Prizes and Surprises! Congrats and Thanks!

It's "Fair Days" around here.  Beautiful, sunny days, long shadows, afternoon thunderstorms, leaves thinking about changing colors, cooler nights, garden harvest, spectacular sunsets over the mountains; the beginning of the end of Summer.

It's time for the county fair, quilt shows, art festivals, and the State fair -- "Show & Tell" events for grownups, with prizes and ribbons too.

I was pleased for many of my clients who displayed their prize-winning quilts at the 4th of July Small Town Quilt Show, and at the county fair.  (One of them won a Sweepstakes prize!)  My little Hexagarden even received a blue ribbon. :)

Mostly, though, I was so proud of all our 4-H kids from this summer's Quilt Camp, whose cute Pixelated Chevron quilts stole the show at the county fair.   I adapted the Rainbow Baby quilt pattern by Cynthia Brunz (Quilty magazine), to use with charm squares for our 9- to 12-year-old beginning quilters.  Wish I had more / better pictures of these cute kids and their adorable quilts, but here are a few.  Super quilts, super kids!

Now for more THANK YOUs!!
Last week, I taught a couple of classes (Snippets, Hexagami)  for my local quilt guild.  Susan, the guild president, sent me home with this lovely jar of Lavendar from her garden.

Mmmmm, I love that Summer scent!  Thanks, Susan!

photo courtesy of Amanda Herring

THANK YOU to my friend Amanda @ The Quilted Fish, who sent this sweet little necklace, just for making some projects from my favorite fabrics, Sugar & Spice, which she designed.  I love it!

She's a terrifically talented designer and wonderful person.  Here we are at last year's Sewing Summit - she gave a lecture on Believing in Yourself - finding your passion... and she made a sweet pincushion for everyone who attended her class. Her current line of fabric is Madhuri, featured at Quilt Festival in Portland, where she had a prize-winning booth.  Her next fabric line?  An adaptation of my favorite line, Twice as Nice.  Awesome!

A big THANK YOU also goes to Madame Samm and to OLISO for sponsoring a giveaway at SewWeQuilt... and CONGRATULATIONS to my daughter Lauren, aka La-Li, who won one of these beautiful irons, which I immediately commandeered borrowed for use in a zipper tutorial the very day it came!  I mean, I had to - it matched the fabric!!

But we've been putting it to good use in the days since, working together to make a special project for Lauren's special someone... more on that subject later. ;)

And finally, I borrowed my son's quilt submitted A Soldier's Star for the AQS Go! Have Fun quilt challenge.  The quilt was juried into the show, and I sent the quilt on its year-long tour around the USA.  I used AccuQuilt dies to make it.  The 6" half-square triangle die is my favorite, making it possible to piece the quilt together just perfectly (and so quickly!).  It won 2nd place in the pieced category last week at the AQS Quilt Show in Grand Rapids!!  That was a fun surprise to learn from a friend on facebook!

A Soldier's Star
> PATTERN <

I promised my son we would split any premiums. :)

Soldier son with his quilt and his dog, Christmas 2012.
p.s. Can you tell we live with quilts??

Thanks for making it to the end of this post!  Now it's back to work for me... getting ready for Fabric Fest - It's my job to make all the nametag lanyards...

Chevron ribbon...

...200 down, only 150 to go.

QUILT CAMP

4-H Quilt Camp last week was a big success!  These girls, ranging in age from 9 to 14, and their moms or grandmas, came together to start their quilting journey. They learned the importance of a 1/4-inch seam allowance, rotary cutting, pressing, how to sew half-square triangles without cutting ANY triangles, measuring for borders, and laying out an attractive lap-size quilt in their favorite colors!  I love how most of the girls are wearing outfits that match their quilt!

Next step:  Quilting!  Can't wait to see these all on display at the county fair!