INTERNATIONAL QUILT SHOW CHICAGO; TIE QUILT; SANTAS

Yesterday my neighbor and I went to the International Quilt Show in Chicago. It was huge but fun. Surprisingly there was a knitting booth, and I bought this luscious boucle yarn with which to make a sweater. It is merino wool from Canada that the gal dyes herself. I also bought the wonderful copper pin to use to close the sweater. I want to knit when my mom has hip replacement surgery in a week.

I am making my brother a Beatles quilt and found a bit more Beatles fabric. Have to get myself on my Electric Quilt program and design the quilt. Maybe tomorrow! I do know the basic layout. Just have to figure out the specifics for cutting the blocks.

Bought a bunch of cones of thread for my long arm quilting machine plus an open toe foot for it.

There were so many wonderful booths of "stuff" there that I was exhausted from looking at all of it. I wanted to purchase some fabric but there was too much. I couldn't make a decision. I did see a booth of stitching. She had tiny miniature pieces like my silk gauze designs only these were stitched using only French or colonial knots! Can't imagine doing that. They were fantastic. Was happy to see all the booths selling beautiful wool fabric for rug hooking and penny rugs. 

I addition to the booths of merchandise, there were also various displays of both modern and antique quilts which we enjoyed seeing. We spent the hours between 10 and 2 there. It was a fun day. 

SILK TIE QUILT—

When I was at my mom's on Thursday, I took some photos of the tie quilt wall hanging that I had made for my dad several years ago. It all started with my neighbor Donna who wanted to make a quilt from her dad's ties. She is not a big sewer. We looked for patterns but didn't come up with anything until I found a book at the library called Quilts for Guys or something similar. In there was a fantastic quilt that we both loved so we each made one, and they turned out very different. I will try to get a photo of Donna's quilt and then put both on here together so you can compare. 

This is mine. We used the ties, the tie tips for the prairie points on the edges of the quilt, the tie linings, the labels and old shirts and old pearl buttons. I think we used 100 different ties and 140 tie tails for the prairie points on each quilt. We self bound the quilt and backed it in black velveteen. We found the shirts at a church garage sale. (Fill the bag with all you can for $5 or was it $15...no matter.) I washed the shirts and pulled them apart at the seams. Donna loves to iron so she got the ironing job. We also pulled apart all the ties and washed them either by hand or in a mesh bag in the washing machine. Before we paper pieced the quilt, we ironed a light weight interfacing to the back of both the ties and the shirts--I think. The ties are cut on the bias so they needed a bit of stabilizing. Because each button was different, we had to hand sew them to the finished quilt. I chided Donna til she finished her quilt. Some times she would be sewing and I would be lying on my sofa reading a book. I wanted her to finish this piece! And in the end, she was happy I cracked the whip over her! I also made a crazy quilt jacket for my mom with the golf ties as Mom is a big golfer. Don't think I have a photo of it but will take one next time I see her.

This quilt below is the smaller wall hanging that I made my dad. I also made one for my daughter's father-in-law and my brother-in-law and my neighbor who gave me a stash of Jack Nicklaus golfing ties. One wall hanging was square and the others were rectangular. This is a versatile pattern. Some times I used the small neck area of the tie for the binding. Some times I used the labels. Each wall hanging was different. For the most part I tried to use family ties. Start collecting your family ties before they are thrown away or donated to charity. I love ties and have a huge stash of them all ready to make another quilt. Found some very nice ideas for other quilt designs on the internet.

THE REST OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOOLER SANTAS—I finished all eight of them.

PRAIRIE SCHOOLER ABC—This is a copy of the cover of the chart. There is a blog group who is stitching this together and they have some great ideas on personalizing the piece.  Just google Prairie Schooler ABC.

Have 1 night of stitching on the letter A. Tonight will be my third night. Last night I watched the movie Precious while I stitched. I liked it a lot especially since I had read the book the day before. It is brutal, but I loved the main character and her guts for getting on with her life after a horrible, horrible childhood.

Today my mom and I went to see my granddaughter Jess at her horse back riding school show. She is now jumping 18" heights and really "galloping" around the ring. She got 2-5th places and a 1st. I hadn't a clue as to how the 5 girls were judged. Of course, we thought she should have received all first place ribbons! Both of my daughters and their husbands were also there, Jess's sister, her other grand parents and my brother, sister-in-law and nephew. It was a nice family crowd cheering for her. She was able to choose the horse she wanted to ride in the show. 

Afterward I went to a nearby Walmart to look for my doggie bandanna fabric, but they were remodeling the store and had closed the fabric section for good. Woe is me. Will have to drive to a store that is farther away. Fabric at Joanne's even at 40 or 50% off is never as cheap as Walmart fabric. And you don't need expensive fabric for bandannas for dogs. 

Better go now. Time for Murphy to get his dinner.  --Nancy