I’m having an overload of creativity at the moment, so much so that I don’t even know what to work on next. I have all of these ideas, and I’ll never have time to really explore any of them to their fullest potential I think. It all comes and goes in cycles, and right now the cycle is definitely on the upswing. I spent a whole weekend recently brainstorming and creating a new website after an idea hit me as I woke up one morning, and now I just have to find the time to continue to nurture it and create new content. It’s something I needed to create to get it out of my system, but after that initial (very satisfying) rush of creation, carving out time to devote on even a weekly basis may be difficult.

In the quilting department, I’m still plugging away at The Misery Quilt (it really does have another name, but I’m not telling yet, and I’m not entirely sure it’s over being a misery anyway), but all the creative idea generation on that project is already done. Now it’s just the doing part, which doesn’t mean that I’m unmotivated to work on it, it just means that there are other creative things vying for attention. Now, I can think about the other creative things while I work on the quilt, because tracing quilting designs (and even quilting them) is rather mindless stuff, which leaves the mind free to scoot off in other directions. Honestly though, leaving my mind free to create yet another new idea is about the last thing I really need to do right now.

Unfortunately, life hands me mindless moments way too often. On Tuesdays every week, it’s sitting for a couple of hours at LittleOne’s flute lesson. I listen in, but she and her teacher communicate in German, so I pretty much tune out during the lessons, Read the rest of this entry »

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Part two of a four part series about entering quilt shows, the jurying and judging process. This series is based on my experiences at quilt shows and classes I’ve taken about the quilt judging process.

Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and show your quilts, how do you know where to enter your work? The very first place you should start is your local quilt guild! Does your guild organize a yearly show? If it doesn’t, start one! Guild shows are a great place to get your feet wet, and show off your work in a friendly environment. Consider holding a quilt raffle in conjunction with your show, to help fund the show or provide charitable donations to your community.

Look in quilt magazines for show calendars, and get addresses to send for information and entry forms. Many quilt shows and exhibits can also be found online; do a Google search, and then visit the websites where you’ll most likely find all the information and entry forms you need in downloadable form. Some quilt shows will even let you submit your entry electronically, either online or by email. Do make effort to determine what types of quilts are usually seen at each show (more traditional quilts, more art quilts, some of each) by searching online for pictures of past winners or exhibits if they are available.

They’re looking for suitability, workmanship, the out of the ordinary and the “Wow!”

When you start entering your quilts in shows, you’ll find that there are a few different types of shows, and it’s helpful to know what the terminology means. Some quilt shows are juried, meaning that you must send pictures or slides to the show organizers ahead of time. A jury of quilt judges will look at all the submissions and choose which quilts will be accepted to the show. If your quilt is accepted into the show, you’ll be asked to ship the quilt just before the show so it can be judged for awards, if it is a judged show. Major quilt shows like the IQA World of Beauty Quilt Show in Houston, Texas and the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show in Paducah , Kentucky follow this format. Special exhibit shows are often juried but not judged for awards, like the In the American Tradition exhibit sponsored by the IQA. Read the rest of this entry »

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I was out half the night partying on Saturday and let me tell you, the body paid for it the next day. Talk about suffering! I had a headache, and my back was killing me, along with my forearms. This is what happens when you overdo as we all know, and no, I’m not looking for sympathy! We had a great time, so no regrets at all.

This is really all about machine quilting until the wee hours (when I haven’t been machine quilting at all for a while!), and having my body complain vociferously the next day. I have these wimpy forearms that don’t like too much repetitive motion or stress, and then I abused them badly. Not only that, I was sitting at a table that was too high so that didn’t help either. So the forearms are botched for a bit until they recover.

The other problem is the neck and back, which probably caused the headache too. See, the biggest issue is the machine itself. These machines are just not made for people like me, with a long upper body. I’ve looked for solutions before, but the tilt table idea didn’t work well for machine quilting with the Bernina. The Bernina has the same problem as the Pfaff: the machine head is so big that it obstructs the view of the needle and surrounding area when my chair and table are at the right height for machine quilting. I end up hunching down in the chair so that I can see the needle area better, which is no good for the back. This is what I see if I’m sitting up straight(er) in the chair when I machine quilt:

Heh, you see that? (See what?) Exactly. I can barely see the free motion foot, much less the needle, and anything behind it is a total loss. This is why I usually sit too low so I can see better, and hunch down as well, which places even more stress on my arms and back than machine quilting does to begin with. I finally got frustrated with the whole thing between the back pain and the arm pain and all, and removed the cover from the machine head to get all that white plastic out of my way:

Oh look! There’s the needle! And I can even see some of the space behind it! Okay, it’s still difficult because of all the parts in the way, but it really did help some to remove the plastic cover from the head of the machine. Maybe I won’t have to hunch down quite so far in the chair to see where I’m going with the quilt. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this and it’s not the perfect solution by any means, but it was better than the alternatives that ran through my head, which would have required more than a screwdriver and probably would have been more permanent. I will put the cover back on when I’m not quilting to keep the dust out (and also keep the cat from sticking his nose in there), and perhaps I’ll be in a little less pain. At the end of the day though, what I really want to know is when the heck are machine manufacturers going to get it together and build a better mousetrap machine?

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