Design Wall

The Quilter's Exchange group met Saturday, during our retreat, to trade our bags once again.

 These are the blocks made so far for this member.

 I made this one.

I am so far behind on the 365 Challenge. I print each block's directions the day it is posted.
I have set a goal for myself to finish 2 blocks a day until I get caught up.
Yesterday I cut fabrics for the next 6 blocks.

I have a busy time coming up. I will be working on a quilt for someone for a Christmas gift for his wife. He wants their barn, orchard and children depicted in a king-size quilt. I have a quilt to quilt for one of my quilt group friends, another for the mother of a friend, a king-size T-shirt quilt to piece and quilt (the shirts are cut and fused), 3 T-shirt quilts to make for the grandchildren of a friend (again, for Christmas gifts).

And, I received this in the mail yesterday. It will be hard to not work on this. The fabrics are beautiful! A friend suggested I use this as a reward for working on the other projects -finish part of a project, work on this one a bit.

I ordered it from http://www.craftsy.com/supplies/search?query=Compass%20Roses

County Fair

I took a few things to the local county fair.

I was pleased with my placings.

 These are my 6 inch quilt blocks. I got 1st and 2nd. 

The blue and tan one is one of the 365 Challenge blocks.

These are my 12 inch quilt blocks. 

I got 2nd with the basket block and 3rd with the green star.

This is the block that took 1st in the 12 inch quilt block class. It was beautiful!

These are the knitted items I entered.

The mini mittens took 1st in the Christmas Tree Decorations class.

The knitted scarf did not place.  

This pillow took 3rd in the Recycled Denim class. 

My son has laid claim to it. 

He says the pocket will be a good place to put his phone while it is charging at night.

Set of 3 tea towels took 3rd.

The Snowman quilt took 1st in the Quilt, Machine Quilted class.

Front

Back

I decided to use up as many of the left over fabrics as possible.

I have enough scraps!

 

Hawaiian Star took 1st in the Quilt, pieced by owner, quilted by owner or other.

I am not crazy about how the quilts are displayed. 

A few got hung up this year. 

The Grand Champion quilt was fully displayed covered with plastic. 

Even though the plastic was see-through it was not completely clear and 

that made it harder to see the quilt.  

There was concern (a valid one) was that people might touch it with dirty hands. 

Most of the quilts were displayed in glass cases that lock. I like the security of the locking cases, 

but I wish they could be displayed so that more of the quilt is visible. 

We have been discussing it for several years and there just doesn't seem to be a solution that satisfies all parties and isn't a big expense, which the fair board will not approve.

I Took a Little Trip...

This past week I took a little trip with my quilty friends to Shipshewana, IN to see the Heritage Trail Quilt Gardens. The weather was perfect, the friendship was nice and the gardens were beautiful. Here are just a few.

And, there were murals...

I have all but one of my fair entries ready.
I got the berries sewn on a 12" quilt block.

I am 3/4 of the way completely finished with the quilting on Hawaiian Star.

Entries can be delivered Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. Judging starts Thursday at 9:30.
The heat indices are suppose to get into the triple digits this week. Great.

We had a storm with 5" of rain last night and now have water standing in the yard and ditches. And, my husband reports that it is not going down very fast. The sump pump has not stopped running since early this morning. We needed rain, but not that much at one time.

And, my poor lilac bush.

To see what other quilters are working on go to Judy's blog.

Getting Ready for the Fair

I have been working on my fair projects...

6 inch quilt blocks - the block on the left is part of the 365 Challenge. The block on the right is from Quilter's Cache.

12 inch quilt block - this, along with some other wonderful paper pieced blocks, can be found at Wombat Quilts.

12 inch quilt block - I still need to add the red berries. This block can be found in Quiltmaker magazine. It is a series that begins with the Jan/Feb 03 issue and continues through Nov/Dec. I did look and it seems that only past issues to July/Aug 2008 are available.

12 inch quilt block - removing the paper. It's a messy job!

Christmas decoration- tiny knitted mittens. I am working on another pair that may get entered instead of these. These are so cute! I like to use them as tie-ons on gift packages. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

Knitted item - scarf. I love this soft ombre yarn. I cannot locate the pattern right now.

Recycled Denim pillow - I made this up as I went along. The red plaid triangles are folded squares to give some dimension. My son has laid claim to this pillow. He says it will work great to put his cell phone in the pocket as it charges at night. That way he won't lose it, he says.

Snowman Blues quilt - I have added eyes to the snowman and finished the binding.

This is the Hawaiian Star top - I am still quilting it. On Judy Niemeyer's Quiltworks website this is also call Prairie Star. It is shown in many different colorways - each as beautiful as the next. Mine was a kit. I love the bright batik fabrics.

To see what other quilters have on their design walls go to Judy's blog.

Design Wall

I hope everyone had a nice 4th.
I spent 2 days with family and got to see some people I haven't seen in a while.

To see what other quilters are working on go to Judy's page.

Here is what I am working on...

This is Hawaiian Star on the frame.

I started using a dark blue on the back to match the fabric with a variegated on the front to pick up the colors on the front. The dark blue thread was showing up on the top and I couldn't not get the tension adjusted so that didn't happen. Also, I didn't like the look of the variegated thread. So took it all out. It takes much long to remove as it does to stitch! I am using a silver gray on the front and back. I like it much better.

I am working on a t-shirt quilt. Here is the layout I decided on. I do have another shirt to cut up to fill in that space at the bottom left.

This quilt is off the frame and I am stitching down the binding. I used  Moda Snowman Gatherings and Snowman Gatherings ll charm packs and some yardage from that line.

I pieced the fabric that was left from the front to make the backing. I did have to add some other blues and tans that I had. My family does not like the back. I was pretty happy with it because I felt like I was using what I had instead of buying more.

I just happened to go into my kitchen, which faces the west, Saturday evening and saw this. You can't see the lightening bugs flashing, but that added to the beauty of this sunset.