Monday

See what other quilters are doing here.

I can already tell this post is going to take me a long time to do.
We have a really slow/bad internet connection today - as usual :(  

Over the weekend I worked on this cute baby quilt for one of my quilt group friends.
The blocks are cross-stitched. Aren't they cute?! The backing is red minky.
I have four more baby quilts to quilt for her. Three of them are cross-stitched and will have minky backings, the other is flannel squares and strips and will have a flannel backing.
What lucky babies!

  

She requested the Bauhaus Petite design. It is a fairly new one for me and I really like it.

I am loading this one on the frame now - *between checking to see if my pictures have downloaded. 

This is made from scraps/stash and black that I always have on hand since I use it a lot.
I will use black for the binding. The backing was bought for another project but
ended up not being the right color. Works well for this one.

It will be a cover for my husbands chair. The other one is dirty and shredding. 

I am afraid to put it in the wash because I know it will fall apart!   

I am using the Ravioli Petite design board. It arrived Saturday and I am liking it a lot, too!

*It took the better part of this morning to get this posted. I did work on the above quilt in between checking to see if things were loading, but still. Reliable internet in rural areas is not good.

 In memory of my brother.
I believe coneflowers and sunflowers were his favorite.

Love/Hate

I have a love/hate relationship with my waterbed.

I love that it is king-sized, which is big enough for my restless sleeper husband to have plenty of room to be, well, restless and I can stay on my side and hang of for dear life when he starts being restless. Also, that it is warm, especially in the winter. The bed pictured below is similar to my bed. Mine has the double drawer platform which is great for clothing storage. Mine also has the mirror and storage compartments on each side of the headboard, but I also have a small lamp in each side of the headboard.



Once in a while, years apart, we get a leak or the heater quits. Those are easy fixes, but they do take a day or two to fix. Our well water is about 40 degrees and it takes a few days for the water to heat up to a comfortable temperature. But, what I really hate is that the sheets do not stay tucked in. The pockets are just not deep enough to stay put, especially when there is a restless sleeper.
The picture below isn't a waterbed, but this is what mine looks like frequently. Sheets not in place.
I cannot seem to figure out how to keep them tucked.

On a brighter note, this is blooming!

County Fair

EDIT: Go here to see what other quilters are doing!
http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

My entries this year...

Christmas Tree Decoration category.

Collections  - 6 items under 25 years category. My mother gifted me with all but the small picture, which was gifted to me by a friend. My kitchen is decorated with a rooster/country theme.

6 inch block category. These are part of the 365 Challenge that I am so far behind on. 

12 inch block category. The bottom one did not place.

Quilt Machine Quilted category. Did not place. The judge wrote on the back of the entry tag that she thought this one deserved a blue ribbon. This will go a co-worker friend who resigned at the end of this school year to move closer to her grandchildren.

Quilt Machine Quilted category. 3rd place. I love the bright batik fabrics in this one.

Quilt Machine Quilted by Owner or Other. Did not place. I had originally thought to make this one larger, then changed my mind. I used the extra parts to piece the backing which worked well since there was not enough of the green plaid. 

* Very disappointed that I did not get a ribbon for this one. More on that at the end of this post, if you care to read it.

 Quilt Hand Quilted category. Got first place. This will go to a friend.

** Disappointed, read below.

Over all I am pleased with my placings, however, I am disappointed with a couple of them. 

There is a category for Champion Hand Quilted Item. There are 4 categories for hand quilted - quilt patchwork, quilt hand appliqued, quilt hand embroidered or cross stitched, and child's size quilt. Any in those categories must be hand quilted. The first place winner of each of those 4 categories is then judge for Champion Hand Quilted Item.

**My hand quilted one is LARGE - king size bed with a large drop all around large, prairie points, lots of quilting, good piecing. Since I got a 1st place it was in the running for Champion Hand Quilted. The quilt that won that award was very nice, but smaller, child-sized, less complicated block with less quilting and a simpler quilt design. But this person wins that award every year so I shouldn't be surprised that I didn't win.

Sort of last minute this year a new category was added - Champion Machine Quilted Quilt (machine quilted by owner). The winning quilt was suppose to be machine quilted by the exhibitor, not another person. There is a category for Quilt - Machine Quilted by owner or other.

A problem arose when it was not clearly stated in the rules that the quilts must be quilted BY OWNER after each category listing and apparently there was some confusion by exhibitors as to which categories would be judged for this award. Turns out any quilt category that is machine quilted, except the one for Machine Quilted by owner or other got judged for this award.The winner of this award did NOT quilt her quilt herself. She said she was confused about which categories would be judged for that award. I was pretty sure during judging that she, and some others, had not quilted the quilts themselves. I was also pretty sure that had they read the rules carefully they would have known which categories would be included for the Champion judging.

The committee has talked and we will be making changes to the rule book for next year so that hings are very clear.

* I am disappointed with my placement with this one because there is a lot of piecing in this one. And, it is good piecing. The quilts that won, while nice, were of more simple designs. The judge (I assist) looks at each quilt as it is laid flat on a large table. The next quilt is placed on top, and so on until she has viewed each quilt. Mine was the last one and on top of the pile. She folded each quilt back covering the one on top of it to view them all again, then unfolded them to view again. She did that several times only she didn't look at mine again. It remained folded back with the next one folded over it. I can't (and wouldn't) say anything as that might influence her, but if it had been another persons quilt I would have. 

That being said there were some beautiful quilts this year.  I like to assist in the Fine Arts building, especially on judging day, so that I learn where I can improve, and also so I can see all the quilts unfolded in all their glory. We don't have a lot of space to display the quilts and they have to be folded so small that you really can't get a good look at them. This makes me sad, knowing all the work that went into making them. We keep discussing other ways we could display the quilts but have not come up with a solution that is acceptable to everyone.

 In memory of my brother.

Lately...

I have

 put this on the frame

and quilted it.

I needed to have it finished so I would have something to work on in the car 

because I went on a little trip with my quilty friends.

We went to Missouri, originally to visit

Missouri Star Quilt Co., but discovered the Highway 36 Quilt Trail
was happening along with a Row by Row event.

Some of my goodies.

'Building' prints for a house quilt my exchange group is planning, black/white/gray prints for a BWG quilt I am gathering fabric for, charm packs and coordinating fabrics for a quilt I am 

planning for my reading chair at school.

 

A clutch purse kit, FQs just because I liked them :), 

FQ neutral backgrounds because I always need them.

Wide backing print and fabrics for borders on the quilt that is up next, 

Follow the Sun and Bee Inspired cuts for a quilt for my sister-in-law 

(by brother was a beekeeper and conservationist
and she loves sunflowers (he did too) - these are perfect).
There is also a green towel on that pile. I plan to use some of the fabric with it for her kitchen.

Kits for the Highway 36 Quilt Trail block for two of the shops along the trail.

Next on the frame was this quilt. I needed it quilted so I could work on the binding
when my son and I stayed with my sister-n-law. 

It was good to see her again, but another reason we went was so my 

son could participate in a target shoot near there. He did this shoot for the first time last year with my brother. It was a hard decision for him to make as to whether or not to do it again this year. My sister-in-laws cousin stepped up and said he would go with my son. What a great guy! It was still hard emotionally for all of us but it was a good day.

 It was put on by Rinehart targets.

Last year there was a big rain during the early morning hours
before the course opened and it was so muddy! My brother turned what could have
been a bad day into a wonderful adventure for my son. That was the kind of person he was.
We all miss him so much.
This year was dry and the temps were not too hot.

Giraffe on the Rinehart Safari course

Got an acorn!

Ready to hunt!

Thanksgiving 2016

Purple Coneflower - my brother loved this. He planted a couple of prairies on the ground that they bought.