interview, and generally being useful and building relationships with artists.

Oh, this guy? He flew into the museum and is covered with fabric - a patchwork pelican!

Here are just a few of the quilts that caught my eye at the show - some really great quilts being exhibited. These first two were part of the Taiwan Art Quilts exhibit.

Growing Continually II by Huei-Lan Chaung

Coexistence by Lien-Chao Tseng

Sunshine by Kat Jones, Australia

Arches by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

Faces of Four Seasons by Joann Baeth

Hello Harvey - Hello Irma by Beverly Blessing & Lynette Mart

Found it interesting that while the Quilt Show took place, the East Coast was preparing for Hurricane Florence, and there were 2 hurricane-inspired quilts.


Both were eye catching, though different in size, and very on point with their appeal for the current events ongoing.

Infrared Maria by Ann Harwell

This quilt stopped me in my tracks on the floor. The detail and design was intriguing and I had to take a closer look for sure on the quilting. What a cool design and such workmanship! The Scenery of Gameunsa Temple by Hyesook Kim, South Korea.

The colors! The white water breaking over the curl! The spray of the water! Love this!

Wave by Debi Webb

One of the special exhibits was Bourbon in the Bluegrass: quilts inspired by KY bourbon makers, made by MJ Kinman. While they are striking through the camera lens, in person they were excellent! Makes me want to like bourbon more....haha.

Between River and Sky

Kentucky Honey

 This made me smile! How can you resist?!

Making Amends by Carol Cote, Canada

Casting Shadows by Paige Alexander

That's Life by Mary Landon

One of the other special exhibits was Tula Pink's quilts! These were really fun to see in person, face to face if you will, after seeing them online as patterns or fabrics in progress. Tula's quilts are quilted by Angela Walters and it was awesome to see so much of her quilting in person too! Extra bonus fun? I went to Tula's evening talk Thursday night. So good! Seriously, so. good.

 Tula gave us an insight into her inspirations and creativity and process as she works her magic. Takeaways from her talk: Don't be afraid to have bad ideas, the good ones are in there too!
Make it authentic to your hand, to you. Art is the artist telling you who they are.

I have to say, Tula lives up to her reputation in a great way and if you have a chance to go see her-go!

me & Tula!

 All in all a great week, and a fun Fall Paducah Quilt Week!

Capture It, Remember It

Early in my time at the museum I set a precedent in making a mini quilt/block for staff members who retired/moved/etc. so they had a quilty remembrance of their time with us. However, it also means these have a rapid turnaround time once we find out!

This time, one of my dear friends was leaving for a new job opportunity so I wanted to make something really good. E was running our social media which meant taking lots of pictures around the museum so I went on a search for camera blocks to start. 

Found this paper pieced camera from Whims and Fancies shop on Craftsy and knew it was perfect!

It came together fairly quick, and the hardest part was getting everyone to sign it without E knowing - not an easy feat. We gifted it last week and she loved it. So here's to your next adventures and a reminder to Capture Memories - Love you!

Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts for Finish it Up Friday!

Gliders - NQM Block of the Month Club - September

Super excited to share my latest project with everyone - I'm the guest designer for the September block in the Block of the Month Club with the National Quilt Museum. So awesome!

Have you heard about the Club? It's a Free club that encourages quilters of all skill levels to try new techniques & styles each month with a 10"x10" block pattern designed by a guest quilter. Blocks relate to the exhibits or other happenings at the National Quilt Museum. 

You can Join the Facebook group or find the patterns on the Museum website. It's not to late to join in on the fun - the club runs through April 2019! 

My block, which I named "Gliders," is made with Foundation Paper Piecing and was inspired by my job as Director of Education at the National Quilt Museum. I share the art of quilting with everybody I encounter and encourage creativity in each person & program which really makes my job the best!

I chose foundation paper piecing because it's such a versatile technique and one that I love. If you need some extra help getting started, or a refresher, I made a tutorial video for the pattern that you can find on the Quilt Museum's YouTube Channel. So get out your fabric and start stitching!