February

So this quilt, Kenophobia, won Best Wall Quilt at the American Quilter's Society show in Daytona Beach, FL in February.

Since this was a big award, and it was Florida, and February, I decided to go down there to see my quilt in the show. Normally I don't do that, but the prize was big enough to get on a plane, change into my sandals and attend the show for a few days.
Brian came along, he was reluctant but I told him he could fish on Saturday.
Here's a picture of me standing by my quilt:

Shortly after that, I moved around the corner to look at someone else's quilt and two women walked by my quilt and one of them said something on the order of "you never know what the judges were thinking". Which I thought was hilarious (I think that quite often about other people's quilts, so I don't mind it at all when someone says it about mine. )Brian's eyebrows went up and I mouthed at him to be quiet and not say anything.

And then he had to spend Sunday with me, as the quilt show was closed. So we hung out on Daytona Beach during the day, and then at night, we tried to watch the Spacex rocket take off from Cape Canaveral. BUT they scrubbed it twice, the first time, because a boat had wandered into the verbotten space surrounding the launch and then a second time, because the delay caused by the boat allowed something to heat up. In the meantime, we kept running back and forth from our hotel room to the beach while I was checking the countdown on my iphone.

Then we came home in time for a big snowstorm. Of course.


 

Current quilt

I started this quilt several years ago, from a pattern used in my workshop, Art Deco and Flower Fused Components

I worked on it during Chicago Modern Guild retreat one year, and lost a section! There is supposed to be a band between the Greek Key section and those pointy petals. I made corrections to the work in progress before I realized the initial mistake. (I found the missing pieces and figured out what had happened.)

Anyway, I kept working, declared the top finished and started quilting. Then I took it off my longarm in order to work on another project. I decided instead of continuing to quilt it as is, I'd fix the parts I wasn't happy with, and THEN, instead of quilting, I'm going to do some thread painting over some of the pieces. First I will mount the finished top on my longarm (APQS Millie) to do the thread painting. When I done/bored with that, I'd remount it with batting behind it, then quilt it. I truthfully don't think this will take much longer than quilting the life out of it in the first place, as the thread painted areas won't need quilting.

Here's a picture of the top as it was this week, I was working on that gold band:

I've added some gear shapes, I've shared those shapes before. I think they are becoming my logo...

Good start to a new year!

Happy New Year! 2015 was a great year for me and mine and I KNOW that 2016 will be fantastic too!

It's About Time appeared on the cover of the October/November issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. This was a big deal for me, a milestone. QNM was the first quilt magazine I read on a regular basis, and still my favorite for all things quilty, so being on the cover really meant a lot.

It's About Time ©Robbi Joy Eklow 2016

Another quilt, Kenophobia, won a 3rd place award in the World Of Beauty contest in Houston last fall. My visit to the quilt show was cut short by the birth of my adorable grandson, Bennett John Kruse, but it was still really fun to be at the show for a few days.

Kenophobia ©Robbi Joy Eklow 2016

Earlier in the year, another quilt, Flowers and Gears, won a 3rd place ribbon in the Small Wall Quilt, Longarm catagory, at the 2015 AQS QuiltWeek Paducah contest.

Flowers and Gears ©Robbi Joy Eklow 2016

So, that was an exciting year. And to start off this year,  I'm going to Denver to teach a class at the new location of Myrna Ficken's store , A Quilter's Choice.

Myrna is a fantastic AQPS dealer, and I was delighted when she asked if I would come visit and teach a free motion quilting class for her. The class will be on January 21, 2016. Students can either either a longarm in her shop, or a domestic machine. Here's a specific link to the class: Expressive Unmarked Free Motion Quilting


Back in Chicago, I'll be teaching a fusing class for the Prairie Star Quilter's Guild  on January 25, and giving two lectures. Contact Joanne Sattler for more info.


As soon as I get home, I'll be shipping two quilts to AQS for their new show in Florida, Kenophobia and Happy.

So with that, have a Happy New Year and I hope I get to see you or a quilt of yours this year!