Some quilts from other countries

I think my favorite thing of the quilt show was the international display of quilt winners from different countries. I love seeing the different colors, styles and fabrics they use. So below I've given you a sample of one of my favorite quilts from each country (at least the ones I could remember the country for!). And these are by no means my only favorites, just ones that are fun to share.

Before we get into pictures though, for those of you who are still wondering what the song is to the blue wall hanging in the previous post .... Paula the Quilter got it right - "Blue Moon".

The above quilt is from Italy. It contains about 20,000 one inch squares! YIKES!


Then is a very cool quilt from Brazil. I don't know exactly what drew me to this quilt, but everytime I walked around this quilt caught my eye.




And for some reason I loved this quilt from Germany. I found it very calming and interesting.


And then was this great quilt of trees from South Africa. I just love the look of all the different trees. I looked at those trees forever. How come our trees in the US don't look as fun!

And then comes New Zealand - there were TONS of quilts from New Zealand I loved. I didn't know which one to pick to show you! So I chose this quilt for Lucy. The fabrics came from Amsterdam and I LOVED them.

And last but not least is one from Canada. I decided to pick a humorous one from Canada. If you can't read the sign I HAVE to share it with you because it makes the quilt soooo funny.

"A woman "of a certain age" she's HOT! She's active. She carries her history with pride. But my goodness, does she have to flash so often?"

Quilt Gifts and Show....

Look at what Sossy sent me the other day for a thank you for some help I gave her! Isn't it all WONDERFUL! I hadn't had time to take a picture until last night. I can't wait to use all the blocks! Is this not a fun surprise or what!

Played hooky yesterday afternoon from work while stuff was running and ran to the Mancuso Quilt Expo in Schaumburg. This is the first year they have had this show in this area and they have not advertised it well. I don't think a lot of people know it is here. It is a shame for the vendors, but was wonderful for me yesterday - was it empty! So I had plenty of space to wander and look at the quilts. And you know what happened! My battery died in my camera! Ughh. So I guess I'll go back today and take some more pictures. You get a wrist band so I can get back in. I did get some pictures before it died so I'll share a few below.


This one had to be the funniest for some reason. I have no idea why, but it really made me laugh. This one was in the "Songs in the Stitches" exhibit from the Mason Dixon Quilt Professionals Network. It was a challenge to interpret a song title or lyrics into a quilt. The name of this quilt is "Seams like a familiar tune..... Cheeseburger 'n Pair o' Dice"!
OK name that toon above........

Of course antique quilts are always my favorite......

A few more fun pics from retreat

Just a few more pics from the retreat since I"m so busy with work this week and with the kids at home I haven't had time to sew anything to share!

A few more pics from my retreat

Thought I would share some of the eye candy with you from retreat! I'm slowly catching up with work and blogs, so thought I could take a few minutes to share some more pics with you. There were so many good things to share I probably won't ever be able to share them all with you!

The top picture was a quilt my roommate had been working on for a long time. But she loved it so much she decided to enlarge it from full size to a queen bedspread size! So she was working on more blocks and putting them and the borders on this weekend. I've never met Carol before but we had fun. She is a friend of some friends I know from the retreat. My buddy couldn't come this year, so I paired up with Carol.

Carol also was making an Eifel Tower wall hanging for her friend Nancy's daughter who loves France. The work she has done on this is unbelievable. The black was fused onto fusible webbing and then she is cutting out all these little holes with a small exacto knife! The background is that fabric "Paris Flea Market" with the street maps of Paris on it! She also designed the border idea while at camp!

And this is Nancy - on your right (whose daughter is getting the Eifel Tower). She made this really fun quilt top with the Moda Hanky's on it! What a fun idea if you knew someone who collected hanky's.

And this is Sharon Nancy's sister - on your right. She made this amazing blooming 9-patch quilt! The individual fabrics looked so ugly next to each other - but WOW - look how they bloomed in the quilt! It was amazing!

And last but not least my original project I was going to work on. I got this far (well I got all the star arms made - they just aren't hanging up) and realized I forgot the fabric pieces that go in the V! So this project got put away and Moonshine became my project for the weekend! Which now I"m glad - I love how moonshine turned out.

Moonshine is done!

Ok well the top is done. I got this one completely done at the retreat this weekend. I"m tired but happy. Isn't it great! I have so much to share with you, but work was busy and with being out Friday I'm a bit behind - so for today I thought I would share what I accomplished!

A bit of this and that....

Just a few loose ends to tie up before I go on retreat tomorrow!!!! YES!!!!! Above is my completed purse. I can't for the life of me find my may jar of fun buttons - so my purse got a just a round metal button for now.

And here is a full view of my stars quilt. I was in a hurry last night so wish I had gotten a better picture. I think part of the problem is my camera is getting old - or maybe it is the user is getting old!

I had to share this really fun quilt I saw at guild last night. Isn't it awesome! What a clever way to use Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks! It is in the book Quilts from Grandmother's Garden by Jaynette Huff (picture below).

And last but not least I just had to share this picture I sent to my kids for Halloween. This was Halloween probably about 12 years ago at our house! Look at how sweet and innocent they were! Not the rude teenagers they can be these days. But my oldest (20) did get a kick out of it - and even shared it with her friends at college. They couldn't believe Holly and Adam looked like that 12 years ago!

OK, so I broke down and did it.....

OK, so I had to do it too.....

Have You Ever?

1. Taken a quilting class
2. Paper pieced
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
(well I've had a designed quilt on the cover of a text book)
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting convention
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting - like fabric origami
12. Made something using Thimbleberries fabric
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric
15. Made a landscape hanging
16. Made a New York Beauty quilt
17. Made a baby quilt
18. Made a wall hanging
19. Made a journal quilt
20. Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21. Made a fabric postcard
22. Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23. Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed your own postcard
25. Made a lap quilt
26. Made a twin size quilt
27. Made a full size quilt
28. Made a queen size quilt
29. Made a king size quilt
30. Donated a quilt to charity
31. Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32. Thrown away a UFO
33. Given away a UFO
34. Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35. Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36. Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37. Done any Sashiko
38. Quilted your own quilt
39. Did free motion quilting
40. Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41. Given away your quilt to a stranger
42. Swapped fabric
43. swapped blocks
44. participated in a round robin
45. Participated in an ostrich round robin
46. kept a journal about your quilting
47. Written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
48. kept a blog about your quilting
49. participated in a gift exchange
50. I have no idea what 50 was.....
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing
61 hide a fabric purchase
62 finished making a holiday gift before July
63 spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. Joined a quilt guild
67 become president of a quilt guild
68 taught a quilting class
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 taught a child to sew
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt
73 watch QNN - quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
(two # 73's! Bet I found what happened to #50!)
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 buy fabric from another country
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt - something other than cotton or flannel
82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online
85 had a quilting retreat in your home
86 own quilting software
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store
(does ebay count?)
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country - African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. Submitted your quilt to a quilt show
100. Won any ribbons with your quilts
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry

Lucy - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Lucy thought she should send a thank you for the books I sent her - silly girl! I've only been promising those books to her now for almost a year and finally got them sent off. Anyway, I got this WONDERFUL package in the mail from her Monday. I am in heaven!

The little dolls are so adorable! My pictures are bad, it was late so I had bad lighting and took them fast. Anyway, these are typical little dolls that children would play with about 100 years ago. Today the older ladies make them out of 100 yr old fabrics to sell at the museum in Marken. Aren't they just adorable! They are little, guess I didn't get a good guage of size. The big one is maybe about 4" long.

And the fabrics are antique fabrics of the "bows" the ladies used to wear on the top front of their dresses. Lucy explained this better than I can -
We have more places here where woman still wwear the costumes.. But they are not so colorfull as marken.
The fabrics you get we call here a Bow. It is the piece on the breast from the ladys. They pin it on their shirt! and they change it everyday. I lady told me once that she remmebered when she was little ( she was now 82) That on friday a man with a wagon came on 11 o clock .. it was coffeetime and the woman where done with their hosuekeeping. so the man came with a wagon full with fabrics!! The woman choose the most beautifull for their "Bow"!
Isn't that fun!

And last but sure not least - look what made it to my house! Her mini quilt! I loved it so much when I saw it on her blog! But I want to cry when I think she sent it to me and now she doesn't have it! You would not believe how tiny those 4 patches are! The 4-patch is smaller than a thimble! It is amazing!

Lucy sent me this information also -
Marken is my favourite place from the Netherlands. it is a island , a old fishermans village. The houses are typical from there and so also there clothes. The people lives for years in a close community!
here a impression from the island.

http://home.wxs.nl/~napel/diashow.htm
http://www.hofvanmarken.nl/www/html/ned/tips/museum.htm
http://www.hofvanmarken.nl/www/html/ned/tips/klederd.htm

Thank you so much Lucy!!!!!!!

And I had hoped to share a picture of my finished purse today with the fun button, but can you believe I could not find my jar of fun buttons last night! ughhh. So I have to rack my brain today where I could have put it.