Surprise!

I promised my kids that we'd go to the county fair last night, but this has been the "Summer of the Storms" here in southwestern Virginia, and last night was no exception.  Heavy rain, thunder and lightning meant that the midway rides were closed down.  We went anyway to see everything else going on.  We started with the quilt show (of course!).  As I walked up to my quilt, I was hoping against hope for a green ribbon, Honorable Mention.   I've gotten 2 of those in the past, for this baby quilt

Honorable Mention - hand quilted, 2010 Rockbridge County Fair Quilt Show

and for this mini quilt,

Honorable Mention, Miniature (although also hand quilted), 2008? or 2007? Rockbridge County Fair Quilt Show

and well, heck, it just feels nice to be recognized, doesn't it?  But I knew it was unlikely.  After all, my quilt wasn't even DONE, for heaven's sake.  So when I didn't see the green hanging there, I admit to feeling just a bit crestfallen. 

Until I got a little closer and saw the RED RIBBON!!!! 

Are you kidding me?  Second place!?!  I am just over the MOON!!!  To say I was surprised doesn't even do my feelings justice.  I must have let out a shriek or something, because all of a sudden, other people at the quilt show were peeking around the other quilts at me to see what was going on.

After that, I didn't care that I got wet and dirty wandering the fairgrounds with the boys.  We got our dinner, followed up, of course, with yummy funnel cake.  We watched them show some cattle, and then checked out the rest of the animals on our own, petting all of them at least twice, I think.  The cutest thing, though, was this kid, born right there at the fair just hours before.  Isn't he/she just adorable!

Before we got back home, my husband called to let us know that a tree had fallen across our road during the storm, and that we'd have to park the car, climb the fence into our neighbor's pasture, and hoof it back up the last STEEP hill to our house.

To my kids, this sounded like a fun adventure, so they were pretty disappointed when we got home and my AMAZING NEIGHBORS had already cleared the road.

Who says life in the country is slow and boring and predictable?  NOT ME!

Who has time to sew?

All my good intentions have gone down the tubes! First, we brought Rosabelle home on Thursday. She is a sweetheart, but will definitely need some time to acclimate to living in a house with people. Adam calls her my fourth shadow - between the two dogs and the two kids, I can't turn around without bumping into something or someone. But it is understandable; she's been through a lot lately. I'm just glad she seems to like and trust me.

Thursday night, after spending a couple of hours with Rosabelle, the kids and I went to the county fair. The boys' Cub Scout quilt won 2nd place in the Youth category:


This year's quilt show had a lot of variety, from a crazy quilt to a scrappy Double Wedding Ring to baby quilts to a whole cloth quilt to a quilt made with watercolored baby wipes (no joke! it was pretty incredible!) and everything in between. I took very few photos because my kiddos were anxious to get to the rides on the midway, but I was duly impressed by this paper-pieced quilt by Judy Glick:


And my vote for Viewer's Choice went to this quilt called Count Your Blessings by Marcia Vehrs.

I just love the concept, the sentiment, and I love the use of applique plus embroidery.

Doesn't that family look cute? And I adore the sign with the name on it!

In addition to the usual midway rides, there was a "ride" that looked like a human sized hamster ball that you get inside and then you can walk on water. Well, if you can walk, that is. I let my kids do it and they were falling every which way and had a ball! (while I had funnel cake - YUM!)


On Friday, I headed up to Washington DC after work to spend the weekend with my two college roommates. This September, we'll have been friends for 22 years and we all turn 40 this year.(how is that possible? I don't feel a day over 27!?!) We ate (Vietnamese, Middle Eastern and Ethiopian), we swam in the hotel pool, we went to a yoga class (pure hilarity! I'm surprised we weren't ejected - our instructor was a nutcase and some of our contortions were not very well executed, but we managed to do the silent, tears-streaming-down-the-face, pinch-your-lips-together-so-no-sound-escapes laughs), did a bit of shopping, and spent a lot of time talking about the things that matter (being a wife, mother, career woman; getting older; reminiscing about being younger; plans for retirement; book recommendations; losing parents and mortality; old friends; staying -or not staying- fit; should we go out for ice cream for a second day in a row? - YES!). Some friends are just meant to be friends for life. My college roommates are that kind of friends.

(there are 3 of us, but only 2 in this photo, obviously)

So, while I got a little bit of hand quilting done during some of the talks, I've not made nearly the progress I should have at this point. I foresee lots of quilting in the next few weeks. I must go to the library to get a playaway to listen to while I stitch and stitch and stitch.

Red and Green: A Winning Combination!

Second Place in the Youth Division of the Quilt Show at the 2010 Rockbridge County Fair goes to...JASON HUTCHINSON!!!

Honorable Mention in the Hand Quilting Division of the Quilt Show at the 2010 Rockbridge County Fair goes to...ERIN HUTCHINSON


First Place in Hand Quilting and BEST IN SHOW went to this beauty...


Look at the hand quilting on this! (Caution - your arthritis might flare up just looking at this.)


Second Place in Hand Quilting went to this one by the same woman who won first place (she sweeps prizes with her quilts every year - she is SO talented!)...

I love the variegated thread she used to quilt it! Genius!

It was a happy night at the fair last night. Not only did we visit the quilts, but we rode the rides for 3 hours straight! The kids helped me swallow my fear of heights and ride the Ferris Wheel and all the other high, spinning (SCARY) rides. They are finally tall enough that they can basically ride anything they wanted (translate - EVERYTHING!). Donald and I were whirling dervishes in the Bumper Cars (might as well let him steer - I can never make those things go the way I want to go).

And guess what? The heavier you are, the faster you go on the slide (never mind that the woman managing the ride gave me a little push to give me a head start). Jason and Donald, eat my dust! (No, I didn't spend the entire evening with my arms flung up in the air.)

And now, some recent acquisitions. I stopped at the Habitat Resale Store yesterday when I had half an hour to spare, and look at these cuties that I found in a sandwich bag for a quarter. There are eleven of them, and I think they will find themselves in a mini strip quilt very soon.

And two "just because" gifts from my mother-in-law to decorate my quilt studio, framed prints of some neat, scrappy mini quilts.

I'm wishing it were the weekend so I could be finishing up the tying of my orphan picnic quilt. I am determined to take it to the drive-in with us next weekend for Marmaduke and Grown-Ups. (I need a real name for this quilt. Any ideas, anyone?)

In the meantime, I'm going to hit up the coffeepot and get back to work. Happy Thursday, everyone!

Don't you love the fair?

I enter a quilt in the County Fair every year, not with any illusions of winning anything, (although I did get Honorable Mention one year with this mini quilt that is now hanging in my office on a WalMart necklace)

but to get feedback from someone other than my friends, who are wonderfully supportive and probably wouldn't be as frank about the things I need to work on as they could be. I also love going to quilt shows with lots of quilts, and I can't really expect others to put their quilts in if I'm not brave enough to put mine in. Anyway, Ithink I know which quilt I'll be entering in the County Fair this year:

I just love it! I finished putting on the binding last night. I used to hate binding, but I think that was before I realized that I could sew binding and watch movies at the same time. It took four episodes of "Rosemary & Thyme", but it wasn't nearly the onerous activity I always assume it will be.

And speaking of fairs, I learned yesterday that Earlene Fowler has a new Benni Harper book due out in May, State Fair.

You can bet I'll be buying it - I have the rest of the series. I've been waiting very patiently, I think. It is too bad that it takes her a year to write these books, because it only takes me a day or two to read them!