It’s voting time for this week’s Quilts for Mom contest. There are many fabulous quilts to review. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and a pencil to make note of your faves. You can vote for FOUR favourites this weekend.

This week’s sponsor is the Fat Quarter Shop. They have donated two $35 gift certificates for this week’s top two winners.

Please note: I just received notice of emergency server maintenance scheduled for Friday 10 p.m. until Saturday at 10 a.m. This site may not be available during this maintenance period. As such, voting for this week’s contest has been extended until Monday at 6 p.m. All times are Eastern.

Now it’s time for you to vote for your favourites!

• Voting is open Friday – Monday @ 6 p.m.
• One vote per person (based on IP address NOT email address), so have your family and friends cast a ballot for their favourite quilt (from home if you send it to coworkers)
• Winner announced Monday night!

How to Vote:

• Review the photos and stories below… there are several, so you’ll need to scroll down to see them all. You can also click the link to the slider version to review the quilts in the large format and then return to this page to vote.
• Underneath the photos, scroll down, you’ll see the names of all the quilts with a square button** beside each one. Select the buttons for the quilts you want to vote for. You can select up to FOUR quilts this week.
• Then scroll down, all the way, until you get to the bottom of the names of the quilts. Press the vote button.

** Note: If you don’t see the square buttons to vote, but instead see the voting results, that means someone on your IP Address already voted, or that the voting period has ended, or that you need to refresh the page to see the voting options. Shared IP Addresses are very common in home or work networks.

Slider version: To view the large photos of all the quilts and descriptions, CLICK HERE. You’ll need to return to this page to cast your votes.

Please Note: If you are not seeing all of the photos, check your browser settings. Go to view, and text size. Make sure it’s set at medium. If you need web sites to be larger so you can read them more easily, then use the browser’s Zoom function, not the text resize. You can also use the scroll bar above, beside the photos, to scroll and see the hidden ones.

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Next Week’s Quilt Contest

The theme for next week’s contest is Wind, Earth, Fire & Water. Quilters are free to interpret this theme as they see fit. Your quilt does not have to represent all four of the elements. Any quilting style is acceptable. You can submit quilts, wall hangings, pillows, etc. as long as the item you enter is completely finished (i.e. bound and quilted). Get your cameras out!

To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EDT). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – only a few dates left for 2012

Please join me in welcoming today’s guest Melanie McFarland as she shares with us her love of sewing and teaching others to sew. She’s also giving away a copy of her latest book “Out of the Box With Easy Blocks” along with a matching coffee mug. See below for how to enter.

Sewing has always been fascinating for me, and some of my earliest memories are of my mother, pins in her mouth, stitching up something great, with my brother and I in tow. Our other siblings (five of them) were in school and we were home with mom & Jack LaLane, on the TV. Pfaff was her machine of choice: a huge, black powerful engine, set in an enormous cabinet, with a knee lift! How I loved to hear it roar, as I awaited the newest addition to our clothing or linen closet.

My pre-kindergarten photo… note the torn sleeve trim on the left. I guess mom couldn't keep up with the demand!

When I was about 10, mom received her teaching credential, and off she went to the public schools early education program. We were in school by then ourselves, so it was an easy transition. However, I missed the additions to my wardrobe. Mom made the creating appear easy. She was an art major, graduating in 1944, from Rosemont College, PA.

Paper, markers, crayons, & glue were within easy reach. Creating was always encouraged. Somehow, I must have figured I could do this, too. So I rummaged through her sewing cabinet and found a pattern I liked and suitable fabric. Mimicking her, I laid out the pattern pieces, pinned to the lilac-printed eyelet cotton. I cut along the outer lines, and around the notch bumps. I cut armhole and neckline facings. It was a darted, shift top. Remember those? In fashion school, we’d call it the “basic fitting block”, or “sloper”. The style was in the fabric, not the design. It had a zipper down the center back, as did most garments then. I still don’t like to put in zippers, but I do love the newer “invisible” ones – whew, sewing just got easier!

From my first quilt, made in 1976, entirely of used jeans (+ some machine appliqué!)

Naturally, I took sewing instruction in high school. My sister, Paula, paved the way for me and convinced our teacher, Mrs. Olivia Fraioli, to let me skip the basics and move up to advanced sewing. That was the highlight of my day. Sewing and creating was a wonderful outlet, for teenage angst.

I was introduced to the world of fashion when a rep from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, FIDM, paid a classroom visit and my closest friends encouraged me to enrol. I spent two years in school and then did my time, 25 years, in the garment industry, working my way up from pattern maker to designer and beyond. Travel to far-flung places became the norm, with well-known companies, like Gap and Disney. Telling people that knowing “how to sew” got me to such exotic locales as Istanbul, Cairo, and Singapore, was entirely truthful!

Who wears short-shorts? I guess I did. This is my embellished work-of-art from high school days.

For the past four years, I’ve spent an hour a week in the company of young men and women inspired by sewing. Volunteering at a public high school each week keeps me grounded. These students create the most original and conceptual garments, irrespective of their ages. Each time I visit, I’m reminded of their curiosity, intelligence, stamina, perseverance and utter disregard for negativity. If they think it can be done, there’s a way to do it. After every visit, I’m energized to return to my studio and create, too. Last week was their crowning glory: they completely designed and choreographed a fashion show. I only served as a facilitator.

Julia and her quilt at Road to California Quilters Showcase, January 2012

My destiny seems to be centered on sewing. I LOVE to be surrounded by fabric, able to create on a whim. Because I find it so empowering, making something from nothing, I love to “pay it forward” and teach others to sew. My first student was a neighbor, Julia. We started when she was just seven, but already she was a veteran from a local sewing program. Last summer, we made a quilt together, using pre-cut squares and strips of Kaffe Fassett prints in reds, blues, and greens. Julia entered it into the (Road To California) quilters showcase in January, in their “Next Generation” category.

Close up of Julia's colorful, original quilt design.

Recently, another young friend, Flo, who’s 10, came over to learn sewing techniques. Flo has a passion for fashion and is quite intrigued with reality television shows such as “Project Runway” and “Fashion Star”. (These are too “real” for me, dredging up fashion career horrors that I’d rather delete from memory.) Thinking pajama pants would be the perfect first project; she quickly assessed the “stash” and settled on red dots and stripes. Pants are ideal as there are minimal seams and few fitting issues. It’s safe to say she’s hooked on sewing and one of the benefits for me of sewing with my young friends is that when we talk I learn about popular teenage culture. This information is priceless; as they sew, the words just tumble out.

Flo in her original design pajama pants, creating "yoyo's" with the Clover yoyo maker.

I’m not sure what my life would be like today, if I hadn’t discovered sewing as a hobby way back when. Perhaps I’d be a cake decorator or an architect, but my life could not be more exciting than it is now!

Here's a more up-to-date photo, posing with my book cover quilt.

Give-Away

I’m doing a drawing for a free copy of my book, “Out of the Box With Easy Blocks” along with a matching coffee mug. If you would like to enter, please reply to the following question: “What quilting fears have you recently conquered or are you still working on?” Mine is machine quilting. It’s taken me FIVE years to summon the courage to quilt my own tops!

Winner will be selected randomly next Wednesday, May 16, 2012.

For more on Melanie’s sewing and quilting observations and experiences, visit her blog: www.MelanieMcFarlandQuilts.com.

Winner

Congratulations to Pat who won Melanie’s book give-away. Check your email for a message from me.

Please join me in welcoming today’s guest blogger Leona as she shares some of the fun she had on a recent quilting retreat.

Hi Everyone! Leona here from Leona’s Quilting Adventure! Thank you Michele for having me over to guest blog on Quilting Gallery! I have a blog that is dedicated to paying it forward to Quilters. Leona’s Quilting Adventure has been on blogger for about three years now. My blog has a giveaway each month and shares projects and tutorials that are quilting-related.

I am a single mom with two almost grown sons. I work a full time job during the day and a part time job a few nights a week. My part time job is in a quilt shop. I work for the extremely talented designer, Karen Montgomery in her quilt shop, The Quilt Company. Once a year the ladies that work for Karen go on a Quilting Retreat to Sandscrest in West Virginia. This was a first time ever experience for me to be able to go on a Retreat! We left on a Friday afternoon and returned on Sunday. This is a picture of the main house at Sandscrest and the next picture is the group of very talented quilters that I was able to spend the weekend with:

The retreat was amazing! The rooms were comfortable and the food was oh so delicious! It was so much fun to be able to sew for several days straight and enjoy great conversations with the women that I feel blessed to work with. Each quilter that was on the retreat had a different style and really completed some beautiful projects! We bunked in the housing next to the main house. Here are some pictures of the rooms at the Sandscrest Retreat in the main house:

One of the highlights for me was to wander around when I needed to stretch my legs and visit with each of the ladies as they worked on their projects. Some tackled modern projects, others worked on more traditional quilts, while others did embroidery. There were plenty of snacks and a lot of stories and laughs that were shared by all. It really was a treat to be able to look and learn from such a nice group of ladies. I worked all weekend on Bee blocks that were due to be mailed out in March. Here are a few of the quilts that were created:

The pictures are just some of the quilts that the ladies worked on. There were many more beautiful projects created over the weekend. It was so nice to be able to just sit and sew and not have to worry about having to run to do grocery shopping, laundry, cooking or cleaning for several days. I am so grateful for being able to have experienced a weekend retreat like this. Hopefully you too will be able to attend a quilting retreat for a day or two.

Well, it’s time for me to go for now. Be sure to stop by and visit Leona’s Quilting Adventure for a chance to win my latest giveaway for fabric and notions! Have a Happy Tuesday and Happy Quilting!