An exciting weekend so far...

This weekend is the Champlain Valley Quilters' Guild of New York's quilt show. I worked set up on Friday and was at the field house from about 12noon to 6pm with lots of other guild members and a number of helpful husbands moving racks, setting up racks, and hanging quilts on racks.

Pictured are the two quilts I have in the show. While I got to see a number of the quilts in the show (especially the row I was assigned) I was really impressed with the quilts. We always have great shows, but I think this one really has some exceptional quilts. 

I am working as a 'white glove' person during the show on Sunday. So I will be going in early to see the show and check out the vendors. Then hang around in town after the show to wait for quilt pick up later on Sun.

While everything went pretty smoothly with the quilt show yesterday. Today (Saturday) got off to a very rough start. Damon got up early to go to work, let the dog out, and Ivan got skunked! So I was up at 5am (I am guessing, I didn't even get a chance to look at the clock) and spent the next hour or so with Damon washing the dog several times out in the driveway.  Thankfully it wasn't too cold (unusual for this time on Oct.). We did bring out some buckets of warm water from the house to rinse the dog (we are such good dog owners). So Ivan is on the back porch still damp and slightly less smelly. Damon went to work with the idea of coming back early with some more deodorizing products. And the clothes we wore to wash the dog are in the washing machine. The rugs that were on the back porch are in the garbage. I Anticipate being out washing dog for a portion of the afternoon as well today. And of course Frebrezing all around the house. 

A busy Aug. and Sept.

 Along with teaching online this summer and the start of the fall semester at the end of August I have been busy with home and quilting projects.

The quilt here is the baby quilt for Barbie and Aaron's baby, due at the end of Nov. The shower is next weekend, and you know how I am about meeting deadlines! So this was shipped out this past week. You can't really tell from this photo but all the fabrics on the top of the quilt has dots, spots or circles on them.

On the home front Damon and I decided we needed a shed to hold the summer stuff so we can get all three cars in the garage over the winter. So I bought the kit over the summer and on Friday we got the flooring on and built the sides. After he got home from work on Sat. we put on the roof. Today (final day if all goes well) the doors get attached.

The Columbus Day weekend it the Guild quilt show. Both quilts I  have in the show are done and the last sleeve was attached yesterday. So I am all set for the show.

Damon bough a new aquarium so we are moving things around to get it set up. I moved the bookcase across the room yesterday. Nothing like an excuse to take every single book off the shelves and dust! The process to move the fish over to the new aquarium will take a while - moving water, rocks, plants and then the fish.

What I have been working on this week

I picked up the "Sparkle Plenty" pattern by Loft Creations in June at the City Quilter shop in NYC. I think this is a record for me - I don't usually make quilt tops very quickly after getting a pattern (I tend to mull my fabric choices quite a while). But I really liked the colors on the sample picture of the pattern so I went with very similar colors. The black was taken from my stash. About half of the colors are from a package of Kaffe 5 inch squares I bought at the Vermont Quilt Festival at the end of June and the rest came from my 5 inch square collection. 
It is more of a large wall hanging size, so I am contemplating either adding borders, just keep expanding the pattern, or a combination of the two. 

Another Quilt Finished!

At the same time I picked up my summer quilt from the long-arm quilter's I also picked up this one. I finished putting on the binding last week.
All of the material for this quilt, except the outside border, was from my stash of fabrics. The main part of the quilt is primarily reproduction fabrics that I inherited from Cheryl Patch.  

The pattern for this quilt is called "Value Dance"  and the Quilt Tutorial can be found on the Stitched in Color blog by Rachel Hauser. 

When Gina and I started quilting together 10 years ago we would pick a pattern and each do our own version of the quilt. Over the years we moved away from doing that as we got busy with making gifts and other individual patterns we were interested in. This past January Gina suggested we work on the same pattern again. I had found this pattern in my quilt blog roaming and we both liked the the simplicity (it uses only 2 different quilt blocks) and how the look of the quilt could be very different based on color and placement.

My New Summer Quilt

 I bought the batik fabrics for this quilt as a kit in Paducah,KY at the AQS show two years ago. I pieced most of it at a retreat last fall. Because of the bright colors I decided to make it a warm weather quilt. It is backed with flannel, but it does not have any batting. I got it back from the long-arm quilter yesterday and instead of doing a traditional binding I trimmed the back an inch longer than the quilt top and just double folded the back edges over to the front of the quilt and stitched it down using a machine blanket stitch.

Report from Toledo

 So far I have gone walking at one of the Metro-Parks every morning during this vacation. We came across these deer at Swan Creek a couple of days ago. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were watching and waiting for me - I am up to 3 bites so far.

Today was a new first - Tammy and I went to have our nails done. This was my first ever manicure. The picture is not great, but I picked a nice pink color. Now I am very conscience of nicking or damaging the polish. I also realized that I do not own any nail polish remover so in a week or so when I get home and need to take it off I have to go out and buy some.

Off to Ann Arbor on Wed and in Columbus for the Quilt Show on Thurs.

 

 

Ska Last Weekend

Still catching up after last weekend. Damon and I took off for NYC for the Apple Stomp concert. Had a blast! The bands were great. Can't remember the last time we went to a ska concert together.

It was actually 90+degrees in NYC and now here I am back in the Adirondacks where it is in the low 60s and rainy.