Thanks......

Thanks to those of you who had a chance to look at the photos in the contest and vote for my husband's (see previous post if you don't know what I"m talking about).  We still haven't had any official word on the results but if numbers are any indication, it looks as if he is the winner.

Not much sewing-related stuff here.....kind of been in a sewing "funk" but am cutting up scraps with my GO! cutter and putting them into baggies to make the random blocks I find such fun to do.  I will be getting 3 new dies on Monday.....WOO-HOO!!! I can't wait......two of them are additional QuarterSquareTriangle dies (which I love the one I already have and am thrilled to be getting them in other sizes now....thanks, AccuQuilt for listening about that)!!!  I think the sewing funk will end soon!

I have been trying to learn more about EQ7....specifically, how to design a quilt top with blocks in mixed sizes.  I am not catching on too quickly with this, so if any of you have some good suggestions, let me know! I have so many ideas in my head and want to be able to get them "on paper" with EQ!

On Mother's Day weekend, my daughter and granddaughter made a quick overnight surprise trip here...showed up at 8:45 on Friday night and stayed until Saturday afternoon.  It was fun...we did breakfast out at a restaurant on the bay and then lunch at a restaurant in downtown Lewes on the canal. The weather was gorgeous and it was a very nice time looking around the little shops there!  This is a picture of my granddaughter at breakfast. She selected chocolate chip pancakes for her meal.

This is a picture of the 3 of us taken just before they left to head back home.   (Gosh......I hate seeing myself in photos....do most of you feel the same way when you see photos of yourself??  *sigh*)

The other big excitement around here is that we have been watching a robin's nest that was built in a large bush right outside our living room window. We can actually sit on the sofa and watch the activity there.  On the Friday of Mother's Day weekend, the first 3 eggs hatched and the 4th hatched the following morning.  It is amazing to watch all the feeding and nest "cleaning" that is done by the parents....about every 10 minutes. The babies change in size so quickly.  I understand they will leave the nest at about 12 days but won't yet be flying.  I don't see how they will FIT in the nest for many more days....and every time they squirm around, I fear one of them is going to fall to the ground.   Here is a photo of one of the parents watching us as we watch the nest!  This was taken 3 days ago and the babies have lots more feathers now and are even flapping their wings around in the nest.  They aren't very "cute" yet.......but I'm sure they will look better once they are out of the nest and acting like birds instead of hungry little piggies that eat every 10 minutes!

EXCITING opportunity!!!

AccuQuilt is having their second annual Barn Quilt contest. Last year's was very exciting and you might want to read about this year's event. You can easily do that by clicking on the logo/button that is on my right sidebar.....it will take you where you can read all the info about it. Check it out to see if it might be of interest to you. The prizes are SUPER and it's certainly worth considering!!! The chance to be creative and maybe win a prize in the process...how could it be any better than that??

More "GROW as you GO" blocks.....

Referring to my previous post, I have done 3 blocks since then with scraps cut all with my GO! cutter. Now you can see I have a total of 7 blocks toward this fun quilt. If you click on the picture to enlarge it and study the blocks, you can see no two are exactly the same pattern. I used several dies to cut the pieces......some of my square dies (2" finished, 4" finished and 6" finished), some of my half-square triangle dies, my rectangle die, and my quarter-square triangle die. then I combined them in various ways....did whatever felt FUN to do at the moment to make them be 12" (finished size) blocks. I have to ponder what color sashing I'll use....maybe an off-white but not totally sure (and would welcome some feedback on that from you color-savvy folks). If you have a GO! cutter, this project is a tremendous amount of fun and this is one of the most satisfying things I've done with my GO!......to rescue all the left-over and unused (unwanted!!!) fabric and give it some new life. It's very "freeing" as there is no pattern and you just do whatever you feel like doing, but the end result will be something very nice! (Also...since you are making 12" blocks, this quilt can be done rather quickly.) I'll update you again when there is some noticeable progress.

A great STASH BUSTER.....

I've still been feeling punky with my cough and haven't sewn much. I did manage to go through some fabrics and found (so far) a couple of boxes of fabrics that seem to be in the category of: WHY did I buy these?? I can't recall a specific project for them, so it's time that they become useful to me!
So...I decided to do something that is easy....something that requires very little concentration. I pulled out my GO! cutter and started to work on those boxes of fabrics to reduce them to usable pieces. It is fun to do this and know that I have fabric pieces waiting to be made into scrappy blocks.I think I'll soon make more of the 12" blocks I started to make last year using lots of my scrappy pieces that were cut with my GO! Here is one of the blocks I made using different sizes of GO! cut squares and half-square and quarter-square triangles. So far, I have about 8 of these made. It's fun to put them together and someday they will become a fun, scrappy quilt! Some of you may recall I named this project "Grow as you GO!" because this quilt will grow as I cut up more scraps with my GO!

Day 4......

Day 4 started out with hubby and I venturing early to a tiny town called Valle Crucis, the home of the original Mast General Store, which has been in continuous operation since 1883. It has an old wood-burning stove as it's source of heat and we enjoyed the ambience of all the creaky floorboards and two floors of wooden shelves and old glass cases filled with all kinds of items......edible and otherwise. The town's post office is in that general store......and it is very old-fashioned and such fun to see. We mailed a post-card to the grandkids from there. Here are a few photos around and in the general store....

The front of the store.....Foggy mountain by the parking lot behind the store when we arrived early in the morning....
The back of the store....The old stove that still provides heat for the building....wonder how many of us have heating units that will continue to work for more than 100 years?? LOLLocals stop in each morning on a regular basis for coffee and to share gossip. An occasional game of checkers is played. Their gameboard uses bottle caps for the checkers.....of course, we were too late to catch any of them (having arrived about 8:45 and most had been there when the store opened at 7).We spent a fun couple of hours poking around in there....bought a few things (including some things for the housesitter/mail collector) and then got ready to drive to Tonya's house. For some reason, our GPS took us on a one-lane dirt road near Tonya's house and tried to tell us we were at our destination when we knew we weren't. I had to call and have TJ (Tonya's hubby) tell us how to proceed. We did as he directed and soon met up with them. They live in a very lovely area.....and their house is on the side of a mountain (as most things are in that area)!!! The 4 of us went to lunch at a nice Chinese buffet and I was reassured to know that they do have some nice touches of civilization not too far from them. LOL Tonya and I sat in the front of her red VW beetle with her driving and we had the guys ride in the back. We had a lot of laughs and I'm thinking, in retrospect, we were pretty noisy in the restaurant...but....we surely had a great time! We didn't really take any pictures....DUH.......except for one still that Tonya took of me using her GO! cutter....which is on her blog already and you can see it if you click HERE. (I wanted a Sunbonnet Sue and an Overall Sam and she has those dies and I don't.) She and I also made a video for our blogging friend, Gene......we wanted to sing and play a song for him, but we could never do it without falling into hysterics, so that video is not for "public consumption"....sorry about that!!! This one last photo is of some gifts Tonya gave to me......which was very sweet of her.....she gave me some thread, made me a fall dishtowel and got us 2 bottles of local wine AND gave us a jar of her delicious homemade pickles!!! YUM..........We discussed the very distinct possibility of Tonya, TJ, and E making a trip up our way soon (YAY!!!) and then....late that afternoon, we returned to our hotel in time for another manager's reception. Then we read a bit and watched some TV before calling it a night. Tomorrow I will tell about my trip to MaryJo's....a super-huge fabric store in Gastonia, NC.

A day in the "big city".....

A day in the "big city"...otherwise known as Dover, Delaware. I know...I know...it's not really a big city but in comparison to the pretty rural area in which I live, it IS the big city for me (and it is our state capital, too, so that automatically makes it a big city, in my head). Anyway......Monday was a pretty rainy day and chilly. I picked up Kathy early as I said I was going to do...and then we met up with Michelle by JoAnn Fabrics since Michelle lives not too distant from there. We did a little shopping in there (and I got a bit annoyed that they now have the GO cutter and dies in a rather out-of-the-way area of the store instead of prominently-displayed like they used to be) and then we went together in one car to Shady Lane...an Amish quilt shop a few miles outside of Dover. Now...you probably know the Amish don't use electricity, so with it being a dreary, rainy day, it was pretty hard to see the fabric colors very well with just a few gas lamps around but we had a good time anyway. It's a cute shop and the ladies who run it are so sweet. This photo shows the extent of my purchases.Are you impressed with how disciplined I was?? LOL I only got 3 fabrics and two quilting templates and that was between JoAnn's AND the Amish quilt shop. The reason for that is because I know I am going to several Amish quilt shopsin PA early in November and also, next week, I expect to be going to MaryJo's....a supposedly very super-duper fabric place in North Carolina...with a good blogging/quilting friend!!! (Can't wait for that!) After the Amish shop, we went to an Amish market nearby and I did get a few things there but didn't take any pictures...some bulk candy and snack items and some wonderful pumpkin scones...oh, wait...the scones are in a picture. First, though, look at this.....it is SO cute!
It is the cutest "mug-rug" (coaster) and it was made by Michelle and she gave it to me. She gave one to Kathy, too (slightly different fabric). I love it! And here is it in use...early last evening when I had one of the pumpkin scones and a nice cup of pumpkin spice tea......YUMMMMM
After the Amish market, we went for a nice lunch at a bagel/sandwich shop and we sat and chatted for a bit. Then it was time to drop Michelle back to her car by JoAnn's and Kathy and I headed home. I expect we will do this again soon, as it was a very nice day (but next time we will hope for a little nicer weather)! We also made plans to meet up the first Saturday in November at a large craft show outside of Dover, so that will be a fun time, too! Gotta love blogging/quilting friends....right???

Some photo fun.......

Catch-up time here, I guess, since I've not had much time to blog lately......no real sewing done lately, either, due to a very busy weekend (and this upcoming week looks to be about the same).

Friday I did a GO! cutter demo for 7 gals who had been unable to see the cutter demo'd at the recent big quilt show in PA. Joan (3rd from the left in the photo) hosted us and fixed us a nice lunch. We spent about 3 hours together and everyone enjoyed using the GO! As with all of us who have them, the gals were utterly amazed at the speed and accuracy of the pieces they cut with my GO! More GO! cutters will be "living" in my area soon!!! We had a fun time that day!Today I will be going with my quilting pal, Kathy (click HERE for her blog) to meet up with another quilting blogger, Michelle (click HERE for Michelle's blog). We are going to JoAnn Fabrics as well as an Amish quilt shop outside of Dover and an Amish market. It should be a fun day, although I'd have preferred some nicer weather. I'll report about this in my next blog post.

I'll leave you with a few photos taken by my daughter on a family outing by the Brandywine River in PA on Saturday. I enjoyed seeing these photos as they really seem to capture the beautiful fall weather they had that day. In a couple of them, you will see my little granddaughter, Jessi, who is healing very nicely from her recent skin surgeries, I am happy to report and to thank all of you, once again, for your prayers on her behalf.

Sherry's $20 quilt top.....

Before I show you Sherry's $20 quilt top, I want to let you know that Jessi's biopsy results came in yesterday. Everything was CLEAR! Thanks, again, for all the prayers. The pathology did classify one of the moles as "junctional nevus", which I am told is a type of mole that has a high tendency to become malignant melanoma. Of course, that might never have happened to Jessi (or it could have happened at any time). SO...it's better that this mole is gone now.

Now...moving along to Sherry's quilt. When we were at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza show a week or so back, there was a booth that advertised you could make a quilt top for $20. They had pre-bundled three one-yard pieces of coordinated fabric for $19.95 (plus tax) and gave you your choice of a free pattern. Sherry bought one and already made it. She supplied the batting and backing and quilted it and it looks very nice...a perfect fall-throw, I'd say. Isn't it pretty? AND....we looked at the pattern and see that we can easily cut it from the dies I have for my GO cutter, so there will be a few more of these made soon, I believe!

Thank you.....

A very sincere thank you to all who have expressed continuing concern about my granddaughter, Jessi, and her recent surgery to remove several moles. When the biopsy reports come back, I will let you know the results...hopefully, the results are good. She had some oozing from one of the surgical sites over the weekend but that seems to have stopped now, so maybe the rest of her recovery will go smoothly.
Not much going on in the quilting front this past weekend. On Saturday, we did our annual "Can't believe we do this" trek with two good friends to the Nationwide NASCAR Race. Since it is held in Dover, within an hour of where we live, we decided to try this after we moved to this area and we discovered we had a fun day. Lots of families attend the Saturday race and nobody gets rowdy....just everyone having a good time cheering for their favorite. The photo above is my hubby and our two friends eating dinner near the car after the race was over. This allows the traffic to clear and then we have an easy ride home.

We got to meet and talk to a young, up-and-coming driver named Trevor Bayne, who seemed really nice and drove very well in the race that day. If you follow the sport, remember that name as I'm quite sure he will become a top driver someday. This is a picture I took of him as he was talking to my friend, Linda....Right now, he looks about 14 years old to me BUT he is actually all of 19. Really old, huh???

Oh...I do have a picture of the Brown Bag Fabric I got from Mona in Texas. (I don't think she has a blog.) Very nice batiks ...she had a surplus from a class she took. I am cutting them into strips with my GO cutter and going to attempt to make a sweatshirt jacket. I will show it to you as it progresses...as long as it is turning out nicely. LOL
And...I leave you with this photo. How is THIS for a fall treat??? (Don't worry...I didn't eat the whole thing....hubby and I cut it in half and then into wedges and shared it...it was a HUGE apple, which you really can't tell in this photo...a nearby restaurant makes them with all kinds of toppings but we chose plain caramel....and it was YUMMY!)

CHECK THIS OUT.....

Do you see that cute "Birth Announcement" on my right sidebar? You will want to head over there and click on it to see a short video about some excitement over at AccuQuilt. Now...don't tell me you haven't heard of AccuQuilt. (If you have been reading my blog, you have heard about them.) They make the fabulous cutters that make the lives of quilters so much easier (the GO cutter and the Studio). If you really have been hibernating somewhere in recent months, though, and do NOT know about them, then (in addition to clicking on their birth announcement on my sidebar), you need to hurry to their website by clicking HERE. You would also benefit from becoming a "fan" of theirs on Facebook. (Just do a search for AccuQuilt on your Facebook page.) LOTS of good ideas, advice, fun times AND giveaways to be found there...so don't miss out!

Quilt Show recap....

Most of you know I went to a quilt show with my quilt guild on Thursday. Some of you follow me on Facebook and saw that I posted about two things that happened...one cute and one NOT. The one that is not cute/happy is that while we were at the quilt show in PA (and our cars were in a huge Walmart lot in DE where we'd boarded our charter bus), someone had a freak accident and wiped out 3 cars. Two of those cars belonged to gals who were on our bus trip. That surely put a damper on an otherwise nice day for all of us and I feel very badly for those gals. (One of the cars was only two months' old, too.) *sigh*

The cute thing that happened was that I wore my GO shirt and by one of the vendors, a gal asked, "Are you Pat?" I said I was but knew I didn't recognize her so I asked if she'd seen that I was planning on wearing the GO shirt to the show (since I'd mentioned it here and on Facebook). She said she hadn't seen that BUT she had been reading my blog (but not commenting) and she recognized me from my photo there. Her name is Gloria. WOW...what a FUN thing to have happen to me there. I was so happy she spoke up and then Thursday night, she went online and commented on my blog. Now...I was so stunned by this that I didn't even pull out my camera and get a photo of us together. DUH....how dopey was THAT??? I really missed a "Kodak moment", didn't I? (Sorry, folks!) So... Hi, Gloria!!! It was great to meet you! It turns out another blog reader DID know I was going to be wearing the GO shirt and she was looking for me but we never ran across each other that day. It was a big building and there were lots of people there, so it just wasn't meant to happen. Next time, we will make plans in advance, though.

You will be happy to know I did get some pictures of quilts and will post them in a day or two...need to sort through them yet. I didn't buy much this trip (since I'll buy oodles of fabric early in November during my retreat up to the Amish area of PA)....but I'll put two photos below of my "haul". The first one is 5 fat quarters I actually WON on the bus ride back home. (We do a big fat quarter raffle and had several winners and I was one of the lucky ones.)

The next photo shows what I got that day......I did order two magazine subscriptions as I've let my other ones lapse.....the bag on the left was one of the "gifts" from the magazine subscription service. (The other gifts were a pen that is actually very nice and a pretty hideous alarm clock.....will have to show that by itself someday soon! ) Rest of photo described below...You can also see a silly Maxine panel.....gotta love Maxine and am going to try to figure out something to make with some of the panel and maybe "gift" a few friends. The other two fat quarters are for an apple block I want to make (paper pieced) and you can also see I got the Curve Master foot for my sewing machine. (She was throwing in the tweezers like she uses with the foot for free.) I tried it briefly yesterday and was having some trouble but I know a couple of people online who use it and have done well with it, so I need to practice more AND get some tips from those other folks. (If one of you is reading this, please identify yourself to me so I can email you about this foot,okay?) I got some sewing machine needles and the bag that is closed has a little gift for a blogging buddy I'll be excited to meet in person in a few weeks...Miss Tonya.
OH...one other thing happened there that was quite irritating (and...again...some may have already read this on Facebook). There was a quilt shop who retails the GO cutters and was supposed to demo the machine there. Several on my bus wanted to see it and at least one WAS going to buy it once she saw it in action. BUT...the vendor only brought one machine...had it up on a very high shelf and refused to show it, even when asked by potential customers to do so.....NOT nice, huh??? I felt bad, so I am going to demo my GO cutter for these gals. I'll take all my dies and the cutter and show them on October 1. I know they'll have a great time learning how to use it and will be sad when I walk out the door to take mine home! (I know the solution to THAT....they need to buy one....right? Sad faces will turn instantly happy then!)

A really fun project made with the GO!

I am having a lot of fun with a project I call "Grow as you GO". I spoke of this several posts back. While it can be done without a GO cutter, it is much easier with the cutter. Here is how the project works.

You cut your scraps into various sizes and put them in baggies and label the baggies.......2 1/2 inch HST's, 3 1/2 inch squares, etc. You want to have scraps that will end up (when combined) making 12 1/2 inch blocks.

When you want to have a FUN play day, take those baggies and build your 12 1/2 inch blocks with them. They will be bright and scrappy and....well.....lots of FUN to make and also will make you smile when you look at them. Here are four that I've made:

This first block has 3 rows. The top row consists of six 2 1/2 inch half square triangle (HST) blocks sewn together. The second row is two 6 1/2 inch HST blocks sewn together...and the third row is three 4 1/2 inch HST blocks sewn together. Now...when this block is sewn into a quilt, it will be a nice, 12-inch block.
Here is another block......in this one, the rows are: three 4 1/2 inch HST blocks (not all turned the same way....wanted some variety), then three 4 1/2 inch blocks, then three 4 1/2 inch quarter square blocks. Sew them together and...presto...another block that will sew down to 12 inches in a quilt.The combination used for this next block is: one row of 2 1/2 inch HST blocks (6 of them), then one row of 6 1/2 inch HST blocks (2 of them), then a row of 4 1/2 inch quarter-square blocks (3 of them). Don't you just love how much FUN this is??? One more to show today....

And this 4th Grow as you GO block is made of one row of 3 1/2 inch HST blocks (4 of them), then a row using my 3 1/2 inch x 6 1/2 inch rectangle cutter scraps...I used 4 of those rectangles and made them into two 6 1/2 inch blocks and then turned each block a different way when I sewed them together into a row.Okay...so when you get a lot of these blocks made, you have fun playing with them until you get them arranged as you like. Since they are all made so differently, you can turn them all kinds of ways, too...no pattern restrictions here.....until you find what you like the best. As you can see, this can be made without a GO....simply cutting your scraps into sizes that will allow you to piece them into a big block that will be 12 1/2 inches (and will then become 12 inches when sewn into your quilt). It is fun to find various combinations of scrap pieces to do each of these blocks.....very relaxing. With the GO cutter, of course, they are cut more accurately and a lot more quickly..so that makes it even more fun and that is why my project is called "Grow as you GO!" Here is one last photo showing a possible way for me to arrange the above 4 blocks (click to enlarge), BUT...I think I'll wait until I have about 8 or 12 made before I start to sew them together into quilt rows! This is SOOOOO much fun! Try it... if you enjoy scrappy quilts (which I do), you'll love this fun project, too!!!

It's over.......

It's over......summer (well, not really as it's not officially over for another couple of weeks) but it feels like it's over. The community pool closed yesterday (and I hadn't gone there for about two weeks due to some icky weather and also feeling pretty sick for the past 9 days). The night temps are noticeably cooler all of a sudden. And I am even seeing some leaves on trees start to lose their "green". The kids are back in school most everywhere as of today, too. Our little granddaughter, Jessi, starts 1st grade today...hope to have a couple of 1st day photos to post here in another day or two!
Yesterday, I did the rest of the week's typing (which I wasn't feeling well enough to do last week), so that was a relief to finish it. Then...I dug out two fall runners that I'd pieced together LAST fall. One of them is pictured above (simple squares set on point) and is now sandwiched, "pillowcased" (instead of a binding) and ready for hand-quilting. The other is below here (a Disappearing 9-Patch) and still needs to be sandwiched. I made these before I got my GO cutter and see that both of them can now be made a lot quicker with the GO! Maybe I'll do them in colors for another season of the year soon..having the GO cutter just might be motivation enough to do that!
TODAY my free die from AccuQuilt arrives (earned for doing a YouTube video tutorial with my GO cutter)! I chose the newly-released, small Drunkard's Path die. I have already played around with a design idea in EQ7......and once I get the fabric colors I want for that, I'll show the EQ design here. Can't wait to try out this new die!

The suspense is over......

Here is a picture of the folded up entries....some blue, some gold, some white, and some pink... in the basket for the giveaway for a GO! cutter and dies on my blog. You will notice below the basket and near the notebook, there are 4 of the entries and one has a checkmark on it. The checkmark was a reference for me so I would know if the first name drawn already owned a GO (and would win the dies) and then another name would be drawn. I also had the date each person entered the drawing AND any identifying info if there was another person with the same name who entered on that date. (All the entries were kept in a folder in my computer...by date....for easy reference by me, too.)
Okay...I know...enough of THAT......you want me to cut to the chase and reveal the results. Actually, the first name out was a slip of paper with a checkmark on it indicationt it was someone who already has a GO (and she will win 3 dies).....so........ we had to choose another slip of paper for the GO cutter. (The second name did NOT have a checkmark on it....so that is the winner of the GO! Here are the two winners........Robin (rsislandcrafts) won the 3 dies and Stormy Days (Dana) won the GO! cutter. Oddly enough, both entries were made on July 16...the first day of the giveaway AND both live in Florida. (There must be good luck in the air down there!!!) My pastor joked with me that Stormy Days will probably have a very SUNNY day today when the good news reaches her!! I will be emailing both of them as soon as I post this to my blog. Thanks to all of you who entered and if I were a rich person, I would definitely give GO! cutters and dies to ALL of you....because I believe in the products so much. A very big thank-you to AccuQuilt, also. You are an amazing company with wonderful products, a fabulous staff AND a big heart!!!

GO! giveaway deadline has passed here....

No more entries accepted in my GO! giveaway as the deadline is now passed. Be on the lookout later today for the winner to be announced here!

Something nice in the mail.....

Between my part-time job (which I never expected to have in retirement) and a project I can't yet speak about here, I have been nearly overwhelmed and not able to do much that is just "fun" stuff (although the project is fun...but it's just a deadline kind of thing, so that makes it be less fun...LOL). Anyway......I had a nice mailbox package the other day. I won a giveaway at Nancy's blog (click HERE to read her blog). She sent me a really neat notebook that you color the cover design yourself AND a set of Bic Permanent fine-line markers in really COOL colors. I didn't know they came in such great colors. Here is a picture of the stuff after I opened the packageand here is a picture after I'd colored some of the cover (and the design is on the front AND the back). Whew...this is going to be a UFO as it is going to take me awhile to finish coloring this!!! Thanks, Nancy..I love it as I have always been a kid at heart and loved to color. AND....this is the final reminder about my giveaway for a GO! cutter and dies. Click on the sidebar if you've not yet entered and get the info. I'm sad to say that the last few days, I have had people enter who left NO contact information at all.....and when I click on their names to try to find some contact info, I draw a blank and I have to discard their names then. I stressed in my "rules" that I need contact info and I even mentioned it again on AccuQuilt's Facebook page but STILL some folks try to enter with NO contact information. How do they think they would get notified if they won??? Oh, well.....it's their loss as now they aren't even IN the giveaway! NO entries will be accepted after 6 a.m. EASTERN time on Sunday, August 1. The winner(s) will be drawn that day and I'll probably blog about it that night or on Monday morning. Good luck to all and thanks for taking the time to enter. Whoever wins will LOVE that cutter...I promise!

Let me tell you about my FAIR day.....

Monday was a FAIR day for me (and hubby). After I enjoyed some fun time with my neighborhood quilt group (Lakeside Ladies), he and I went to the Delaware State Fair. This post will be rather picture intensive....but before you look at them, let me remind you that time is FLYING and on Sunday morning at 6 a.m. my time (eastern time), the giveaway for the GO! cutter and dies will close. So...if you've not yet entered and want to be in it, click for the info on the sidebar here. (ONE entry per person so we keep it fair, okay?)

Now...take a trip to the State Fair with me......some photos will need no explanation!Yes...I did go see the quilts. The ones here were all made by 3 gals I know very well. Please excuse the framing of the quilts...all but one of them were hanging from the ceiling and I couldn't get a great angle on them.
First we have Lucy, who has only been quilting for about 5 years! She is a retired hairdresser. She dyes her own fabrics, sometimes paints on the fabrics AND does her own quilting (at first on her regular sewing machine and now she has a long-arm.) This first quilt won her a blue ribbon AND the judges' award this year. LOTS of her hand-dyed fabrics in this one AND she makes the design herself..yes...she just "happens" to be able to draw. Not TOO talented, is she??? (click to enlarge and appreciate it more)
Another of Lucy's quilts....yup...more of her hand-dyeds in THIS one,too. And, I'm sure you noticed ANOTHER blue ribbon and a scalloped border to add to the merriment!!!Gee...Lucy must be slipping...she only got a YELLOW ribbon on this next one. Now, you really need to click on this and LOOK at all those flowers behind this garden gate and know that she hand-dyed most of them in various shades so the flowers would all be shaded. Do you hate her yet??? LOL Wait...you might in a second when I tell you this next thing about her. When she had only been quilting about two years, she submitted a quilt (think it was a Baltimore album type quilt) to the Paducah AQS show...she was still quilting her things on her home machine then. AND...the quilt got accepted to Paducah. She didn't win there...thank goodness or WE would have all hated her for getting a quilt into the Paducah show just 2 years after she started quilting!!! LOL I hope you clicked on these photos to enlarge them. (Personally, I think the judges were NUTS for not awarding THIS quilt a blue ribbon in the watercolor quilt category...I meant to look at the winning one, but I doubt it held a candle to this one!)Next, we have two quilts from a local gal who is doing long-arm work for me lately....Jackie. She won a blue ribbon with this one. It's a LARGE quilt and space was at a premium, so they had it folded....which is a shame as it's STUNNING when seen in all its glory. But...you'll get the idea of how nice it is anyway. And here is a wall-hanging done by Jackie...it is so peaceful and pretty. I'd love to have it in MY house! Her quilting is always exquisite as she doesn't use a computerized long-arm...she does it all herself....deciding on what would look best and then just DOING it. All the quilts she does are very customized and wonderful.

Now the next gal, Joan, had a few quilts entered in this show and I thought I got all of them but find I only got one. Sorry, Joan. It was a pretty quilt, though (as were her others). You can't really tell from this photo, but this is actually a rag quilt of sorts.....very nicely-done!Needing a break from the sun, we went to the casino (one of our state's casinos is on the grounds of the State Fair) where I....so NOT a gambler (nor is hubby) spent a big $3 and came out $2.52 ahead on the penny machines!!! Hubby lost his $3. We had a nice supper in the cafe there and then went to see a group that we LOVE that does a lot of State Fairs. They are based in Dallas, Texas, and if you live in that area OR anywhere near a State Fair where they will appear, you should go see them. Their name is Vocal Trash....they are SO entertaining and energetic with music for lots of age groups...lots of percussion and great voices. We have followed them now for about 5 years and see them every chance we get. Nobody leaves their show without big smiles on their faces! I was persuaded to dance in front of the stage with their lead member and one of their dancers....NOT my usual thing to do and I would not go up ON the stage, but I had a blast right there at the foot of the stage. This last photo shows me and the lead guy (Steve) who is pointing at me and telling hubby to take my picture and saying to hubby, "Can you believe I got her up here to DO this??" IF any of you have already seen them and are fans of theirs, let me know. I know they go to the Pullayup fair in Washington state (probably didn't spell that right), the Missouri State Fair, the Iowa State Fair, the Colorado State Fair and the list goes one. If you can see some of their videos on You Tube, you will see what I mean about their energy level!!! Anyway.....I leave you with that photo of me dancing with them last night. Pretty funny, huh? (In case you don't recognize me, I am the chunky one in the black shirt...their lead guy is in the blue...48 years old and not an ounce of fat on HIM...could it have anything to do with the energetic shows he does??? Maybe I should travel with that group and get skinny!!! LOL)