Fair Time Happy Dance

My sister Kathy and I met up at the Ventura County Fair today to see how our entries did.  They changed around the displays in the Home Arts building this year so it was more challenging to find all my pieces and Kathy's quilt. I have to say there was a bit of excited dancing happening to my feet today...

I first spotted my Scattered Squares pillow in a case (which is why the lighting is so weird)--1st place happy dance!

 Another 1st on Pink Lemonade!  Happy dance again!

2nd place on my Turkey wall hanging.  So exciting!

Honorable Mention on the Any Witch Way quilt.  The lighting shows up the pebble quilting and the spiderwebs in the corners; quilting was done by our Guild president., Georganna.  The piece in front blocked the photo taking a bit, lol.

Honorable mention on Cove's quilt.  I like that they showed the backing fabric with the way they displayed it.

 

And another Honorable Mention on the Trees runner, which was displayed in an unusual way!

We then found Kathy's quilt high up on the wall.

 

She got a 3rd place for her Tree in Lavender Field quilt.  Happy dance for Kathy too!  She wasn't going to enter anything, not thinking it was good enough, but I told her if she didn't enter, she couldn't win.  Once again, Big Sister is right! 

We celebrated our wins with some great fair food.  A fresh grilled chicken kebab that fed us both, some seasoned spiral fried potato chips, and Kathy had a bacon wrapped pork belly street taco.  Then we checked out the Floral displays and the Garden displays.  There were some really fun "mini gardens" in either wagons or wheelbarrows.  Amazing what can be grown in such a small space.  Our favorite larger garden display was very creative and fun: 

 

It was a mine sluice with the title "Not Yours Mine" and these funny headstones.  My favorite: "I told you I was sick".   Then I dragged Kathy to the Gem and Mineral building to see all the collections that people display in cases.  There were the usual Elvis and thimbles and model cars, but also some fun collections of old "Friends of Barbie" and antique kitchen toys.  I seem to have only gotten one photo of a diorama, which cracked me up. 

Godzilla destroying a city!  Kathy helped with her phone flashlight so I could get the pic :). We finished off our several hour visit with my favorite fair treat: Indian Fry Bread.  I chose powdered sugar and Kathy had cinnamon sugar on hers.  What a fun time!  I did a couple of errands afterward, then came home and had a 90 minute nap after all that walking around in the hot sun and steamy buildings.  Great Sunday!

A Few Finishes and Some Further Along

Despite the awful heat and humidity following some wonderful rain, some stitching is still happening here.  It is nice to have a few items checked off the list!  

First is the reproduction doll quilt Pink Lemonade, from Lori of Humble Quilt's quiltalong from a few years ago.  I've been hand quilting this and finally put the last stitch in early one morning. 

 I like the way the big stitches give it some depth and tone down the yellow a bit. 

 One of my favorite green blocks.

Closeup of the two color binding I made to simulate a flange.  Much more accurate for me! I'm going to enter this in our County Fair and the deadline is Sunday so I'm glad this one is done.

Then there is a duo finish.  I promised DD Erica some Euro pillows as a Christmas gift, but she had to wait until Christmas in July for them to be delivered to her room. 

 The first zippered cover took much longer than the second to make.  Isn't that always true?  I bought the 26" Euro pillow forms at Kohl's on a good sale at Christmas. 

I really like the texture from the simple Kantha style stiching.  I used ombre thread for machine stitching first, and then ombre embroidery floss.  Now I'm going to need some of these for my own bed!

A near finish for the Any Witch Way quilt--the guild president is a longarm quilter and did a great job on this small quilt.  (For those who ask, the pattern from Quiltmaker Sept/Oct 2009  is now available as a digital issue per my search today!)

It's a bit hard to see, but she did pebbling in all the black border and put a spiderweb in each corner. So fun!

All I have to add is the binding and this will be ready for Fair entry too.  These witches have been waiting a long time for a finish.  I can't wait to finally hang this up at Halloween after 6 years.

I spent a steamy Sunday watching TV while big stitching on this pillow that I want to enter in the Fair.  I've only just realized when taking the picture that I forgot to add the border strips of white before quilting.   Hmm.  Not sure what I'm going to do about that. 

In other stitchy news, I've now completed the back of the quilt for my cancer-stricken neighbor and made a companion pillowcase out of the flannel.  This is what happens when you are THIS SHORT of backing fabric and have to buy a coordinating flannel to make the quilt back the way you want it...I'm hoping to get it basted tonight and have already decided on a quilting plan as well as the binding color so things should move along!

We got to see Grandson Cove a lot over the weekend.  He had his first traditional Swedish pancake made by Papa and made lots of yummy noises while eating.  He's always busy running everywhere and is talking more and more all the time.  Very exciting when he calls us Mimi and Papa!  His Mama sent me this photo of him looking out their window.

Love him to bits!

Getaway Weekend

Last month my darling husband and I had a fabulous getaway--and it was practically free. Grant was one of the winners of a sales promotion at work and was awarded a free weekend stay at the Bacara Resort and Spa in Santa Barbara.  The prize also included the valet and resort fee charge and a gift card for expenses.  Thank you, Hormel. We were upgraded to a wonderful suite when we arrived, yay!

  Isn't it lovely?  The other half of the suite was the luxurious and huge bathroom. 

Soaking tub, separate shower, generous vanity.

Opposite the bed was a console with TV and amenities, and a fireplace in the corner, with these double french doors leading to the private balcony.

 Our view was unobstructed since we were at the edge of the resort.  Ahhh.

The occasion was our 30th wedding anniversary.  We took this selfie right after arriving, and, I think, before Grant surprised me with some lovely diamond earrings and made me cry!

Before dinner we took a nature trail to the beach (I posted a picture of a bridge on the trail previously).  This shot is looking back to the large resort on the cliffside. 

Some local old dudes were freestylin with a Frisbee while the young surfers headed out to the waves.

Breakfast on the restaurant's outdoor patio was fantastic in the morning. 

This pier is privately owned and boats that service the offshore oil platforms moor here.

The next afternoon we took the Cliff Walk  that passed the restaurant patio--it was steep!  But charming scenery. This is looking south towards home.

We hung out a lot on the patio with our peekaboo view of one of the two pools.  Construction going on just below us was no bother. They were expanding one of the three restaurants on site and building another bar.

I brought some handwork and improvised a Hera marking tool with an iphone and a room keycard :)

This is my long term UFO, Pink Lemonade, from Lori of Humble Quilts' quiltalong a couple of years ago.  Someday I'll finish all the big stitch quilting.

"Fountain" in the resort entrance courtyard. There's a drought here and no water is running.  The reflecting balls are about 2 feet in diameter--gorgeous.  The grounds and Spanish-style buildings were stunning, and the staff could not have been better.  I don't think there was a single time that a staff member we encountered did not greet us or offer assistance.  We finished our anniversary weekend with a real treat, massages at their fantastic luxury spa.  It was a wonderful weekend and since it's just up the coast from home, there was no tiring long return trip.  We did give ourselves another day off on Monday which made the getaway glow last a bit longer :)

Catching Up--Fair Entries

There seems to be a large lag once again between posts--ah, well.  Can I blame it on the heat and humidity?  Well, there has been a lot going on.  Let's see, I finished the quilt for my sister in law in time for entering it in the County Fair.  All together I have four quilted items entered.  Here's Laura's quilt--it needs a label when I get it back.

The loop quilting was simple to do despite multiple thread changes to match the ombre colors,and filling bobbins repeatedly mid row when I underestimated how much was needed.  I did have a bunch of thread tails to fix at the end.
 

The back of the quilt is this length of hand-painted batik from my sister Kathy's stash. She says I always pick her most expensive fabrics, lol.   I used the same neutral batik as in the squares on the front for the frame. 

Closeup of the quilting, binding and the batiks.  My sister in law was thrilled with the quilt in photos, as they went home to AZ before I got it quilted and she only saw the flimsy.  When I told the lady handling my entries that I quilted it in one day she said, "You did not!"  I assured her that I did :)   My other entries were a tablerunner, a mini quilt, and my Picnic quilt, all of which I've shown before, but here's a recap:

Sandy Gervais prints and some triple step zig zag quilting on the tablerunner. 

Snowman mini---12".  Adapted from a pillow pattern in the December 2013 Quilts and More mag.

Picnic quilt--Kim Brackett design, Scrap Basket Sensations.  This one was professionally and beautifully quilted by Mary Flynn of Quilt Hollow.  One quilted item didn't get finished which I wanted to enter, but I'm still working on it. That's the Pink Lemonade quilt from Humble Quilts' doll quiltalong. 

The colors are a bit bright in this photo but I'm using a hand-dyed Valdani Perle cotton to big stitch an echo of the churn dashes in the plain squares.

I'm taking it with me to work and getting some stitches in during lunch break.  I could enter it in the fair next year, ha ha, but will soon find out how I did this year--the Fair opens on Wednesday.

Of course there has to be a grandson Cove picture too.  He's just turned five months old and is spending a lot of time jumping in his jumperoo---and also anytime he's on a lap--as well as getting on his hands and knees and rocking.  That boy is on the move always.  His parents need to lower his mattress in the crib, he'll be pulling himself up before they know it.

Cove is here trying out some shoes. Cutest.Baby.Ever.  This pic makes him look a lot older than he really is, I think!  Mimi is filling in for the day care provider on Wednesday and is looking forward to it :)  More catching up, soon...

Design Wall Monday--April 21, 2014

On my design surface today is a new project and off the design wall is an older project.  The new project is a baby quilt.  My co-worker is having a girl and there is an office baby shower coming up in a couple of weeks.  I pulled out this grouping of fat quarters I bought a couple of years ago at Tuesday Morning.

The pink print is from stash and I may switch out one of the lighter prints for another pink print, since my co-worker loves pink.  The pattern I'm using is this design by Gudrun Erla found in the new magazine Fresh Quilts.  Her trademark is quilt as you go and she has several books out containing designs with this method.  This quilt called for an applique of a fox, but I won't put that in.  The above fat quarters are a Riley Blake collection from 2009 called Summer Song.  The baby is due at the end of May, which is close enough to summer for me ;)

Off my design wall is Pink Lemonade, a project that has been a flimsy since Lori of Humble Quilts' quiltalong several years ago, and it got pin basted a few weeks ago. Last night I did some stitch in the ditch to hold the layers together so I could add the two color binding I'd already made, from instructions in the above Fresh Quilts magazine on another baby quilt pattern.

I think it turned out great--really liking that flange idea that the two color technique creates. Vivian did a good tutorial on her recent use of the same method.

Here's a bad pic of the whole quilt.  I'll add some big stitch quilting in the plain blocks and it finally will be A Real Quilt.  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

And now, some baby spam: We got to babysit our grandson Cove for the first time on Friday night.  He's seven weeks old and getting cuter by the second.  Here's a photo our daughter sent Friday morning with the message, "See ya later alligators!"

This outfit kills me!  We had a good time taking care of him and look forward to the next visit.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Since it is now much lighter in the day when I am taking the bus home from work, I can actually stitch again.  Those overhead LED reading lights on the bus weren't really meant for handwork!  

This little scrappy table mat is getting its binding stitched down.  I had fun quilting it with some free motion loops in the center section and then used a scalloped stitch on my machine to make a sort of ribbon in the borders.  Totally imperfect but simple--no need to over think :).

I originally brought this little quilt (Pink Lemonade from Lori's Doll Quiltalong) to handstitch on the bus, but when I looked at it again, I realized those plain squares really cried out for some sort of motif and I didn't have one in mind, so I brought it back home to ponder.  Please excuse my poor nighttime-bad-light photo.

Also in the pondering pile is this scrappy table runner I put together a couple of weeks ago.  Machine or hand quilt?  Hmmm...

I had very little left of that Jo Morton caramel print in the star blocks and Janet O was kind enough to send me a half yard that was resting in her stash.  The runner used three of the four star blocks I had made, so now I can cook up a few more stars to join it.  Thank you so much, Janet O!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday.  Happy Quilting!

Design Wall Monday--3/10/14

A late posting for DWM, but here goes!  On my design surface are still more CW repro scraps and partially completed objects (PCOs).

 

One of these things is not like the other...one of these things was just made wrong...

This was an experiment in leftover HSTs and a pack of precut squares.  I was not happy with the size of the coping strip I had to cut in order to make the odd size of the squares (4") fit the HSTs I had trimmed to 2.5".  MATH again!  Therefore I was not paying attention to the fact that the star I was aiming for turned into a square.

This was what I was aiming for :)  I cut down the precut square for this star to 3.5" and then the coping strip was cut at 1", making a more pleasing proportion to me.

I so wish I had more of this caramel Jo Morton print and the subtle print neutral.  But, alas, I do not--only a few square inches of scraps are left.
 

Turns out I liked the second layout better.  I saved the center star block for some future playtime. Since these photos I have added borders to what will be a nice sized tablerunner--these are 8" finished blocks.  I turned my attention then to a couple of  PCOs (partially finished objects).

These tiny bits I had sewn together were left over from strips sets made for Julie's 9 patch swap of a few years ago.  I thought this would make another cute table mat and since this photo I've added borders to the long sides only.  I have just enough of this purple print for a backing, and disassembled a strip set to get enough of the leftover shirting prints to make a binding.  Sort of spring-like with the purples, maybe?  Finally, this doll quilt-along top from Lori's blog from a couple of years ago progressed no further until now.

Lori even liked my suggestion for the doll quilt's name, Pink Lemonade.  Those churn dash blocks are  small--I think they finish at 5".  Yellow and pink are very scarce in my stash and acquiring both required a couple of trips to the fabric store at the time of the quilt-along.  My iPhone photography is making the yellow rather more lemony than it is in true life. Also, the pressing job after the photo improved the top's looks.  Someday I'll get better at thinking of that before I start taking photos!

I'm going to back it with this pink print and then do big stitch hand quilting to finish it off.   See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

And now, some baby spam. 

Some Sunday evening Mimi time with Baby Cove!  I put him to sleep while mom and dad were trying to eat their dinner.  Check out those duds :)  He's 12 days old today.