Thousand Oaks Quilting Show!

We LOVE Quilts!
As some of you already know, one of my ever expanding hobbies is quilting. I got into quilting for my mom last year. We have this family tradition where every year we pick each other's names out of a hat. They person you draw is the person you make a handmade Christmas gift for the next year. Well, last year, I had my mom as the person to make a gift for. She'd loved quilts for a long time and within recent years had started to learn to quilt. But I knew that she wanted a companion to do these projects with, and I thought - sure. Why the heck not? I'll learn.

So, my good friend and co-worker (who's been quilting, the old fashioned way (by HAND) since she was about 12 or so) agreed to teach me the basics. She was an AWESOME teacher. She made everything about this intricate art make sense.

This is a picture of a quilt sewn by hand in the 1930's:

So, I made my first basic quilt: a purple lap quilt in a "chair rail" pattern and I gave it to my mom last Christmas. I told her the quilt was the tangible gift for her to hang on to, but the real gift was that I had learned to quilt so we could quilt together. She cried.

Here we are, and almost a year later, my mother and I have a real love and appreciation for this art, and we've actually been making quilts along the way! I've made 3 so far (the first, plus one for my nephew, Max, when he was born in March, and the largest quilt I've made so far was for my sister as a gift to commemorate her Graduation from CLU in May) and I'm currently working on the most daunting quilt I've tried so far - a queen sized bed quilt called a "wedding quilt" to have here at home for me and Anthony. Imagine! A quilt for me!!!!

Just one of the more intricate quilting patterns possible out there!

Well, my Mom found out that CLU was hosting a local Quilting show, so of course, we had to go. It was amazing! The quilts were fabulous, and the fabrics for sale were too cute to pass up. We had such a good time on our "Mommy/Daughter" day, and we learned some new things along the way! Plus, we both have new ideas for quilts, and some new projects, too! Check it out!

Trunk of trimmings!

A Quilt that my Mom and I bought raffle tickets for. Hope we win!!!

Hippo & Elephant Print! You have no idea how cool/rare this combo is!!

My mom bought the print in 2 colors to make totes for me and my sister.
Our favorite Animals are Elephants and Hippos, Respectively.

Trying out the "Quilting Chair" which is ergonomically correct for quilting!

Historic Themed Quilt! How neat!

I took a liking to the next quilt:

Very cool concept: Bicentennial Celebration of a town, this quilter went door to door collecting neck ties from each family! She embroidered the family names on the ties, then quilted it together - naming it "Ties that Bind" and displayed it at the town celebrations. How great is that????

You can TOTALLY see that it is made of neck ties!
Totes!

Quilt made of old Jeans! How cool! I'm never throwing another pair away again!

Just some more beautiful quilts that I loved:

I can't wait until I'm good enough some day to have one of my quilts in a show. That would be so awesome! But I've got a ways to go before then. This was so much fun, and I can't wait to get started on my next quilt! I promise to blog about it, and a couple of other sewing projects in the works, when they are complete.

-Jen