Winner of giveaway

The winner of my giveaway is Erica from Hippo Baby. Congratulations Erica. I have emailed you with the details

Door County

Just came back from a wonderful vacations toWisconsin's Door Peninsula. It was our first time there and the scenery was spectacular. Although I had expected the colors to have started to change more into fall colors, everywhere we went the landscaping was a work of art. The trees were still mostly green with just a hint of autumn colors of reds and oranges, but what I admired the most was the layout of the flowers throughout every step of the way. The landscapers used arrangements of yellow and purple blackeyed susans and mixed in were a variety of impatient.

Our room was a hundred feet off the bay and the first night we say the most gorgeous sunset I have ever experience. It took my breath away.

Door County is very well noted as an artisan colony. I found shops and museum everywhere we went. Pottery, paintings, sculptures, tiles, plates, sewing creation each more beautiful and creative then the next and of course I can't forget the the wineries were they produce some of the most delicious wines. I came back an abundance of ideas for quilting, totes and new line of jewelry. Just hope I have enough time to do them all.

Our time was much to short a trip to see the entire countryside and visit all the historical sites of lighthouses and see where over 200 ships have been lost to see in Lack Michigan so we do intend to visit again, but this time I believe we will bring the Motorcycle.

Empire

For all the years I have quilted I have never entered any of my work in a quilt or art show. But I have finally gotten the courage to do so.

The piece is a wall hanging called Empire which reflects the excitement of the big city. The fabric is by Benartrex. The colors consist of basic black with various gold and red tones to make this very sophisticated wallhanging.

I pieced all of the wall hanging, but my friend Pam Cole helped me out by doing all of the free motion quilting. You can find Pam at pamspatchwork.com

The piece has been submitted in the Heritage Quilters "Indiana rose " Quilt Show and will be on exhibit Oct 3 and 4.

This will also be on sale in my shop after the show. creationsbynoramaire,etsy.com

Heritage Quilting Guild

I just came home from the first meeting of the season for my quilting guild. Heritage Quilters of Crown Point. For those of you how are not familiar with what a quilting guild does. The purpose of the guild is to promote quilting and an art. We also work as a not profit organizations and make quilts for kids and quilts of valor for our wounded soldiers in hospitals.

I didn't joint the guild until Feb. of this, but really enjoyed myself and usually come back very motivated about quilting and new designs. I even took the summer challenge and created a tote out of the fabric we had to use. (will post a picture of that after we turn in the challenge.) We have just been given another challenge called rounch ostrich challenge, but no we do not have to design or applique an ostrich, but this is really going to be a big challenge for me.

We can create a center block, and from that block we will be given two types of borders each month to go around the border.

So the first 2 borders will be a 4 patch square border and an applique border. Here is the first part of the challenge for me. I am not one to applique on my quilts so to all my followers who are quilters I would appreciate any input that they can give me.

As a finish each section I will post pictures and appreciate any and all comments on my project. Since this is to be turned in December I have decided to design this with my stash of Christmas fabric. Yes ladies just and beaders have stashes of beads, so do quilters have stashes and stashes of fabric and are always accumulating more.

I also want to announce that we are having a Quilt Show Oct. 3 and 4 in Crown Point Indiana.
We are hoping to get over 300 quilts, wall hangings, pilllows, table runners to exhibit. Your's truly will have a wall hanging in the competition. This will be the first time I have ever entered into competition with my quilting.

So now off to quilting

McKinley, Salom & quilt

I made this quilt a few years back for my Granddaughter, but it seems her and her dog seem to like it. This was hand quilted

Other Quilts

Here are few other quilts I have made over the years.

Two of them are hand quilted.

Quilting Inspirations

Since I started by blog and reading other blogs, I have seen many post on how artist and jewelry designers get their inspirations. But nothing on quilters, so I decided to write how quilters get there inspirations.

Besides being one of the most warm and cozy blankets, quilts are use as wall hangings and are exhibited through out the world in art shows and have their own quilting museums. Hundreds of quilters each year for their rewards and master pieces. Quilters are much more than crafters they too are artist in their own right.

To help me with this I called upon 3 other fellow quilters and asked each of them 3 questions.
Were do they get ideas, how do they choose fabric and their favorite block. There are hundreds of block styles to choose from and you can combine then to make more of an interesting design.

Pam Cole tells me that the fabric itself inspires her. She is able to visualize what she wants to make beforehand and then the rest of the designs involves as she works on it. She has lots of favorite blocks, but decided to use the crazy patchwork heart block for her logo, because she puts her heart into all her projects. Pam completes her quilts with free motion quilting on her sewing machine. Pam's quilts can be found at pamspatchwork.com and her quilted bags at pamspatchwork.etsy.com

My fellow quilter Kathy Norton says her inspiration comes from the Show & Tell at her Quilting Guild. She says that"fabric itself can sometimes scream for a particular block." She also takes the customer request into considerations. She has a large stash and chooses a focus fabric and goes from there for the coordinating fabric. If she were to have to choose a block she likes the star blocks. Kathy uses a long arm machine to finish off her quilts. Kathy can be found at QuiltsWithHeart.com and her etsy shop QuiltsWithHeart.etsy.com

Shirley Wahlreen and fellow machine embroiderer receives most of her ideas from quilt magazines. She chooses fabric based on color and price and prefers a simple block as here style of quilting. Shirley complements her quilts by finishing them with machine embroidery. Shirley can be found at EmbroiderybyShirley.etsy.com

As for myself I get my inspiration from many places,Quilting Guild, magazines. Since I now have my own quilting/embroidery machine many times I choose the embroidery design first and design a quilt around it. I choose my fabric by the block design and my favorite colors. As for by favorite block I too like something simple and if I not embroidering my block, I like the log cabin block. I use to hand quilt, but now I"m with Shirley and finish off with machine quilting patterns.
By doing this we can do quilts as you go with the blocks then stitch them together and then add the sashing or borders.

The above pictures are some of the quilts the ladies and myself have quilted.
The first 2 are mine. The next Pam's, then Kathy's and Shirley's.

You can also find Pam, Shirley and myself at Handiworkshowcase.com