Hagerstown and Lancaster

I say this a lot but I honestly think I am one of the luckiest people on earth.  I get to work at a job that I love.  One of my favorite things is teaching and lecturing on quilting.  It makes me happy to see people get excited about quilting and/or to learn something new that will make them a better quilter.  This is why I teach.  One of my recent trips took me to the Friendship Quilters Guild in Hagerstown, MD.  I have taught workshops for this guild on several occasions over the past many years.   It makes me feel very good when I get invited back to any guild.  Here are some of the ladies hard at work on their hand applique projects.

This guild is very fortunate to have such a great workshop location.  This church room had lots of light-weight tables so they were easy for us to arrange and the lighting was pretty good also.   I think the reason I most enjoy going back to this guild is I have gotten to know some of these ladies over the years and they are one of the kindest and most sincere groups.  They make me feel so welcome I want to keep going back.

My next adventure took me to the American Quilter’s Society Show in Lancaster, PA.  www.americanquilter.com

This is the second year AQS has held this show in Lancaster. They use the Marriott Convention Center for many of the classes, the vendors and the quilt exhibits.  Some of the classes are held in buildings across the street from the convention center.  I taught 2 lectures and 2 workshops while I was there.  Here are just a couple of blocks from my Ocean Sunrise students.  This project is paper pieced and machine appliqued.  The students had a lot to show for the time they spent in class and it was fun to see how excited they were with their results.

One of the most exciting things for me personally was that on Saturday when I was just getting ready for my “Brunch With Karen Kay Buckley” my husband surprised me by showing up for my lecture.  But, even better, Joe brought my dearest friends, Frank and Margaret, along.  It brought tears of joy to my eyes.  Frank and Margaret, who many of you who have taken classes with me have heard me talk about, have assembled my handout packets for all of my classes for the past 12 years.  This is no small feat.  I teach a lot of workshops.  After all of these years they have never really seen what I do.  It was so nice to have them attend my brunch and since I had an exhibit of 23 of my quilts at the show it was great to walk through the exhibit with them.  Bonnie Browning, AQS show chairman, and some of her staff worked with Joe to make this surprise happen.  It was a moment I will never forget as I love Frank and Margaret deeply.

I wanted to share some of my favorite quilts with you from the show.  “Sew Is Life” received a first place ribbon.  It was made by Barbara Korengold from Maryland.  The whole quilt is stunning but I love this border.  What an incredible amount of work.

Here is another stunning applique quilt.  The name of the quilt is “My Beautiful Memory”.   It was made by Masako Kumaqawa from Japan.  I hope that she and her family were unharmed in the earthquake which has left so many of us with a heavy heart.

The quilt below is called “Daisy Dance” and was made by Kathy Munkelwitz from Isle, MN.  This quilt is very reminiscent of the quilts made in the 1920’s and 1930’s.  The quilting on it was also spectacular.

“Emily” was made by Kathi Carter from Lanett, AL.  She received the award for Best Longarm Workmanship.  I believe this is a pattern design by Irma Gail Hatcher from Conway, AR.  The name of the pattern is “Conway Album Quilt, I’m Not From Baltimore”

The machine quilting was nothing short of fabulous.

I’ll have a couple more quilts to share with you from the show in the next blog.  Have a great day!

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