Quilt show and summertime

It is definately summer here in the midwest.  Heat and humidity are the norm.
Ugh! I hate it.
The biting flies are out too and they love me.  It makes it very uncomfortable when working in the yard.  So....I haven't been doing that much.  But, the beans are ready to pick and nobody else is going to do it for me.  That is back breaking work. And to make matters worse, there is a rabbit who has learned how to jump the rabbit fence around my garden and has made a nest in my kale!  Grrrrrrr!
I've taken the .22 with me on several occasions, but she hasn't been there.  Probably out making baby rabbits. I should buy the 4' fencing.  Maybe next spring.
This is one of the prettiest times of the year because the lilies are all blooming. I wish they bloomed all summer. The big spiders arent big yet either. Gaaauugghhh! I hate close encounters with them. Especially the freaky fast wolf spiders and the black and yellow spiders.
As I'm typing this I am uploading 107 photos!  I took a lot of pics at the quilt show and of my flowers.
This upcoming week is supposed to be LESS HUMID so I will hopefully be riding more. I have been doing too much sitting around and need to get some miles in before next week's 50 mile Firecracker 50 ride which is free and sponsored by one of the local bike clubs. It will be good training for when I ride the first day of Ragbrai.

I'm chugging away on the hand quilting.  It's slow and monotonous.  The quilting isn't as dense as it is in the rest of the quilt, but it will have to do.

Have to keep my lint roller brush close by to clean each section as I go.

I stopped by a friend's house to chat and we toured her garden. My hubby built this tower for her years ago.  It still looks great. She painted it a copper color. What a beautiful clematis!

Her other clematis is even more beautiful.

I must get one of these!

I went bike riding last weekend and boy was it hot!

It was wonderful to see the cooler the local bike club put out for riders full of ice and bottled water.

I have been experiencing so many emotions since I heard about the horrifying tragedy at Disney world. Mostly the need to help the family but knowing nothing can do what they want most.  A local store has been selling blue ribbons to raise money for the family. I had to get this for my cubicle at work. 

On a lighter note, I rode down the Wabash Trace last Saturday with a friend for breakfast. We saw kayakers on the water.  How fun!

Here is one of the bridges. I was a little nervous going over it. 

It's kind of narrow.

Wild raspberries on the trail!

Much more seedy than the kind we grow and not as sweet. 

But still fun to pick and eat.

We also stopped and picked mulberries.

The fruit of my childhood.

The tiny town of Imogene has this nifty bathroom shower facility.

There is a campsite hookup with power and water and tent sites with a grill and campfire rings.  I'm not crazy about the slippery metal on the ground as a path to the entrance.

Inside there is a sink and this cheap diner booth.

It has 2 showers and toilets. 

Certainly not the Ritz but useable.

I've used worse!

Here is a shot of downtown. 

Not much there.

I heard the bar has good tacos on tuesdays.

This is one of my favorite bridges on the trail.

The gardens are almost at their peak. 

I had to go out and take these morning pics.

Love these rudbeckias!

I'm also really happy with the clematis on the dog kennel.

(Converted to a hammock and sitting area but we still call it the dog kennel)

The new housing area is slowly creeping towards us over the horizon.

(Sigh!)

I went to our small group meeting and here are two quilts one of the gals made.

This one has parts of embroidery her mother had done.  She cut up the embroidered items and used them as the centers for the blocks. What a wonderful way to preserve her work!

Her great grandmother had made a quilt with butterflies that were quilted with black floss.  The butterflies all wore away so the top was not salvageable.  So she made a new top and sandwiched it on top of the original. You see the new top with the old backing on the back.  You can still see the original quilting. 

Such a neat idea to preserve this family treasure. You can read more about it here....

 http://underquiltedcovers.blogspot.com

We worked on the charity quilt.

One of the gals took all of the triangle blocks we made, mixed them up and handed them out to those of us with machines. 

We sewed them into larger blocks. 

Another gal did the pressing.

Here is the end result. 

One of the gals wasn't able to get her blocks to us that night so it's not complete. 

Then I went to the quilt show!

I volunteered Thursday night and of course went on the hunt for my quilts 

They were in the same catagory. 

I was a little surprised to see the raspberry quilt did better than the chimney rock quilt.  It got 3rd.

The chimney rock quilt got an honorable mention.  4th.

Here are the judges comments.

Here is the guild challenge judges comments. 

(The raspberry quilt was entered both in the show for judging and the was originally made for the guild challenge which was also judged. I got best surprise guest in that contest)

Hee hee!  I'm glad they liked my mouse.

I hate pics of me but this one made me laugh.

I test drove a Bernina Q 20.

I had them take pics of me so I could send it to my hubby as a not so subtle hint.

Gaaaauuugghhh! I'm not used to it at all. 

I'd hope practice would help.

Here are the quilts I admired one way or the other at the show.

This one is much more blue.  The blue circles were striking on the black.

I have this pattern. 

I'm wondering what it would look like in Kaffe Faucett fabric.

I liked the patriotic colors and I always like stars. 

So many points. Well done.

This log cabin with half square triangles spoke to me. 

I really like the arrangement and colors.

Best of show!

So pretty.  It almost pulsed the colors were so vibrant.

The gal who made this was next to me in line when we picked up our quilts. We laughed when we found out I took a pic of her quilt, I noted I have never done paper piecing and was looking forward to my upcoming class and she took a pic of my chimney rock quilt and she has never done one like it and has been wanting to do one. I showed her how I did it. We had mutual respect for each others work.

I'm learning to like 1930's reproduction fabric. 

I have unfinished quilt blocks made from actual 1930's fabric.  

Not sure how I will assemble them but this gives me ideas.

This quilt has a minkie backing and a football quilting pattern. 

I have fabric to make a husker quilt for our son. 

This quilt just helps give me ideas.

This gal won best first quilt. 

She is a long time quilter and as you can see, very accomplished. 

The category is actually for the first quilt submitted in the guild show. 

This is the first time she has submitted one to a show.

I really liked the subtle colors in this Christmas quilt.

This one has too many tiny pieces!

I got dizzy just looking at it. 

Good for her getting this done and done so well.

This one has over 4,400 pieces!

Gaaaauuuggghhh!

It is raw edge applique if you were wondering.

The gal who won best of show also submitted this beauty.

I really liked the neutral tones in this quilt.

I'm taking a Judy Niemeyer class this fall. 

The pattern is sort of like this.

I loved the quilting. 

Heat waves coming off the "sun" blocks.

Cool idea.

I liked the quilting on this quilt. 

Here is a closeup.

Ok, here is a good example of no fraying on raw edge applique. 

I'll have to find out how it was done. 

I'm not able to arrange colors like this. Yet.

Isn't this s neat design. I told the artist she did a great job with the eye and nose colors. Not too bright.  Just right.

The same artist designed and made this one. 

Wonderful color arrangement. 

I have this pattern. 

Looking forward to making it. 

This is such a cute embroidered qjilt.

This beauty was so well done. 

The complimentary colors really pop.

Another husker quilt.

More ideas for me.

Look closely at this one.

This gal did a variety of quilting patterns. 

What fun.

This is a classy pattern done in classy colors.

The quilting was well done in subtle colors that complimented the quilt and didn't overwhelm it.

This one doesn't show up correctly in the pics.

The quilting thread is a bronze color.

Very pretty.

I'm assuming this was done with a computer. 

If not, I'm impressed!

I was energized to get back to work on my tedious project. 

I'm 1/4 done. 

Here is a quilt my MIL made for a great grand daughter.

She does a wonderful job embroidering.

Lastly, the cactus on our deck were ready to bloom. 

4 blossoms on one!

A record!

Isn't this a funky weird cactus?

It is 2 spliced together. 

I think.

The lilies are looking so pretty.

I love this red one. 

The colorful coneflowers look great this year. 

The bright rudbeckia is Indian Summer.

The orange and yellow one is a mutated one. 

I like them both.

This yarrow looks great year after year. 

Usually there is a rabbit nesting in them. 

Not this year. Yet.

All the rain we have had has made the ornamental grasses look so lush this year.

I just need to push them back from the stone path.

The lilies around the fire pit are blooming. 

This is the darkest one. 

A view of the rock garden from the fire pit area.

The creeping time looks good this year. 

It almost died a couple of years ago.

My little hosta corner is looking good

The #%&@!! Rabbits have been leaving them alone.

Here are the cactus blooms!

Such perfect blooms. 

So cool inside. 

Like little trumpets.

Quilt show bound

I cam across this fabric on a store and loved it. I bought enough for a pattern I like.

The next day I was looking up the print in this block.  This is the print I plan to use in the Judy Niemyer pattern I bought. Low and behold, it is the same print as the one above, just in a different color scheme. Ha ha!  I really do like this print and the entire collection.  Now I'm on a mission to locate the other bright prints in the collection. Just have to figure how much I need. 

Our poor contorted hazelnut tree which died several years back is looking worse. More branches keep breaking off. The birds still like sitting on it.  I told my husband when it's time to take it down I want to replace it with a giant praying mantis sculpture. I can make the pattern, he can weld it. We make a good team. 

The serviceberry bushes are loaded with berries.

The birds love them.

They are ok. I will snag a few sometimes. 

The birds don't like that. 

I trimmed up the underside of the bushes by our arbor.  Now I can plant more hostas and coral bells. 

All the rain we've had has really helped everything look great this year. (Why couldn't it have done this in 2014 when we had a garden walk tour at our house?)

The red clematis looks super this year. 

The roots of this catalpa look so cool. Hard to believe I grew this tree from a seed.

Ha ha ha ha!  

This is a giant weed!

My 3 quilts are ready for the quilt showith.

Mission Impossible, the mistakes and mishaps and the raspberry quilt.  I drop them off friday. 

The show is in 2 weeks. 

From the list I saw it will be a stiff competition. 

Our small group is making a spider web scrap quilt this year for the charity auction. 

Silly me. I was ironing some of the wrinkly scraps. Then decided "screw this".

The centers are gold.  

The backing is made from a bridal runner cloth for the floor!   

 It will be striking when it's done..

This is what happens when you don't pay attention you saw on a piece without pressing back the previously added piece. 

Grrrrrr...

Here is the block. 

This is one of the other gals books. 

I like hers better than mine. 

Darker colors. 

Mine are too bright for my taste. 

I was missing one gold center. 

I hope there is enough fabric to make one more.

It's early June and the catalpa trees are in their glory. Beautiful iris or orchid like flowers with purple and orange throats. Our yard smells like a perfume factory. 

They look so pretty in the evening light. 

The one by our garden shed almost died a while back. It has come back so well. 

Low and behold!!!

My dogwood Tree is blooming!!

First time ever. 

First flower ever. 

Yaaaaaayyyy!

What a good way to end the day.