Phebe has done it again!

 

"The Cotheals at Home" (Phebe) won Best of Show at the first ever Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival held in Overland Park, Kansas this past weekend!

I don't live in the Kansas City area and don't belong to any of the guilds which organized the show. However, anyone was allowed to enter a quilt in the Judged Quilts section and I'm glad I did!

Here I am at the Award Ceremony with show sponsor Myron Shwery from the Windmill Sewing Center who presented me with my prize, a special edition Bernina 350 sewing machine.

I've sewn on my Pfaff Synchromatic 1215 for about 33 years so it seems like an old friend. Now I'll need to learn the Bernina way of doing things. I plan to finish the projects I'm working on now with my Pfaff and eventually switch to the Bernina. I'll keep the Pfaff as a backup machine.

When I got to the show, I was surprised to see that I had a second win. My "Selvage Star of Bethlehem" won first place in the Pieced category!

Julie Gier, a fellow guild member, entered her quilt "Just Around the Corner" in the show. We were the only two Prairie Quilt Guild members to enter quilts in the KCRQF. If they allow non local guild members to enter judged quilts in their show in 2017, I think there will be a few more!

"Remake" by Jane Anderson, First place Mixed Technique

My favorite quilt in the show (other than mine lol), I just kept coming back to it!

A UFO finish before my next guild meeting is looking doubtful. My life has been a bit busy lately and I'm not making the progress I'd like. However if nothing unexpected comes up in the next 3 weeks and I don't get distracted, I just might be able to finish my Jubilee+5 (a few years late) quilt!

Until next time,

Mayleen

Catch Up

Its been over a month since I posted, time to catch up.

My first visit to Quilt Week in Paducah!

 

My Phebe quilt, "The Cotheals at Home", won Honorable Mention in the First Time Paducah entry, Bed Quilts Longarm Quilted. This is what I look like after only 4 hours of sleep.

I had lunch with another quilter, Mona, who I met at Houston last fall and this is her quilt in the show, "Sunset over Lac Clara"! Nice to see you again, Mona!

Did you know I'm a calendar girl? Well, actually my "Selvage Star of Bethlehem" quilt is pictured in the 2016 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar! Here I am (in pink) at the calendar signing party on the first evening we were in Paducah. I must have had some coffee by then because I'm looking more awake.

Here it is, the very last quilt in the book! Lots more happened in Paducah - quilts, shopping, eating plus a few interesting experiences with our bus tour. I don't know that anyone from Paducah, KY reads my blog but "Thank You!" for being friendly and offering help when we needed it!

 Back home again, I needed a UFO finish for May so here it is, quilted by another guild member, Susan McMillan. I'm fairly sure that while I was working on it, I had a brown cloud hanging over me. I initially named it "Serengetti Oaks" because the border fabric reminded me of zebras and an African safari. I'm thinking of renaming it ...

"Second Spring" from a quote by Albert Camus.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." 

Albert Camus

Until next time,

Mayleen

September 30

Have you ever had a day that you're never going to forget? 

September 30th was that kind of day for me!

  Our third grandchild, Ethan, was born premature on September 30th but will soon be released from the hospital! We're looking forward to getting to know him better.

That evening was also my first board meeting as President of the Prairie Quilt Guild. I survived.

During the meeting, I received a phone call letting me know my quilt, "The Cotheals at Home" (Phebe) won 2nd place in the Bed Quilt - Machine Quilted category at the AQS Des Moines show!  Here I am standing next to it at the show just this past weekend.

My "Selvage Star of Bethlehem" quilt didn't win a ribbon but there may be some fun news about it in the future!

I'll share some of the other winners from the show in my next blog post.

Until next time, Mayleen

In Pieces

Life certainly can change quickly, can't it? Just when I thought my life was getting a little predictable and boring, wham! To try to catch up, here are a few pictures and short explanations. Believe me, the story behind the story is too long.

First of all, Mustard and Ketchup -

I think this is the last image you saw of it. Since then, I decided to take the borders off because the pieced diamonds were too wide by about 3/8 of an inch. I could have lived with it but the mistake would have just become worse with every subsequent border. 

So, off they came and I experimented with sewing the seams in a tiny amount.

Here's one of the borders I thought I'd fixed. Not sure how I could have made such a big blunder! Its way too short and if you look carefully, you'll notice that I've scorched the fabric. I was so disgusted with myself because it meant looking for new border fabric to match the red in the star.

Border on the left - too bright red

Border on the top - too dark red and I don't like the bright yellow flowers.

Border fabric on the right - maybe it will work. I haven't had time to try piecing it yet.

Would the maker of the original quilt struggled with this? Probably not. She would have just used what she had but not me. 

About this time, I was reminded that way back in early summer I signed up for an online nine patch swap Barb is hosting.  With only 6 weeks to go, I hadn't even begun stitching the 100 3-inch nine patches yet! So glad I was able to put them in the mail to her last week.  

However, my ultimate craziness happened when in a moment of weakness I agreed to be president of our quilt guild, Prairie Quilt Guild for the next fiscal year. Since then I've been immersed in details, meeting board members, appointing committee chairs and realizing how little I know! Traditionally the president makes name tags for her board and committee chairs and the picture is a sneak peek at all 40 of them.

OH yes, other big news. Two of my quilts were juried into the AQS Des Moines show coming up October 1-4!

"The Cotheals at Home" (Phebe) and the "Selvage Star of Bethlehem" will be there and so will I! Looking forward to it very much.

One last thing. Our son and his family are staying with us during his job search. Tell me this, where does a two year old get all his energy and can I get some!?!

Until next time, Mayleen

Phebe Wins in Wichita!

"The Cotheals at Home" 

***Best of Show***

Common Threads 2014, Wichita, KS

Made by: Mayleen Vinson

Pattern: Phebe by Di Ford

Machine Quilted by: Jan Hutchison

Here I am with my quilt at the Award Ceremony! Jan is in the background.

More photos coming soon.