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Let's Quilt in St. George, Utah

I just got back from the Let's Quilt INNOVA Longarm Training Center in St. George, Utah.  My head is just swimming with new ideas and techniques.  I cannot remember being so tired. This old brain was trying to absorb as much as it could, for up to 10 hours a day.  I came back to my hotel room absolutely exhausted each night. I had no idea that I would learn so much, or to put it another way, I had no idea all that I didn't know.

This is an amazing place, and everyone at John and Teryl McKnight's facility is really great to work with.  I bought a few things, and as soon as I am done here, I am hopping on that longarm to finish up a customer's quilt, and then to stitch out more of what I learned from Teryl.  She is one incredibly knowledgeable person.
I was fortunate to learn alongside five lovely ladies.  Beth, Vanessa, Harriet, Jackie, and Judy. I just noticed you can barely see Vanessa in the pictures.  Sorry Vanessa!  Vanessa is an extremely talented embroidery and applique pattern designer.   Hopefully I will be able to show one of her designs here on my blog as a finished product.

I sure wish I lived closer to these women so we could get together once in a while... to bounce ideas around, get advice, and laugh.   The quilts in the background are Marilyn Badger's quilts (possibly Cory Allender has one hanging here as well).

I hope to post some of my class samples soon.

How Do You Display Your Quilts?

Karen, over at http://chezstitches.blogspot.com  is hosting a fun linky party, and I can't resist.   Karen's displays are really unique and creative, and her photography is great, too.  I think I am going to start looking around for more creative ways to display my quilts since I have quite a few in the closet.  I need to get them out, huh?  If you don't have time to link and post, maybe you can help me to get more creative...

How about this?  When you don't want to buy curtains, and you have lots of unquilted tops, what do you do?  Well, I use them as curtains...  adds a bit of color to the room, doesn't it?  I sure hope I can get time to get them quilted and give them a proper home...

of course, you have to utilize a quilt hanger, don't you?  this one has sentimental value... my dad made the hanger, and the pewter collection was my mom's.

Here's that fun church pew my daughter gave me for Christmas.  She refinished it, and I LOVE it!  It doesn't normally hold quilts, but I have been cleaning and had too many quilts laying around with the bindings unfinished... they can rest here for awhile...

 Nothing too exciting about this blue applique, but I like it.

Finally, here's my favorite.  My wholecloth.  It's the one that really makes me say, hey, maybe I CAN do this longarming stuff...  It has a cherished place next to my Green Bay Packers pennant, and a cool picture of Nemo.  Love Nemo.

Thanks Karen for hosting this fun party.  Now, I have to get back to the longarm.

Montana!

My daughter Christina made this cute quilt, and I just quilted the panto Honeycomb on it.  I enjoyed doing that panto.  I listened to an audiobook by Ruth Rendell, and thought about my daughter.  Both of our daughters have just decided (within the last three months) to move with their families (all four of our grandchildren)  to Montana.  Wow!!!  That is a long way from here.  We aren't going to talk about how much we will miss them all.  Nope.  

I am naming her quilt for her, The Road to Montana.  Isn't it cute?

Why is a Baptist Fan Called a Baptist Fan?!?

I like to think of myself as a wannabe history buff sometimes.  Other times a wannabe etymologist.  So I want to know where this term came from.    I spent some time this evening researching, but no luck.  I could easily lose hours upon hours searching for something on the Internet. 

I quilted this cute little Thimbleberries top for Joanie, and used an old-fashioned Baptist Fan quilting pattern, (which has recently made a resurgence among "modern" quilters).  It's a great edge to edge treatment that works great on many quilt tops.

Baptist fan...  As in an actual fan used in a Baptist church?  Where the heck did this name come from?  Do you know?  Please share with us here if you do know! 

Lotsa Feathers

I really LOVE this quilt!  Joanie made it, originally asked for a simple edge to edge treatment, but then she agreed to let me do more!  I fell in love with the colors and fabrics, and had so much fun on this one.  I took tons of pictures - it always helps to finish a quilt in the day time so you can get the best lighting without a flash.

The border...

the corner,,,

simple feathers

hump and bump feathers 

the back

more of the back

a little bit of 'back and forth"

I really, really, really LOVE my Innova with LS!  

I saw the spiral feather wreath and the "L's" in the squares on Jenny Pedigo's blog:  http://jennysdoodlingneedle.blogspot.com/  Thanks for sharing, Jenny!