OHD And More LQF

Phew....I'm glad Old Home Day is over. I was pretty tired after, but that was because I stayed up till the wee hours Friday night machine quilting "Garden Song" and Saturday morning at 7:30 am I still hadn't finished the binding so instead of hanging it in our booth, we had to fold it so that the raw edges did not show. I did get it bound yesterday and today I finished the sleeve, and label and now it can go to it's new owner with my blessings and hopefully bless them too.

OHD All in all it was a great day and we received a lot of positive comments about our free raffles and plant give away. Our booth was very popular and we had a few inquiries from people who were interested in joining the garden club and signed up one new member!

I have more pictures to post from "Images" . Take a look at this hexagon quilt (above and right). There are over 11,000 pieces in it and it took sixteen months to complete. It's called " My Formal English Garden" and was made by Donna C. Stout of Pennsylvania. The hexagons are 3/4 of an inch. If you look at the close up picture you can see that neutral background isn't a solid piece of fabric but is actually made up of small hexagons in different neutrals.

Here's another Blue and White Quilt from the Museum's collection. This one is called "Rising Sun (or Sunflower) with Eagle Border" and it was made around 1870 to 1880. I just love blue and white quilts and never tire of seeing them. I have some blue and white "Storm At Sea" blocks that were made by my Thursday night quilt group about fifteen years ago. Seeing these antique quilts has inspired me to pull them out and work on them again.

And here's a Guild Challenge quilt (right) that was made by the Northern Start Quilt Guild. Doesn't it just say "LOBSTAH"

I really liked the way the show organizers set up the space. All of the quilts were displayed on the lower level or what you'd call the orchestra section of the auditorium and vendors were set up around the perimeter of the mezzanine which ran around the entire building in a circle. There were plenty of vendors too but I was surprised, after talking to several that they have gone "virtual". Two of the show vendors who told me they no longer have "physical" shops and now do only shows and internet sales. Interesting, huh?

Faye Labonaris was there with her beautiful ribbons, books, patterns and notions for applique. I bought 0ne of her pretty little clip on scissor keepers with a ladybug on the top to keep me in touch my with "inner gardener" while I'm quilting, LOL. Faye also had a special exhibit of her 50 state flower wall hangings that will be featured in her new book, by the same name, I think she said that the book will be released in the next few months. Show attendees were asked by Faye to vote on their favorite three blocks.

Back in the 90's I took a Baltimore Album class from Faye with a friend. I never made an entire "Baltimore" quilt but I still have a the applique blocks I made in her class. Can you see the appliqued wall quilt behind Faye? It's completely covered with silk ribbon roses and ruched flowers. If you're wondering whether I succumbed to all of the bounty of the vendors--don't because I did, though I didn't go as crazy as I would've a few years ago. I think my eyes are finally starting to sync with my pocketbook!

Here are my purchases for the day. I stopped at Walmart on the way home to pick up a new memory card for my camera---I only have 64 mb of storage so I ran out of space before I ran out of things to take pictures of. I can't tell you how frustrating that is. I had to delete some pictures in order to take others. Unfortunately the sales associate sold me a card that doesn't fit in my camera. I'm hoping I can get one at Best Buy or Staples, but the chances aren't good. My Fuji Finepix is already a dinosaur at just six years old and uses "old" technology cards.

While I was at Walmart, I browsed the fabric dept. and found some fabric for the binding and back of the Garden Song Quilt. It seemd like I had to wait forever for the clerk who was having problems with her barcode reader to cut the fabric but for just $2.97 a yard, it was worth it.


At the vendor booths, I saw a lot of redwork and embroidered quilts in the vendor booths at the embroidery. I'm not very fond of embroidery but the quilts I saw were very reminiscent of vintage quilts and I'd like to try doing a redwork project for a surprise Christmas project! I was looking for a teapot embroidery design or transfer but couldn't find anything at the show. One vendor did have some machine-made embroidered blocks for sale but they were a little pricey at $10.00 for 6 squares especially since I only need one or two. I also bought two colored fabric markers and a new needle threader (needle threader's are going to be a future post).

The FQ in the upper left of the above picture is an African batik that I bought from the vendor's, right. They came all the way from Seattle for the show. Their batiks were amazing. The larger art pieces were stiff and heavy because the wax had not been removed yet. The beautiful batik FQ's were only $2.00. I'm so sorry now that I did not buy more.

Last and not least, I bought that tiny pair of scissors in the above picture, called "gems" that are supposed to be "airline approved"? I'm not sure what that means. The vendor who sold them to me assured me I could bring them on an airplane and not be stopped by security, but I'm thinking they're still pretty sharp and pointy, even if they are tiny.

More later.....