On Friday, I attended a local quilt show in our area hosted by the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. The members put on a great show every two years showcasing their skills in manipulating fabric, creativity with design and interesting color choices. And besides providing lots of great eye candy for a fabric junkie like me, there was plenty of quilting inspiration to go around.

Some of my quilting buddies: Noreen (we call her the Fabric Whisperer), Sid (the needle-turn applique guru), Sally (perfectionist extraordinaire), Tina (she can do anything) and Kim (the long-arm quilting queen) won a bunch of ribbons between them. I’m so proud of these ladies. I credit them, and several others skilled in the quilting arts, for improving my own skills over the years. They have inspired me to grow outside my comfortable cardboard rowboat to wander through scary swampy areas like needle-turn applique, intricate paper piecing and taking risks with color choices. I mean … how can you sink up to your neck in yuck when you have friends that are there to throw you a life jacket?

It’s probably why last year I actually finished five quilts (photos are featured above). Two found a home with extended family as Christmas presents, two quilts I kept, and one was auctioned for a local charity. Without the help of Kim, who has a long-arm quilting business, that would never have happened. She cuts my quilt-making time in half and makes my piecing look amazing.

While the quilt show is now just a memory … they left me with enough ideas to last till the next time the guild show comes to town.