Cabin in the Woods quilted by Cheryl RanesWe just wrapped up the Ramona Quilt show sponsored by the Back Country Quilters Social Club. We had 85 show quilts including Susan Axelrod's applique which took 2nd place at Paducah and Kathy K's Vase of Roses which won 2nd place at the San Diego Quilt Show.
Our show is not a judged show. This is a chance for quilters to display their work to the community. This is the 7th year of the show and it gets better each year. This year our featured artist was Eanne Hampe. Eanne suggested that the featured artist area include various thread and fabric work as well as quilting. Eanne did lace tatting and bobbin work. Several other people did demostrations of embroidery, red work, and hand quilting. It was very interesting to watch these artists at work.
My friend, Cheryl, and I rented two side-by-side booths so we could try to drum up some business. We wanted people to know that there we are longarmers and see some samples of our work. I took photos of the quilts that we had quilted (16 in all in the show) and put them on a posterboard so that people could really study our work up close while at the show. We each donated a free quilt service by having quilters sign an entry form. We had over 140 people sign up the first day and we had to run copy some more forms. We will pick the winners next week. We met a lot of quilters and handed out brochures and a sheet with sample panto patterns.
Cheryl borrowed a demo table from the Quilted Rose, San Diego's Gammill dealer. She and I have the same machine. She put her machine on this 5-ft demo table and we quilted charity quilts as people watched. They were so fascinated they kept coming up close to watch what we were doing. I was surprised by how many people had never seen a longarm machine.
Two weeks ago, my friend Sally was at the LQS buying border fabric for her kingsize gold batik Arkansas Crossroads quilt. Martha, the owner of the Crazy9Patch, had the quilt spread out to look at it. Another quilter commented on how nice the quilt was, the fabric and the pattern were beautiful. Sally, who is very modest, simply said "Thank you". A few minutes later, the other quilter left and I asked Martha how often Eleanor Burns comes into her quilt shop. Eleanor has a retreat up in Julian right up the road from our little town of Ramona. Sally got excited and asked when Eleanor Burns was coming to the shop. Both Martha and I busted up laughing. The quilter who had just complimented Sally's quilt a few minutes before she left was Eleanor Burns. Sally was so excited that Eleanor had liked her quilt. It turned out to be a beautiful quilt. I used gold thread to quilt feathers in the crossroads and a simple pattern in the blocks.
So today, at the quilt show, Sally let me feature the quilt in our booth. About 1 PM today, just as my feet were starting to ache from standing all day, I noticed a familiar face. Yes, it was Eleanor Burns. So I showed her Sally's completed quilt, signaled across the room for Sally to come to the booth and got a fabulous photo of this foursome: Eleanor Burns, Sally, Chrissy and her gold batik quilt.
It was a great show. The only thing that will make it better is if it grows our two businesses: Keepsake Quilt Shoppe and Ramona Quilter. Only time will tell.
Here are some photos of quilts that were quilted by either Cheryl or me.
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