Great Results!

I haven't been blogging because I've been so busy doing Trunk Shows and teaching classes!  I lectured and taught for two different guilds and had a wonderful time at both.

I was having so much fun teaching that I forgot to take any photos but luckily Judy, from the Jewel Box Quilt Guild in Grinnell, thought to send me a photo of her finished project.  (Thank you SO MUCH!) 

Everyone in class had great fabrics and I'm mad at myself because I forgot to take photos! 

I really do love teaching this Mariner's Compass class because so many people are afraid to tackle this block.   They've heard horror stories about piecing it and are afraid to even attempt it.  I'm always tickled when we get toward the end of class and everyone is putting their pieces together to make the compass -- and it works for them!  They think it's "Quilting Magic!"

   



Parades & Quilts

We had another busy weekend!  Saturday we did house chores and then I finished machine quilting a quilt top that I'd forgotten about until I dug it out of a pile a couple of weeks ago.  I'll take a photo when it's bound.

We had our local summer celebration in town and Greg marched in the Honor Guard carrying the POW/MIA flag.  It means a lot to him to carry that particular flag.  He carries it to honor his friends and fellow servicemen and women who didn't return.  It always makes me proud -- and it makes me cry a little bit too.

On Sunday I finished the binding on another quilt.  (Have I said it before?  I LOVE doing binding!!)  This isi another top that I found buried in The Huge Pile O' Tops.  (After owning a shop for 20 years -- believe me -- I've literally got a huge pile of quilt tops!)  I can't even tell you who's pattern it is -- maybe an Atkinson Designs? -- but I like it!  All I did was meandering but I think it looks okay.  It's kind of fun to finish up some of these long time UFO's!

 

Dinah & Queenie

I finally remembered to get photos of my two newest quilts.  These are the ones that Joyce (in SC) quilted for me.  Both of these are lap-size quilts and Joyce did a wonderful job quilting both of them!

This first quilt is Dinah's Delight.  This was a mystery quilt on my website a while back.  I'll be sending this pattern off to my publisher in a few days.  I just need to re-check piece cutting numbers and yardages and it takes a while because I've got three sizes of the quilt in the pattern.  (Gotta tell ya -- numbers are the WORST part of designing -- at least for me!)  I got interrupted before I got a close-up photo of the quilting on Dinah but it's just really nice.  Joyce did a kind of leafy/viney design in the blocks and they're just really pretty!

Then there's Queenie.  I think Joyce really outdid herself on this piece!  This is the lap version of my Queen's Court quilt which has been around for a while.  I was never happy with the pattern because I didn't have a program that worked very well to do the graphics so I kind of buried the pattern and waited.  Now both my computer graphics program and my level of expertise are better so I've redone the pattern and sent it off to my publisher.  Finally!

Can you see the quilting?  Here are a couple of close-ups.

Here's another one.

I've loved this pattern and the original quilt for a very long time -- but I think I just might have a new favorite!  If you've got a minute, please check out Joyce's blog at:

  http://www.oneloosethread.blogspot.com/

Also, if you've got time, check out Joyce's buddy Roada F. Tripp's blog.  It's a hoot!

   

Judging Day!

I was one of three quilt judges at the Iowa State Fair on Monday.  What a day!  I've been lucky enough to have been asked to do this for several years now and I really look forward to it.  It's a privilege to be allowed to judge these works of love and art.  I don't know how many pieces we judged this year but I do know that my poor brain had turned to mush by the end of the day.  We started at 8 a.m. and I staggered out the door to head home at 8:30 p.m.   It was a very long day but there were lots of rewards that made it worthwhile.  The quilts were beautiful, interesting, unique, astonishing and there were even a couple of surprises during the day.  An added bonus was getting to spend time with some wonderful and dedicated women (and a few men too!) who make everything happen once the quilt(s) are entered in the State Fair.  On top of all that -- the salad lunch was WONDERFUL -- but then, it always is! 

We took a few photos at the beginning of the day as things were getting started.  Quite frankly, by the end of the day I never even thought about taking more photos because I was just too darned tired!  Here's what I have:

I know this all looks pretty chaotic -- but it's actually very well organized.  All of the items have been sorted into their individual categories and put in numerical order according to their category and division.

All of the pieces are handled carefully and respectfully as they're transferred from their category "pile" and laid out on the table to be judged.  Once judged, they're immediately folded, hangers are clipped on them and they're ready to be hung.

Almost ready to to go! 

Off we go!

I love this job!

Sunday Sojourn

Reiman Gardens in Ames is wonderful!  I'd never been there before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  What I found were some really nice people, lots of educational info and some beautiful gardens.  I have to admit that I was disappointed to see that the roses were pretty much past their prime -- but that wasn't the fault of the gardeners!  With the horrible heat we've been having for the past few weeks my roses look pretty stressed too!  The rest of the gardens were lovely and they had a bed of moss roses that looked like a Fairy Carpet!  It was gorgeous and the photo doesn't do it justice!

They also had some bugs in the garden -- big bugs.  I mean REALLY BIG BUGS! 

They had a number of these huge bugs scattered around the grounds.  They were wonderful -- even the spider!

Although it was horribly hot and humid on Satuday we really enjoyed the gardens and have already talked about another visit after the weather cools off.  We spent quite a long time in the butterfly enclosure and loved it!  For me, watching beautiful butterflies fluttering around has the same affect as watching tropical fish swim around in an aquarium......... Kind of peaceful and soothing.

By the way -- they also have the biggest Garden Gnome I've ever seen!  Wow!  (The gnome is the one with the big red hat!)

South Carolina Galaxy & State Fair Judging!

Through a mutual friend I made a new friend who lives in South Carolina -- Joyce G!  Joyce does absolutely stunning machine quilting and just quilted two lap quilts for me -- which I'll show you when I get the binding finished.  Anyway -- Joyce made my Galaxy quilt and quilted it and it's wonderful!  She was kind enough to send me a photo. 

I think it looks great!  BTW:  The black image at the bottom is Joyce's dog Rocky.  I hope he likes the quilt as much as I do!

Greg and I are heading to Ames today to visit Reiman Gardens.  I really want to see their rose gardens and the butterfly house.  Unfortunately, we're under another "heat advisory" until Wednesday night so it's going to be beastly hot.  Thankfully, they've got several buildings that have A/C so we'll have places to get cooled off.  I know conditions won't be ideal but this is the opportunity I have so I'm going to grab it!

Actually, we're visiting The Gardens on our way to Des Moines for the night.  I'm judging at the Iowa State Fair tomorrow -- which is my very favorite quilting gig!  I'm a little nervous simply because I've been told that they've received a record number of entries this year.  That's wonderful!  Last year there were 860+ entries in the quilting categories -- everything from centerpieces, table runners and miniatures to king size quilts!  .....this year there are even more??!!!  Holy Buckets!!  This is gonna be FUN!!!  I'll keep you posted!

Derecho

About 10 days ago we awoke to a siren sounding at about 4 a.m.  Pretty frightening to wake up to that!  Our area got blasted with very powerful straight line winds which I've since learned is called a "derecho."  I've been told that in our area the winds reached 139 mph!  We were very lucky.  We lost some very large tree limbs, our patio table was smashed and we had a couple days of clean-up work but really -- considering the damage in the surrounding area -- we're just fine.  One of my cousins lost the roof on her home, a family from our church lost their entire home (which was only 8 years old), and several farmsteads lost every building on the farm.  They're not even able to estimate the livestock or crop damage yet.

I honestly didn't get too shook up until we took an early morning drive to check on an elderly relative.  There were power line poles broken off and scattered across the country road like twigs -- one after the other after the other..........  Power lines laying all over the roads and in the fields, trees broken off (not uprooted, mind you -- BROKEN OFF!) and pieces and parts of building and farm equipment scattered all over the place.

It was a number of days before the folks out in the country got their power back and of course, this time of year the heat and humidity were terrible.  

I'll say it again.  We were VERY LUCKY.  We had some huge branches on our roof but they didn't do any damage and our patio table was smashed.  Big deal.  No one lost their life that we've heard of and that's a true blessing.

Here's our poor patio table.  I have no idea where the milk jugs came from but they ended up on our deck.