It is Fair Month!

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind!  I confess.... I love seeing my quilts on display.  I am not in it for the money, as a blue ribbon is only $3, but I do love to display my quilts.  I gift a lot of quilts, but each year I look back through photos and decide on some quilts to enter in our local county fair.  I am a co-superintendent of the quilt/afghan dept. and take an afternoon off work to help check them in.   I decided on 9 quilts/wallhangings, all in different categories to enter this year.

I am there for the judging and I am the one who stands with the judge to tell her which category this quilt or afghan is in.  Our fair is judged on the American system, one set of ribbons unless there are 10 items in the category or more.  Many years ago I was doing a LOT of quilting for others and started entering in the professional division, although I am FAR from a professional.  I still enter that category as the fair board said it's hard to switch back, even though I don't quilt for pay anymore.

I did get my Canyon Dance quilt finished.  Terrible photo in a hurry before the fair.

Canyon Dance

quilting closeup

We had a LOT of entries this year.  84 to be exact.  My friends got this display set up after judging.  I have two quilts in the front row.  My Canyon Dance with Best of Show professional and my Crown of Thorns with a blue and extra $15 sponsored cash award at the judge's discretion.  In the photo are also my Splash of Lime and Cat Houses and Snippets.  My friend also made a Canyon Dance with my templates and her quilt is on the front row right.

 I was working with two young men on the other side putting up afghans and smaller quilts in the two  photos below.  My One Block Wonder is in the second phot on the bottom.

 Then my friends did this wall with the wallhangings and tablerunners.  The screens are up so nobody can touch or steal!

 Another view of my Crown of Thorns and Canyon Dance after the screens are up.

I actually did very well, winning 9 blue ribbons.  Part of the fun of fair weekend is family.  This picture is distorted since we were in a curve, I am really not such a giant, my mom is taller than me!  Me, mom, SIL Dee holding Isaak her grandson, niece Kylie, sisters Lori and Sue.  I hadn't gotten back in line after finding a classmate walking by to take our picture.

So if that wasn't enough.... there is another fair in the next county.  They allow entries from the surrounding counties and I have never entered before.  I have never even been to that fair!  My husband wanted to go to "town" and pick up some things and I said if we went Tuesday I would enter quilts.  So after work we did.  I picked 5 because their categories were very limited.  They judge on the Danish system, entries get a ribbon if they deserve it.

I had to go down Saturday as my car was throwing codes and needed a checkup so I went to the fair. I was shocked to see the entries behind plastic, but at the same time, it keeps dirty hands off of them!  I was awarded 5 blues!   I went back Sunday afternoon to pickup up my entries.

Baby Boy Grandson quilt

Canoyon Dance was all folded up and laying down.

Two wallhangings

Crown of Thorns with a Best of Class.

I want to get back to some quilting, all I have done is make a big mess, trying to design a small wallhanging for th Teal Swap to support Ovarian cancer.  

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

Finished a Quilt!

I still haven't gotten caught up on sharing pics of projects I have been working on, but I pre-entered two quilts in a quilt show that was this weekend.  One was done and the other was just a top!  I worked hard last weekend and into mid week and finished it!  It is a Judy Niemeyer paper pieced pattern called Crown of Thorns.  Nothing like a little pressure!  The other quilt I entered was my green/lime/black quilt shown here.

Crown of Thorns 72 X 72

closeup

closeup

I was surprised to receive a first place ribbon in machine quilting, non-professional!  It matches the quilt!

My daughter's "twin" is having a baby in June.  They met their freshman year in high school and found out they had the same birthday.  Lisa bought this panel (and coordinating backing) and I machine quilted it, going around the animals.

 These are blocks I started at quilt camp in early March.  They are distorted from the camera angle and the brown carpet does nothing for them!  I haven't touched them since, I have some of the arcs pieced.

I did a bit of stash enhancement at the quilt show today, buying some Kaffe fabrics and found a grouping of bright fabrics that I REALLY wanted, but I need to plan a quilt and then drive to that shop.  I came home with lots of inspiration from the show!

Linking up with Patchwork Times.  

Favorite Colors

Apparently I have some favorite colors as I have several quilt tops using these colors!  These are my go to colors!  I looked at a collection of fabrics I have sitting there to make "Fire Island Hostas" and yes, they are pretty much the same colors!  I have one quilt that isn't shown.  I quilted it and donated it last year without taking a picture!  It was leftover strips from the Log Cabin pictured below.

Crown of Thorns - top pieced in Sept. 2014 at a retreat sponsored by Quilt Taffy.  Pattern by Judy Niemeyer.

Stars and Scraps.  Pieced in 2013 and 2014.  Currently almost finished quilting and it will be a gift.

wallhanging with scaled down blocks 4" for 4 1/2" tall rows

Log Cabin - pattern by Judy Martin  pieced in Nov. and Dec. 2013

trees - some of the blocks were made by friends with fabrics I provided

Round Robin turned into a shower curtain

Canyon Dance - finished quilt is on my bed

leftovers - will add border, quilt and donate

Design Wall Monday, August UFO #31 and it's September!

I so can't believe I forgot to post to my blog yesterday, after being so good about posting every day in August except the power outage day.  I was so gung ho on machine quilting (I will show that quilt later in the week) that it slipped my mind.

My design wall has not changed from the last two weeks, but my design floor has changed.  I will be going to a retreat in mid September and was trying to decide on projects and I have had the Crown of Thorns pattern for 10 years.  I pulled all the batiks from my stash except for a couple light ones.  Gee, the pattern was in my colors, imagine that!  Now to get the pieces all precut before I go and have our county fair and going back to work for the school year in between!

My last UFO of the day for August is at the bottom, a row robin top.  It was from my guild several years ago and I didn't end up with enough rows so I made some checkerboards to fill in.   I will have to decide what I'm going to do for September.  I am actually getting low on showing UFO's after showing 31 of them!! Linking up to Design Wall Monday.

Row Robin top