Oklahoma Trip and Quilting Spree

My husband and I just returned from visiting our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter in Oklahoma City. We'd delayed the trip a couple weeks because I was retiring from my engineering job on June 13th and needed to close out some work and train some successors. The delay was fortuitous though, since I got to be there at the same time as a quilt show where she displayed her entry titled Wizard of Oz – the Whole Story. I will save the full reveal of the quilt for her blog but here is my daughter, Robin, with my granddaughter, Autumn, standing before a sneak peak of one colorful portion of the completed quilt.

While visiting, Robin and I folded and tagged quilts donated by several guilds around the country. We sorted them by size and gender, beribboned them and labeled them with the Moore Love logo, and dropped them off at a daycare center for distribution to kids that had lost either a home or a family member to the May 20th tornado. My eight month old granddaughter was quite interested in helping.  Perhaps we have a future quilter in the making.

The raffle for the two quilts made and donated by the OKC Modern Quilt Guild was held while we were in OK.  An announcement on their okcmqg.com June 22nd blog and an e-mail I received told me that one of the tickets drawn was mine and I had won one of the quilts! The beauty on the right is the one I got to take back home with me to California. I truly love the vivid colors and the quilting is remarkable.  Note the details of how there are maze-like rectangles stitched in the bright colors and swirls quilted in the light colors. The guild really did a stunning job.

My husband and I had flown out to Oklahoma with four suitcases, one each with our clothes and toiletries and two that contained random gifts - mostly baby toys, food treats, an afghan, and my Karate Kid Kwilt for the Moore Love Tornado quilt project discussed in my previous blog 2013_06_18.  On the trip back we nested suitcase #4 inside suitcase #3. There were over forty vendors at the show and I managed to fill the innermost suitcase #3 with fabric purchases and the Moore Love Quilt I won in the raffle. The suitcase duo weighed in at 39 lbs – all fabric and quilting related items. Here are my purchases from the show.

These are the fat quarters. Clockwise from upper left, I have a reason for picking each fabric from the four groupings. 1) Usually polka dots are bright colors so I got the subtle grey ones because they were unusual in my opinion. It is hard to tell from the picture but the shadows of those Wysocki-like trees are a gorgeous shade of lilac. 2) I have a collection of chicken fabric in bright yellow, red, white, and black that I bought when with a dear friend Linda in Pasadena.  These will add to that potential quilt-to-be. 3) Those brights in the lower right are destined for some happy baby and I love the saturated oranges. 4) Those cool blues and indigos in the lower left called to me as strong anchors in a mood quilt and those middle two mini-check and gingham were such a squirmy kind of green I can just picture them in a little boy's bug quilt.

These are the 1/2 yard cuts. I bought the stamped print on the far left because I thought it was unique and would add interest where some beige-toned block pieces are needed. I am always on the lookout for different stripe fabrics because I like to use them for my bindings. The three on the right are for future binding use. I like the way that hint of turquoise creeps into the grey plaid. It will go nicely on a quilt with a turquoise border.  The multi-colored stripe will have endless possibilities for use just because of its color variety. I can also see it as a fun insert between quilt and border. Isn't that swirly on the far right one fun? It is not as versatile since it is neither neutral nor multi-colored but, with the right patriotic-themed or seaside-scene quilt, it will be perky and cheerful.

These are the 1-yard cuts. The two Christmas greys on the far left are earmarked for a pair of pillowcases for my daughter and son-in-law. The pink cows will be a dress for my granddaughter. The airplanes are for a future baby boy quilt. The two on the far right are just because I liked them. The fabric on the far right was designed by a legally blind artist who works out of Santa Fe and uses large and strong-colored images because of his visual impairment. It just called to me. I plan to pair it with a pattern tuned for showcasing large print fabrics.

Paisleys are something folks either love or hate and I think they have great potential. I bought a set of 40 2 1/2 " strips that one vendor had custom combined from a fabric line of 16 mini-paisley designs. A quilt from them can be very busy in a country French provincial kind of way.  Or I may break up the set and use the low contrast ones as pseudo-solids. 

I did buy one kit, too, at the show... although I have too many already. It is a stripper style quilt for a baby and the cheerful colors and whimsy of the focal print at the top center of the photo were just too adorable to pass up.  I bought the backing fabric, shown at the bottom of the photo, separately at a quilt shop the next day.  Although at first it seemed like an unlikely candidate and came from a totally different fabric line, I love how it plays up the shape and colors of the bills on the toucans. The linen-print grey background goes great with the owl's plaid tummy, the mushroom stems, and the hedgehog faces.

I also bought two patterns, the one on the left for jelly roll use and the one on the right for a sundress for Autumn. Maybe that cow print will go into the PETAL dress & hat pattern. Maybe those paisleys will go into the Wrap It Up! pattern. And my daughter says the seam ripper up top is a great tool and that the knobby head is great for picking out those itty-bitty thread fragments when you need to rip out a line of stitching. I am ready to give it a try – but not eager to need to use it. Anyway, if I stop bloggin' I can start sewin'. After all, I am now a retiree.

It was a GOOD trip! ;•)