Monday, November 4, 2013

Mary Lou Cow Quilts- Festival alot of Fun and A Huge Success! Get a book and make a COW!

 
Market and Festival are over and we sold cases of cow quilt books FAST. We only have a limited number of books left amd there are no more right now to order. If you would like to make a cow for the cow parade (we are showing cows for the next two years) then you can order "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks) at Marylouweidman.com. I will send you fabric, a cow pin (above and postcards. A Good deal. The cow takes about 2 1/2 hours to put together and it is easy for all quilters. Add your theme, the embellishments and send us a photo to possibly be added to the Cow Stampede! The attention that the cow show got in Houston was amazing...really! Lots of laughter and people wanting to make a cow themselves. Hope you make one too. They are so much fun. I am making number 7.
The really happy news is that both Switzerland and Holland will be showing these cows next spring!
 
This is me and Mel and Leslie and Jamie and we all love whimsy, color and fun! Leslie and Jamie had a fabulous show that was a challenge that were placemats with food on them set on a table. I will be showing photos soon of that. We were the fun exibits. We aren't afraid of laughter, invention and creativity!
Here are my buddies, Sandt, Sarah and Wendy at Market. Wnedy owns that tag company that had darling tags that say things like "Made with Love." They are awesome girls and good friends. Her product is called Tag it on and they are a great addition to put on quilts given away.
This is my wonderful friend Janice who was a food columist and can she cook! She sells food at Farmer's Markets and people come from far and near to buy her goods. She is multi talented. Look at the two story quilts below that she did!
Below is her wool story quilt about her and her husband and her children and all of the countries she has lived in! She is fabulous with color and design
This quilt is so beautiful and tactile in person....I was amazed at her creativity again and again.

Below is my friend Pat who did  cow in a class about chocolate. Then she went home and did a Dia de Los Mooertos quilt (COW. She stopped by and this is her vest back! She is multi talented....can you tell??? SO awesome.
Here she is from the front! I love her colors and her style!
I love her style. Many people took photos of this quilt.
The quilt below drew many laughs...it is called "Frosty Amoosement" and is by my neighbor Connie. There are icycles on the udder. The cow has the snowman's nose in his mouth...this is wool and drew many lookers and laughers too.
The large cow quilt above grew many fans. It is by Peggy Baldwin. It has two cows and it is another Dia de Los Meurtos. I noticed many Japanese people stopped to take photos of this...I loved it because of the cheddar background and lots of bling.
Below is Paggy Baldwin and I and Mel in front of her great quilt! Such fun.
 
Below is MOOdern cow that I did with my friend Connie. Kind of wild but fun too. More cheddar....there can never be too much cheddar in a show!
Mari :Linfesty did Bovine Intervention and it was fun. The borders are pieced and they are awesome.
This quilt by Rebecca from Nebraska looked so nice under the lights.
Madmouselle ChoCOWlatte had so many details and people gotr close to check it out!
We had many many many people ask how this whole thing started.
I did the putple cow quilt for the Out of the Box with Easy Blocks book. After I made mine, Mel decided to make a Holy Cow. Then our Cupcake friend (4 of them) all made a cow and I put them here on my blog. The one by one more people realized how quick and easy the Cows were and they had some idea for a play on words and they went for it. Then we started getting one photo after another and now we have 56 quilts in our possesion and are looking for more. We have a number that we are waiting for and we are hoping for at least 40 to 50 more. We "borrow" the quilt and show it off and then eventually everyone will get their quilt back. The response on the COW Parade has been awesome and it is lovely to hear people say the name or phrase out lus and then laugh. It is a good show because essecntially we all look at quilts that took someone five years to do and we wouldn't begin to know how to do a work of art like that. Anyone can do a cow and get alot of attention from it. Our show was one of the most popular this week and also at AQS. We got lovely mail and people loved the invention and whimsy and play on words...plus seeing what people put on the udders as well.
Hope YOU do a cow and maybe do a challenge with YOUR guild!
Tina's quilt
and below Sandi from Canada's cow
 
 Molly's quilt below
Jane's quilt
and Susan's quilt
LOTS of people laughed at the Cash Cow by Charlotte. Charlotte is one of the Bunny Sisters who follow me around and have done more story quilts than anyone else I know. Her sister Laura and she keep telling stories about themselves and their families and someday their family is going to be most thankful for the history they have included in cottons and colors.  Hope you do a story quilt to tell about YOU someday too.
Festival was such a joy for me because I saw so many students from past years that have become my dear friends. It was lovely to get sincere hugs and smiles from them and to be see them again. Many people stopped to tell me they are still praying for my husband. That made me feel so good.
I got on the plane today and said a prayer for my many blessings and the quilt friends that have been so much a part of my life and my joy.
Here Jane Sassaman my friend took honors on her new quilt...love the bug in it because as you recall my Granddaughter LOVE bugs!
I hope you are getting ready to do something happy and creative. It makes us better and happier people and we get to make outstanding and loyal friends.

6 comments:

  1. Thank you, Mary Lou, for sharing all the great cow quilts! So happy to see all the smiling faces of your friends at the quilt shows - they must be the happiest people on earth! What's better than a quilt show, cow quilts and friends too?!?!?

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  2. I took my cow quilt to The Crazy 9 Patch to work on it this last week. I had it hanging on the design wall and you should have heard the comments from people who came into the shop. Can't wait to finish it. Glad you had a good time at market. Prayers for you and Mark.

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  3. It is so fun to take one design and reinvent it. Love all the different versions and you can't help but smile.

    Debbie

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  4. Welcome home! I can imagine you might need to sleep for a week or two to catch up on the rest you missed while having so much fun at Market and the Show.

    Loved the Cow Parade here and the wit and whimsy of folks from all over the plant who have made these colorful, fun, and unique quilts. No doubt all of the laughter the quilts evoked upped the planet's happy quotient.

    Hugs!

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  5. Mary Lou, it was great to meet up with you, Mel and Mel's mm in law at festival along with sme other gals from your hagii group.

    The cow parade was great, how wonderful that some will be travelling to the Netherlands and Switzerland, they will all need their own passports.

    I'm happy you sold out of your books at festival.im sure there were some disappointed people on Sunday when you weren't there.

    Thinking of Mark and hope all goes well during you time away in Germany. Take care both of you and yours.

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  6. So happy the stampede was a hit and you sold so many books. I hope my Bumble cow can join the stampede soon!

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