International Quilt Show Chicago 2008

I know I'm really VERY late but I just thought I would post some pics of some beautiful quilts that I saw at the International Quilt Show that was in Chicago on April 12th last month.


This quilt was Best in Show and it was truly amazing! It is titled "I Ain't No Spring Chicken" and it's by David Taylor of Steamboat Springs, CO. He worked from a photogragh to guide him and pieced together many different shades of white for the chicken and brown for the barn wood in the background.


This quilt was called "Dresden Plates" and was made and machine appliqued by Jeanne Pfister from Kaukauna, WI. It also won first prize in its category.


This quilt was entered in the "Celebrate Spring" exhibit. It was entitled "Just Dandy" and it was machine pieced and quilted by Ruth Powers of Carbondale, KS.


This quilt was also in the "Celebrate Spring" exhibit. It was called "Standing Tall and the techniques used to make it included fused applique, and water-color pencil. That reminds me... I want to pick up some water-color pencils while I'm still here in Cleveland. I was told that the white or grey color can be used to mark quilts, and they wash right out!
OK, that's my quilty tip for the day! Happy quilting!

Seven Random Facts...

Hi everyone! I'm back in Cleveland visiting my kids with DH. First I must tell you that I spent two days at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago - it was amazing!!! I was a little jet lagged but I'm glad that I had the experience. The quilts were wonderful! More on that later after I get my computer to download my pictures...

I've been tagged for the first time. Let's see how this goes...

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Here are the 7 random facts about me:

1. When I was in college I wanted to be a veterinarian until I found out that part of the program consisted of working on large animals, I mean horses, cows and pigs! No thanks, I just treat guinea pigs...

2. I speak English, French and colloquial Arabic.

3. I spent two summers working for the Canadian Government in a Microbiology Lab.

4. I've had to escape from a polar bear on an ice flow by jumping back into the helicopter.

5. I love to watch Syrian soap operas especially the historical ones.

6. I took ballet lessons when I was in my early 20's and I always had season's tickets to Les Grands Ballets Canadien when I lived in Montreal.

7. I consider myself a New Englander at heart even though I haven't lived there for many years.

OK. That's it for me. I would like to tag the following bloggers:

Aby
Siti
Laura
Wendy
Tine
Sandy
Vickie

Greetings from the USA!

I've been tagged by Jackie for seven random facts about myself but it may take me some time to answer because I'm still traveling with my husband here in the US and I'm not sure if and when I'll have internet access.

Please stay tuned!

...To finish divine!

I'm sure you've all come across the saying: To quilt is human...to finish divine!? That's how I feel about this latest baby quilt. Yes, I finished all the hand applique and the machine quilting. Better than that is the feeling that I did a pretty good job and that's saying something because I'm usually quite critical of my own work. My applique circles are not completely round but I doubt that anyone would notice (unless you held up the template and examined each one)!

On the positive side, I learned quite a few things about quilting while making this baby quilt many of which I picked up from my daily reading of quilting blogs. For example, to learn how to make perfectly round appliqued circles (this info will be used when I make my next applique quilt!!!) check out Kim's pictorial tutorial. Then check out the results she gets in her cherry block (very cute!)

When it came to hand sewing on the binding, I decided to try Dorothy's method over at Morning Pages. She uses a ladder stitch that sews up really fast and becomes almost invisible. I had been getting painstaking results with a modified applique stitch before but Dorothy's method is so much faster!

So big 'thankyous' to Kim and Dorothy for their 'virtual' help - isn't this world getting smaller? Wow!


I even managed to sew my label on the back!


And finally, I must show you this picture of 'Mademoiselle Misty' who has decided to grace our picture with her presence! Our wonderful house helper Arti is holding up the quilt (she feels shy about her feet being in the picture!) but I told her I must show all the quilters in blogland our 'cute kitty'!


Quilter's thought for the day:
Count your blessings, stitch them one by one!

Fabric journal covers

I had fun making this fabric journal cover from the February 2008 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine that E lent to me. Thank's E! It's a nice short project - took me about 2 hours to pick out the material and put it together. At first I wasn't sure about the instructions but then I read them slowly and went step by step. The instructions kinda confused me because I've seen versions of this on the internet and they used a different method. You can check out Lara's blog for another way to make these covers, in fact, I might try Lara's so that I can compare the two methods.


It's my quilting buddy's birthday soon so this will make a nice present, don't you think? No peeking Jean!!!!!!

A Birthday Message for Safia!

Happy birthday dear daughter! Twenty-four years ago on March 24th God blessed us, so this is your lucky year! You are our sunshine, and our life (hayatee)! Have a wonderful day and we will see you soon!

More Good Things from the Garden...

Can you guess what this is? Nnnooooo.... it's not a lemon on steroids!!!!


You are close, though. It's a fruit related to the lemon family which is cultivated in gardens all over the Middle East. These trees are common in Syria where they are still found in traditional Damascean interior gardens.


Here's how it compares to an ordinary lemon! Kind of bumpy, eh? Well, there's not much juice in these things but the peel is very thick and, you guessed it, it's used to make a sort of marmelade.


The peel is trimmed off and boiled in a concentrated sugar mixture on a low heat so that it becomes this candied, lemon-type peel which can be eaten at breakfast or for dessert sometimes. My dear Syrian MIL used to make it and she called it 'kabbad' in arabic.


This is just to show you my poor, sun-baked, outdoor thermometer which is registering about 94F. Not too bad since it's noontime here and don't forget it's a DRY heat! So I'll wait 'til July to complain!!!






I'll leave you with a few more hibiscus flowers.











Aren't these colors pretty?

Have a peek...!

Hi fellow quilters! Just some quick peeks about what I'm working on now... I finished the machine quilting part on this little baby quilt:


Now, I have to finish...


the hand applique!


No more UFO's (yah, right!)

Tour Of Our Garden

I've decided to give you all a little tour of my garden in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The name 'Riyadh' comes from the arabic word for garden or 'rawdah'. When I first came to Riyadh 23 years ago I didn't see the connection but then I realised that there is an oasis here and lots of date palm groves in and outside the city but (mainly outside the city).


This is a picture of the door to our house or 'villa' as everyone refers to houses here. Over the door there is an overhang and when we first moved in I planted some indian jasmine which grew over the top and hangs down the sides. Indian jasmine has a pink flower and it has the most beautiful fragrance especially when the weather cools off at night. Whenever I come home at night and I open the front gate I am greeted with its wonderful perfume. The yard around everyone's 'villa' is entirely enclosed by high walls which give complete privacy and security.

This colorful bush is bougainvillia. It grows like a weed here and usually it is used to climb up and over the outside walls. The arabic name for it is 'majnouneh' which means 'crazy' - I guess because it grows like 'crazy'!


Petunias in pots! This simple flower is one of my favorites - when they are grouped together they have the sweetest smell.


This is part of the backyard. You can see that we don't let the tree get too tall! It's better that way as I think they are a miniature variety. The wonderful thing about these trees is that they stay this magnificent green all year long!


The purple flower is a climbing vine that grows and covers the outside walls. It's one of DH's favorites - he saw it at a neighbor's house and decided that it would grow equally well here and he was right! I'm not sure, but I think it's a type of morningglory?


Hibiscus make me think of Hawaii but actually many different varieties and colors grow here.


Another little grouping of flowering plants. I let the gardener choose these - not bad, eh?


I leave you with a group of purple pansies...alors, pense à moi, d'accord!!?

Challenge contest winners!

Tonight we had our monthly quilt meeting and the results of the challenge quilt were revealed. The theme was reflections and we had to use these two fabrics as a starting point. Here are the inspiration fabrics:


Since I did not participate in the challenge, I was asked to be one of the four judges.We are such a small guild we had only 11 entries but oh what imagination!We basically followed the quilt judging guidelines of the Vermont Quilters Festival which I found on their website. It was SO much fun! Here are some of the pics:


This is the winning quilt made by Marcella our former president and creator of this year's BOM. She hand appliqued and hand quilted this beauty using lots of batiks. It is called 'Nature's Kiss' and depicts an hibiscus blossom with it's reflection. Hibiscus shrubs are found in gardens all over Riyadh.


I really liked this cute little quilt made by Marcella's daughter. I like its modern quirky feel. Doesn't it make you think of Joel Dewberry?


This quilt was so well thought out and just overflowed with minute details. Glady's unique use of materials makes this quilt a standout. Check out the wall-paper, the blue velvet slippers and the image of Marilyn in the mirror! Even the curtain tie-back is braided. It's entitled 'As Young As You Feel' and we should all have that lady's confidence!


This quilt won third place and I could take hours just looking at all the details. It's a collage of machine applique.


Here is a closer look at some of the details.


Isn't this amazing?


This is a cute machine-appliqued piece. I just love the sky and earth blocks.


This color combination was interesting. Sort of reminds me of Xmas ornaments.


I like the way she mounted this convergence quilt on point. I might need to get some of that butterfly fabric from you Sitti!

Lost In Blogland...Will Be Back Soon (I Hope)

Isn't this the cutest cartoon? I think it should be printed on a t-shirt or something. I think I would wear it all the time! I found it on flippytale's blog which you should all check out.

Some 'quilty' things...

These are a few of the 'quilty' things I've been working on. (Doesn't quilty resemble guilty? - somehow I always have to chuckle when I type those words!) Anyways, I've been wanting to stick to my many projects with the intention of FINISHING them so I managed to sew the following:


I thought I would try to experiment a little with color. This is a technique by Ricky Tims called convergence quilting. I like the results that HE got but I'm not so thrilled with mine! I think it might need something appliqued on top of it, like flowers? butterflies? I have even more respect for those quilters that really produce works of colorful art . Check out Wanda's work.


I've also put together my birdhouse block and it really turned out nice. I just love this BOM that our guild is doing.


This is the BOM quilt with all its blocks in place. I love the oversized pine tree block. I think it really completes and balances that side of the quilt, don't you think?.

Are You Addicted As Much As I Am?

I found this on Marisa's blog and thought it would be fun to try. I definately check the blogs every day and my list of favorites are growing exponentially but it's SO much fun to see what other creative people are doing.

BTW, Marisa's blog was one of the first that I stumbled upon that led me to start this hobby. But one blog is not enough...It's sort of like falling into the rabbit hole if you know what I mean!

More Pics From Dubai...

This is the Dubai Quilt Guilds raffle quilt which raised 10,000 dirhams (roughly divide by 4 to get dollars) for the Emirates Arthritis Foundation. I love this pattern and plan to do one myself (I'm collecting those blue and yellows!) It's from BH&G's American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.


Here is a close up of the machine quilting. They used a silvery thread and it turned out really nice. Needless to say, I didn't win! They should have had a prize for the people that traveled the longest distance but then again there was one person that I met that came all the way from Arizona!


This footstool covering was made entirely from men's silk ties!


Just to leave you with a smile on your face! To all my quilting friends, have a happy day!

Dubai International Quilt Show 2008

I would like to include some corrections to this posting as follows: This is detail of the cathedral window quilt named 'Mount Everest' by Nora Shafi which won 2nd prize at the Dubai International Quilt Show. It also won 'Best in Show' at the Al-Khobar Quilt Show in 2007.


This is a full shot picture of Nora's Mt. Everest Quilt. It was really impressive! She won a Bernina 440 QE machine for this quilt when it was entered in the Al-Khobar Show. You can see a better picture of it on Nora's website.

I just got back from Dubai ( yes, AGAIN!). We had the most fantastic, fun time attending the first Dubai International Quilt Show. Six members of our little quilt guild went including me and we had a great time. We met the most extraordinary people - quilters from all over! The show was hosted by the local Bernina dealer - Classic Quilts and Quilting.

This quilt was "Best of Show". It's really impressive up close. The colors and the quilting are wonderful.



This quilt was done in degradations of black to white by a Saudi quilt artist named Nora Shafi. She won 3rd prize for this quilt at the Dubai International Quilt Show. It was really nice meeting such a talented quilter. She is from Jubail in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. You can read about her at her website. 





When you stand back or when you look through the camera you see the full effect of this quilt! Neat, Huh?

This is another one of Nora Shafi's quilts which also won 1st prize in the small pieced category at the Al-Khobar Quilt Show in Saudi Arabia. It is machine quilted very beautifully with silver-colored thread.

                                  
 The colors and the applique of this quilt were amazing!




This quilt won a prize in the miniature category - very simple and beautiful!


                                                        
A very pretty quilt by Svanhild Olsen-Nalum, a member of the Dubai Quilter's Guild who is originally from Norway.



This quilt was made for Quilt Pink to raise funds for Breast Cancer research.


No, this is not my quilt but I've made on just like it! It was hanging (oddly enough) next to another quilt that I have the pattern and material for and that I plan to make soon!