Monday, April 13, 2009

The Quilt Show is coming, the quilt show is coming . . .

Aren't these quilts beautiful? My favorite is the one on the left. I find the differences in color very interesting.



It's finally (almost) here. International Quilt Festival! Last year I just 'shopped'. This year - I'm a quilter! I'm taking 3 classes - none of them strictly quilting - just stuff I've always wanted to try. Thursday, all day, is Thermofax Basics (I think that's printing on stuff); Friday is Woven Copper Jewelry in the afternoon. I'm going with a friend, so I'll shop in the morning while she is in a class; Saturday (I'm giving up strawberry crepes for this so it better be good) is Beginning Landscape Quilting with Thread - I have no idea what this is either - it just sounded interesting. I went to the web site to see if I'm supposed to bring anything and got side tracked by tips from professional quilters. Thought I'd share.

BTW, my philosophy of life is "If one's good, twos better". I think Charlotte and I would get along, except maybe that 'red' thing. I don't like to mix yellow reds and blue reds. It's kind of like chalk on a blackboard to me.

Five Top Tips from Charlotte Angotti
1. All greens go together just as all reds and all blues go together and so on. After all, they have the same name. Hence the reason for them to be in the same family. We all have relatives that don't match. They still belong to the family. They give it spark and make us smile.
2. While sleeping under a quilt you really can't see that isn't perfect, so don't waste time worrying about those points while you are awake. Get as close as you can to perfect but just remember the next quilt will be better. You have to leave some room for improvement. Seriously.
3. Buy at least a yard of fabric when you think you only need a 1/2 yard. This will keep you from searching for the last piece of that fabric on earth. Trust me on this one. It will save you years of woe.
4. You really don't have to match up the fabrics in a quilt. Well, let's say if you use four fabrics they really need to love each other. If you are using 20 different fabrics not so much matching...more like melting together. So, it is easier to melt 20 fabrics into a quilt than to match just four fabrics. Really.
5. This is your hobby. Relax. Breath. Enjoy the quilt as it is being made so you can sit back and love it when it is finished. You have all that fabric to use so don't stop because you are too tense! And besides, there is a show coming up, more ideas, classes and fabric are just around the bend.
It might not be the party we wanted, but we are here so we may as well dance.
To visit Charlotte Angotti’s web site: http://www.charlotteangotti.com/

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