Quilty Pleasures-Finally a Finish! Dashes and Patches

I hope you folks out there on the East Coast are snugly and safely tucked in with plenty of projects and reading material for the duration of your storm. I think hurricanes and tornadoes are much scarier than earthquakes. In Southern California, we don't know when an earthquake will strike, so blithely go about our lalala lives until it actually happens.

Then we're all, "Earthquake!" Since we moved out to New Mexico, I watch the "Earthquake!" comments from afar on Facebook. First one "Earthquake!", then another, then the comments about how it felt. Then the "Are you okay?" questions start followed by the "Shucks! Weren't nuthin'!" comments. When we lived in SoCal my favorite earthquake times were when talking to a friend on the phone, they would say, "Earthquake! Whoa!" and in a few seconds, I would feel the floor jiggling or rumbling and say, "There it is."

Anyway, hang in there, East Coasters, and be glad you had some lead time to get ready.

I am on a mission to finish the many quilting projects lurking in various containers and bags piled in the sewing room's corners. I love to take classes and start stuff, but then the siren song of another project calls and I cast the current project aside to start something new.

This Dashes and Patches quilt was started in Dimmett, Texas, at the amazing Ogallala Quilt Festival. Ann, who owns Thread Bear in Las Vegas, and I traveled there to view the quilts and to take a couple classes, one which was taught by notable quilter and teacher Yvonna Hayes. The quilt is mostly nine patch and churn dash blocks, but my big old fat quarter pack of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley fabric didn't allow for all the non-pieced blocks Yvonna had in her pattern, so I had to make some four patch blocks as substitutes.

The contrast is subtle in these fabrics which is just fine with me, since it's going on our bed, shared not only with Tom but also with Ms. Pearl and Miss Bonnie. A light colored quilt just won't work. I tried my Aunt Martha quilt on the bed for a while and it just didn't go well with dog and cat hair.

Below is the back which used fabric from In the Beginning's Chickadee, designed by Julie Paschkis. I used this fabric for two reasons: I loved the brilliant, jewel-like the colors and it's just as gorgeous as the front of the quilt. When I get bored with one side, it can be flipped over.

Note the sides, where I had to add just a smidge because it just wasn't wide enough! Don't you hate when that happens?

Because this quilt will be laundered often, the binding was machine stitched. I tried something new, which was fusible thread in the bobbin when stitching the binding to the back of the quilt. When the binding was brought to the front, I ironed the binding to the fusible thread, eliminating the need for any pins or clips as I top stitched. One caveat: I used the same fusible thread for another quilt binding last night and it wouldn't fuse! The fabric was different, so maybe that was the problem, or maybe since the quilting went right to the edge the thread caused a barrier to proper fusion. I will experiment more with this stuff to see what's up. But it turned out well on this quilt.

Binding front

Here's the back side of the binding. Using this fusible helped to keep the binding in place, so the stitching on the back actually ended up where it should, for the most part.

You also have a close up of that yummy Chickadee fabric, which is still for sale at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM.

Binding back

The quilting was done by prize winning quilter Claudette Maitland of the Turquoise Angel Quilt Shop in Angel Fire, NM. It's an all over long arm panto called Fleur de Lis, I think.

Judging Quilts in Cattle Country

Just north of Mora County is Colfax County where I went to judge quilts for the quilt show competition at the annual Colfax County Fair. 

Map thanks to http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/county-map/new-mexico.shtml

 Friend Shela grew up in this area, where the county fair was a big deal when she lived there. It still is, Shela, and my cowboy hat is off to the many hard working people who make it happen.

                                                      Abandoned ranch near Wagon Mound, NM

The fairgrounds are in Springer. In this part of New Mexico men wear cowboy hats and women wear t-shirts that say, "Silly boys. Guns are for GIRLS!" I am generalizing here, but several of the ladies I met at the quilt judging were both quilters and shooters. One quilter, Trudie Fay, is a champion rifle shooter, member and coach of the U.S. Rifle Team.

 The fair's program recognizes the brands of all the ranches in the area and livestock judging is an important event. For people used to really big county fairs this will seem small: One exhibit hall and one livestock barn. That's it. But people travel miles for the BBQ, rodeo, parade and kids' parade, pet show, dance, lots of food booths, exhibits, contests and other activities throughout the weekend.

And of course there's the quilt show, which is why I was there. Two able assistants guided me through the judging process and alerted me when there was a tie score. Those were the worst, because I really wanted to give two 1st prizes several times.  But that couldn't happen, so I had to be nit-picky which was difficult.

A significant number of Colfax County quilters practice the arts of hand piecing and hand quilting and their work is exquisite. Quilts were machine pieced and hand quilted, while others were done completely by machine. There were many categories and I was touched by the beginners' quilts, especially the ones done by children, because one can see their hearts and souls in those "first time" quilts.

Here are a few photos of the volunteer crew putting up the quilts in the exhibit hall after they were judged and the elaborate computer system the quilt show organizers were using to keep track of the entries, a record breaking 105 quilts.

Cowboys and computers

A system using baling twine, pants hangers, and a cherry picker, combined with volunteer muscle and ingenuity, hoists the quilts to new heights.

PVC Pipe and pants hangers hold the quilts

Judging quilts was tough because there were so many beautiful pieces and we could see how much work went into each quilt. Putting them into many classes helped, so we looked at groups of quilts with similar characteristics. My feet were tired after standing at a table looking at quilts for five or so hours, but oh, what a tough life I lead!

One thing I learned for sure was this: quilting is alive and well in  Colfax County, New Mexico, guns, girls, cowboys and all!