UPDATE on last to know...

I received an email this morning from Susan about her Third Place win on Bamboo...

Dear Karen,
Thought you want to know that the Red Bamboo received a 3rd place award in the group category at the Empire Guild 2011 show in New York City. It was the first quilt hanging when you entered the show. You did a beautiful job quilting it. Will also send a shot of the other quilt entered in the show. I can't wait to hang it in my house. The quilting was exactly the look I wanted. Thanks again. Susan

Congratulations again to Susan! And also to all of the winners of that show - click here for a link to see ALL the winners.

It seems that some people were extrememly disturbed by my post of April 7 (click here to reread). I am not apologizing if it bothered you - I am telling it like it is... there is a big problem with not informing longarmers of shows and/or wins. There is an ever bigger problem with not even naming longarmers, this is NOT the case with the post in discussion. It is a team effort, no doubt about it. The quilting should ALWAYS emphasize the piecing and help to tell a story or create a motif/theme, not just tack the quilt together. From my own experience and reading many critiques the quilting of the quilt top is as important as fabric choices, piecing styles, etc. So YES, all longarmers (machine quilters) should be given the opportunity to know about the shows and even read the critiques if they mention anything about the quilting. My post was NEVER intended to bash anyone, nor did I think it read that way. It was more of an informative post on this ever-growing problem.

My son thinks I'm amazing...

really, those were his exact words -- "Mom, you are amazing!" No, not because of my awesome parenting skills, not because I handed him money or car keys, but because he finally watched me quilt. No, he didn't stand next to me while at the Gammill, he sat at the computer and watched me quilt on my newly uploaded video. I thought it was grainy so I asked him to watch -- he told me I was amazing and he could not believe how accurate and precise I was. The entire time I'm laughing because he is in the house alot when I'm quilting, he has stood at the end of the machine and watched from afar. It wasn't until he saw the birds-eye-view that he realized I'm a really good machine quilter. Just had to share this!

Anyway, here is the video, it is on my YouTube channel KarMarchetti

MQX East 2011

how I wish I were there!! For those that don't know -- MQX is Machine Quilters Expo. A fantastic show for quilters, one I am hoping to attend soon, possibly next year. MQX East is one of the largest machine quilting shows and is currently held in Providence, RI. Here is a link to the Winners. A super BIG congratulations to all of the winners -- I've seen pictures of some of these quilts and they are truly awesome! Very well-deserved ribbons! Oliver somehow managed to attend (without me). He was part of a Special Exhibit entitled Pretty as a Picture, Quilts Inspired by Photographs. You may remember me talking about that in a previous post, if not, click here. I must thank Linda Thielfoldt (the Quited Goose) for snapping a picture of Oliver for me. To my surprise, there is a ribbon on him. I do not know what the ribbons is for, so I'm patiently (not) waiting for his return home so I can see! Here is the picture:

Always the last to know...

Technically if it weren't for facebook I wouldn't know, not sure which is worse? So on that note I would like to thank John Kubiniec (Big Rig Quilting) one of my facebook friends for posting this link. Remember a while back, I had two quilts brought to me by Michele, but they were actually for Susan up in New York (if you don't remember, you can read the original post here).

Her red quilt, "Bamboo" (pictured to the left) took Third Place in the Group Quilts category at the Empire Quilt Show in New York. Congratulations to her, and me too. Also congratulations to John -- he took First Place in Group Quilts category!

So... no, I didn't hear from the customer, not a call, not a letter, not even a facebook or blog comment, nothing. This is one of the bad points of being a longarmer -- you don't always hear of the glory of a quilt that you quilted, the compliments, praises, and judging critiques. But, even worse than all of that, is not to be listed as the quilter at all... that is the worst! That was not the case with Susan, she did list me as the quilter.

So to sum this one up, if you use a longarmer and the quilt is in a show, let the longarmer know, whether it takes a ribbon or not-- it's just nice to know!

the Cowboy Quilt

I do believe this is one of those quilts that has been forever in the making!

Jan has been one of my customers for many years. Every year she tells me she's found more cowboy fabrics and she's "working" on the quilt. I'm sure she has been collecting for at least all of those years, if not more because I've been hearing about this famous cowboy quilt since the day I met her. She finally finished it, and I had a great time quilting it.

Jan is just so talented and she never ceases to amaze me with her layouts, here are some pictures:

The quilt turned out super cute, and guess what?... Jan had enough fabric that she made a second cowboy quilt! It's amazing what you can make when you stop collecting fabric long enough to sew some of it together! LOL