Irena’s quilting background
Before Irena took up quilting she was involved in business with her husband Richard, who is a chiropractor. After Richard retired in 2001, they bought a 71 acre farm in rural Oklahoma. After settling down Irena started searching for something that might be fun to do. She decided to find out what’s going on in the quilting world before deciding what her next hobby is going to be. Her longest lasting hobby was doing fine art for 12 years.

While attending the very first quilt guild meeting, a local quilt shop owner asked who would be willing to try some quilting on her quilting machines that she had in her shop. Irena then said: “I want to try but I have never seen one”. The shop owner replied: “No problem, I will show you”.
The next day Irena went to the quilt shop and was very impressed by the look of the quilting machines: Gammill Optimum and Gammill Classic. She immediately agreed to stitching pantographs on the Gammill Classic starting the next day. Very soon Irena realized something magic about that quilting machine and was anxious to find more information. She started surfing the internet and came across Linda V. Taylor’s name by visiting Gammill’s web site. Within days she found herself daydreaming about a purchase of her own Gammill quilting machine, just to see what she can do with it. She had no business plan to justify the cost but firmly had her mind set on a purchase of a Gammill, as soon as she found out that’s what Linda V. Taylor was using.

When her job at the local quilt shop ended after 4 weeks, Irena managed to convince her husband Richard to purchase her own quilting machine and on November 12th 2004 Irena’s Gammill Optimum Plus was delivered and set up. She never made to bed that night, too eager to try nothing else but free motion quilting. While working at the quilt shop Irena had no courage and not enough time to try free motion quilting but once she has seen Linda’s work and was presented with Linda’s video tapes and DVD’s that’s all she wanted to do: be able to stitch like Linda V. Taylor did. Two weeks later, she took some quilted samples to her quilt guild meeting for show and tell. She was told she was ready to do heirloom quilting [she felt embarrassed to ask: what’s that?]. Once she found out what heirloom quilting was, she felt ready to take on the challenge and before Christmas 2004 she already took customers’ quilts to work on. Very soon she found herself daydreaming about making a quilt just for a show entry. She had one stitched ready by the end of February and rushed to show it off to Linda. After taking a close look at her quilt Linda said: “Irena, why don’t you enter some quilt shows”. Irena was speechless but deep inside it was what she wanted to hear. Three weeks later Irena had her “Hummingbird”, two weeks later “Experiment in Color” and one month later “The Birds and The Bees” ready for show. Irena did quit working on customers’ quilts as soon as her very first 2 whole cloth quilts came back with 3 ribbons by June 2005. She started making quilts and entering them into national and international quilt contests nationwide.

Her very first whole cloth made just for show, the Hummingbird was close to end up in a closet. Then she changed her mind, corrected some mistakes and it turned out to be a winner of 12 awards. She started teaching long arm quilting nationwide after a little over one year. Only Irena and her Gammill Optimum Plus know best how often they had to “speed” driving way over 100 miles per hour on stitching the backgrounds of some large quilts while trying to meet entry deadlines. It was a race ever since she started machine quilting, therefore she feels like she needs to slow down and focus on improvement in quilt design and higher quality of workmanship.
Irena is quick to tell you that her Gammill Optimum Plus and she are a good match. Within just a little over two years Irena produced 7 large quilts and 3 wall hangings that brought 38 awards. Her work was published in various quilting magazines. Now she is teaching long arm quilting nationwide at all major venues: MQX, HMQS, MQS, AQS in Paducah and Innovations 2007. Just very recently Irena submitted her first book manuscript to AQS and it is going to be published in spring 2008.
She just self published her first book “Blooming Background Designs” and already working on 2 other books.
It looks like she went from quilt making frenzy through teaching frenzy to book making frenzy….

Irena is anxious to focus on quilt design, creating new quilting patterns, trying different techniques and changing the style of her work. Her first collection of patterns for Statler Stitcher has been published and more collections are in progress. She has the urge to create as much as she possibly can, then share with others. If you wonder about what her next daydream is, she already has an answer: a purchase of a Statler Stitcher computerized system, just to see what she can do with it. There she goes again…

Irena Bluhm’s list of awards from May 2005-2007

1. 2nd Place in Category – “Experiment in Color” at MQS 2005
2. 2nd Place in Category – “Hummingbird” at NQA 2005
3. Best in Long/Mid Arm Machine Quilting – “Hummingbird” at NQA 2005
4. 1st Place in Category – “Experiment in Color” at Quilt Expo, Sewing with Nancy 2005
5. 2nd Place in Category – “Hummingbird” at PIQF 2005
6. Best Innovative Design – “Hummingbird” at Road to California 2006
7. Best Machine Workmanship – “Morning Glory” at MAQF 2006
8. 1st Place in Category – “The Birds and The Bees” at Arizona Quilters Guild 2006
9. Best of Show – “Hummingbird” at Dallas Quilt Celebration 2006
10. Teacher’s Award – “Experiment in Color” at HMQS 2006
11. Teacher’s Award – “Hummingbird” at MQX 2006
12. 2nd Place in Category – “Butterfly Parade” at MQX 2006
13. Honorable Mention – “Sunflower Parade” at DNQF 2006
14. 1st Place – “Hummingbird” at MQS 2006
15. 3rd Place – “Morning Glory” at MQS 2006
16. 1st Place in Category – “Full Bloom Extravaganza” at NQA 2006
17. Best in Mid/Longarm Machine Quilting – “Full Bloom Extravaganza” at NQA 2006
18. 1st Place in Category – “Experiment in Color” at Three Rivers Quilt Festival 2006
19. 3rd Place in Category – “Butterfly Parade” at Three Rivers Quilt Festival 2006
20. Honorable Mention – “The Birds and the Bees” at Quilt Odyssey 2006
21. 2nd Place – “Full Bloom Extravaganza” at QTW 2006
22. 3rd Place – “Sunflower Parade” at QTW 2006
23. 3rd Place – “Experiment in Color” at Quilter’s Round Up FQM 2006
24. Best in Long Arm Workmanship – “Hummingbird” at AQS Nashville 2006
25. 3rd Place – “Experiment In Color” at Innovations 2006
26. 3rd Place at Quilt Expo – “Full Bloom Extravaganza” at Sewing with Nancy 2006
27. 2nd place-Tanya’s Bluhms at Red River Quilters 2006-Tanya Tingle/ Irena Bluhm
28. 2nd Place – “Hummingbird” at IQA Houston 2006
29. 1st Place-Hummingbird at Oklahoma City Winter Show 2007
30. Excellence in Long Arm Quilting-Full Bloom Extravaganza-Road2Ca 2007
31. 1st Place-Full Bloom Extravaganza at Gulf Coast Quilt Expo 2007
32. Second Best Overall-Full Bloom Extravaganza at Gulf Coast Quilt Expo 2007
33. 1st place-Hummingbird at Indiana Heritage Quilt Show 2007
34. Honorable Mention-Full Bloom Extravaganza-Dallas Quilt Celebration 2007
35. Teacher’s award-Lime Green Snowflakes-MQX 2007
36. Honorable Mention-The Birds and the Bees-A Mountain Quiltfest 2007
37. 1st place-Hummingbird-HMQS 2007
38. Honorable Mention-Full Bloom Extravaganza-DNQF 2007

Publications:

1. NQA Quilting Quarterly - Fall 2005 - Page 23
2. Unlimited Possibilities - July 2006 Issue - Page 17
3. NQA Quilting Quarterly – Fall 2006 – Page 17
4. American Quilter – Winter 2006 – Page – 51
5. Quilters Newsletter Magazine-April 2007
6. On Track-IMQA magazine-Winter 2007 issue