The Capricorn Kid

"Old people are scary and I have to face it -- 

I am old and I am scary and I am very sorry about it, but I don't know what you do." 

~Dame Maggie Smith :-)

Well, I have a few years to go yet before I plan to consider myself "old," but today I advanced a year closer... and I'm definitely scary since I woke up in the wee hours with a sore throat and that "oh no, I'm coming down with some sort of pestilence" feeling. Fortunately it's very wintery outside and so we're all snugged in cozy-like, enjoying a quiet day of puzzles, movies, and football. My kinda day, despite the creeping crud.

Anyway, to mark the turning of another digit on my body's odometer, here's a photo of me taken just before my first birthday...

The Capricorn Kid

I don't remember ever seeing it before finding it a few months ago, tucked in an unfinished album of my Mom's, but it became an instant favorite. It may be ancient history (I mean really, look at that vintage Nov 1962 issue of Good Housekeeping in the magazine rack!), but some things never change: the hair has gray in it now but is still every bit as feral, that chip-on-the-shoulder body language looks awfully familiar, and I wear the same expression on the rare occasions I have to dress up. :-)

And since no birthday blog post of mine would ever be complete without a Capricornian homage to one of my favorite critters, here are some of the lucky rescued goats of Someday Farm B&B, where we spent an idyllic week during our trip to the Pacific Northwest in 2013...

Scuffy, who became my immediate BFF, nuzzling her buddy.

(I nicknamed her Scuffy because of the bald scuff mark on her throat, 

which she got from spending so much of her time doing this!)

Scratching Scuffy's sweet little nubbin head, so happy among the critters!

Bill was my other favorite among the goats, and I love this photo I took of him

Well, I'm all partied out now, and must return to my spot on the sofa with its handy box of tissues and bag of herbal throat lozenges, to watch the NFL playoffs as BW puts the finishing touches on this year's yummy birthday cake! Washed down, no doubt, with homemade elderberry syrup. Cheers!

Happy Campers!

I am pleased to report that as both a learning experience and a fun outing, our inaugural camping adventure on Thursday with Girasole, our new little T@B trailer, was a success (though not without a bit of unanticipated excitement!) Naturally I had to record it for posterity. :-)

Here's BW putting the finishing touches on setting up our campsite under the watchful - if somewhat baffled - gaze of the girls...

And here BW conducts a final inspection of our portable dog kennel set-up, which met with everyone's enthusiastic approval...

We bought two of these for the kennel, used a few of the interlocking foam mats we'd purchased to go under their beds, and used an old tarp for a shady shelter. And we hauled all of it (plus more of the mats and our folding camp chairs) on top of the Jeep in our new soft cargo bag. BW's package-car loading days at UPS (memorialized on his water bottle, lol) sure came in handy...

The kennel was very handy for keeping the girls both safe and legal (the park has a leash law) while we were busy and overnight, though they were so very well-behaved (as we knew they would be) that they were quite content to just hang out with us, never wandering off or making a sound, even when other people walked by with their dogs. We camped along the Tongue River (I think; I'll explain later!) at Connor Battlefield State Park in Ranchester, about 20 miles north of Sheridan. It's a small campground, and when we arrived at around 2 that afternoon there were only two other campers there. A few more arrived during the night, but it stayed very quiet. Except for the trains! We didn't realize the tracks were just three blocks away, and trains went by all night long, blowing their whistles with gusto. The only thing that drowned them out was the thunder - I know, look at that cloudless blue sky, right? More on the unpredicted midnight storm coming up. Meanwhile, enjoy our peaceful campsite by day, like we did...

We also all enjoyed our walks around the park. Let me take you on a little tour…

This place wasn't always peaceful. This monument marks the site where an Arapaho village of about 500 inhabitants once stood...

At around 8 in the morning of August 29, 1865, in what is now known as the Battle of the Tongue River (or Connor Battle), the non-belligerent village was attacked by Gen. Patrick Connor, commander of the Powder River Expedition, and about 300 of his soldiers. Most of the young Arapaho men were gone, raiding ponies from the Crow along the Big Horn River. The women, children, and mostly elderly men who were left in the village were caught completely off guard by the attack and the indiscriminate firing by the soldiers, and many were killed, wounded, and captured. After the initial attack, the few able warriors in the village managed to put up an effective defense, retreating 12 miles up Wolf Creek while covering the escape of the surviving women and children. Most of the soldiers remained in the village, looting and burning about 250 lodges, while Connor and 30 or so of his soldiers and Pawnee scouts pursued the retreating Arapaho, who counter-attacked. When all was said and done, Connor claimed to have killed 63 Arapaho, including 35 warriors (the latter number one that historians believe was probably exaggerated), with a loss to himself of five dead and two seriously wounded.

The highly observant among you may have noticed that we happened to be camping there on the 149th anniversary of this tragedy, and its victims were very much on my mind. I agree with what this brief article about "The Connor Battle," states in its final sentence: "The tragic events of the past can be felt in this quiet and contemplative setting." And I take issue with calling an unprovoked attack on non-combatants a "battle." It's worth noting that as the Powder River Expedition began, Connor's orders to his officers were, "You will not receive overtures of peace or submission from Indians, but will attack and kill every male Indian over 12 years of age." (Connor's superiors countermanded this order). It's also worth noting that after this, the Arapaho did become enemies of the US Army (understandably!), attacking a wagon train three days later on Sept 1 and joining forces with the Cheyenne and Lakota (Sioux) in their successful attack on Fort Fetterman the following December.

I think the Arapaho may be continuing to exact a small measure of revenge, in that both times we've visited this park we've been attacked by a cloud of mosquitos whenever we stood before this monument. Didn't matter what time of day it was, and we didn't experience it anywhere else in the park!

All that history of violence and tragedy here stands in stark contrast to the playground that now also marks the spot. It was deserted the entire time we were there and so never disrupted the "quiet and contemplative setting"...

The bison appeared to be made for climbing with all its toeholds and handholds,

while the stagecoach was a unique alternative to typical playground equipment.

On the opposite side of the park is this nifty suspension footbridge that crosses the river (or creek?) to a residential area. The dogs were very brave about crossing it a few times, given that it sways and bounces noticeably!  

Despite the bouncing, the bridge provided a great vantage point for taking the next two photos. I have tried to do my homework on this, I really have - but I still don't know if this waterway, which wends its way around three sides of the park, is the Tongue River or Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek is a tributary of the Tongue River and the road that runs along this portion of the river/creek is "Wolf Creek Road." The river/creek is identified on various maps of the town and park as the Tongue River, Wolf Creek, and Five-Mile Creek (where'd that one come from?!) I'm guessing the portion beside our campsite where the water flows more rapidly is the Tongue River, and this more sedate portion opposite is Wolf Creek, but that's the best I can do. It's pretty, whatever it's called, especially with the evening sun shining on it and the Big Horn Mountains in the distance...

The arrow is pointing to our campsite and "outfit," as they call a truck or a tow vehicle + trailer-of-any-kind combination in these parts...

While we relaxed at our campsite that evening, I noticed a white church steeple, nicely illuminated by the evening sun in the distance on the other side of the river, and took this photo of it with my telephoto lens...

Not long after, when we took the girls for another stroll across the suspension bridge to explore the surrounding neighborhoods, we came upon the church, which turned out to have a Mini-Me! lol...

As dusk fell, we went inside and prepared our first meal in Girasole - a complex affair that we slaved over for hours! ;-)~ We've enjoyed various Dr. McDougall soups at home for years and are happy that they, along with his delicious oatmeal, are also perfect for camping (just add hot water)! BW had snagged the chocolate goodies at the health food store the day before, but the beer was a spontaneous purchase. We've been told by several veteran RV campers that some people engage in this activity in order to socialize (so our main goal being to get away from people might prove tricky!), and we'd also heard that the colorful T@Bs are people magnets. Sure enough, we'd barely arrived and were setting up the dog kennel when a man from one of the two other campers in the park strolled over to visit and ask about our T@B, Scotch on the rocks in hand. He was joined later by his wife, who we'd hoped was coming to fetch his talkative ass but no such luck, she was there to join him (with a stinky lit cigarette in her hand, yuck). They were nice people, but a half hour of their uninvited, chatty company right after we'd arrived was a bit much! Anyway, a while after they left I said to BW, "I don't even like Scotch, but damn his drink looked good to me!" And BW said, "I thought so too!" And then together we said, "Let's get beer!!!" :-) Our site had no shade, Mr. and Mrs. Chatty Britches and the other camper having snagged the only two shady spots, and running our A/C really sucked the generator juice, so needing to get more fuel gave BW a great excuse to pick up some Fat Tire ale while he was at it. We enjoyed our simple meal on our new table (having ditched the heavy convertible table/bed platform that came with Girasole, installing bed rails and slats instead along with getting this lightweight folding table), by the light of our sweet new little 3-way LED lantern...

While we were noshing, BW remembered Girasole's stereo and jumped up to turn it on. It happened to be tuned to Sheridan's oldies station and he'd turned it on just as the chorus to Still the One was beginning! "We're still having fun after all these years…" :-) So of course we clinked our beer bottles and sang along! (And you can too, as I've put the video with lyrics at the bottom of this post!) :-)

It's all fun and games till a wicked thunderstorm that no one predicted appears overhead at 1am (a ghostly, meteorological anniversary reenactment of Connor's attack on the Arapaho, perhaps?) BW got up when he heard one of the dogs pawing at the fence (most likely Tess, who is terrified of thunderstorms), and that's when he saw all the lightning in our vicinity. A loud crack of thunder woke ME up, and the race was on. Willow and Josie can't safely or easily jump in or out of our Jeep anymore, so we bought this PetLoader a few weeks ago - best purchase we've made. But we had to get it untethered from the back of the Jeep and deploy it, put a harness on Willow (she still has bouts of vertigo and holding the top of the harness helps steady her as she uses the PetLoader steps), put collars and leashes on Tess and Josie, gather and shake off their beds and put them in the Jeep, and then load the girls - in the dark and the wind (luckily the rain held off), with lightning striking all around us and thunder crashing and banging overhead. Though our girls haven't used the PetLoader very often - and never under such challenging circumstances - they were real champs! Loaded right up and spent the rest of the night sleeping contentedly in the back of the Jeep. We rolled the windows down so they could catch the nice breeze, and although it rained most of the rest of the night we were all lucky that the inside of the Jeep stayed dry. I checked on them at 4 in the morning and wish I had a photo of our little angels snoring peacefully away, all lying with their butts touching in the middle of the Jeep with their bodies fanned out like flower petals. :-)

The next morning we had a muddy mess to contend with, but that's all part of the camping experience. It was chilly and overcast but the rain didn't resume, and as you can see in the reflection of Girasole's front window we even had a few tatters of blue sky flirt with us before it finally cleared up late that morning. I took photos of the pretty, chameleon-like sky and will share them as part of this week's SkyWatch post. Meanwhile, here is BW sipping his hot tea and being entertained by Willow's vain attempts to convince Tess it would be fun to mud-wrestle...

I'm pretty sure that packing up, getting there, unpacking and setting up camp, then tearing it down, repacking, driving home and cleaning everything up took longer than our actual camping did! :-) But it was a great experience and we are really looking forward to our next one, a much longer trek to northern Montana, a little later this month. We'll see if Girasole is "Still the One" and if "we're still having fun" after that adventure! :-)

SkyWatch Friday: The Sun Rises on a New Chapter!

I wasn't going to do a SkyWatch Friday post this week ~ our dramatic skies of the past two weeks had apparently overdone it and seemed to be on sabbatical. Until this morning… 

While not the most breathtaking sunrise I've ever seen or photographed, it's certainly one of the most special, because it marked the first day of my husband's retirement! :-) After a very full, very long, very hot and dusty day at work yesterday (at the end of which, during his final delivery, he was nearly stung on the head by a nest full of angry hornets!), BW retired from UPS. He worked there for, as he likes to put it, "25 Christmases!" :-) Even his countdown to this day was marked not by how many years he had left, but how many Christmases. And when he decided that he didn't have another UPS Christmas season left in him, he decided to retire early. Or as he put it at his retirement breakfast yesterday, "I don't regret a single Christmas I worked for UPS. But if I worked one more I would!" :-) 

Congratulations, BW! You worked long and hard for this and we both made a lot of sacrifices along the way - so laissez les bon temps rouler, baby! 

And happy Friday, happy August, and happy SkyWatching to all of you!

Quilt Show 2013, Part 3: Our Top Picks!

For the finale of this year's Sheridan quilt show posts, I'm sharing our favorite quilts in the exhibit. My friend Jo enters (and very often wins) many quilt shows, attends many quilt shows, and someday aspires to judge many quilt shows. So although Sheridan's show is an exhibit rather than a competition, we decided to have some fun and privately award our favorite quilts two prizes that are common in quilt shows: A Viewer's Choice Award and a Judge's Choice Award. A Viewer's Choice award goes to the quilt that you the viewer love best, the one you'd most like to take home with you. The Judge's Choice is like the judge's Viewer's Choice, going to the quilt the show's judge would most like to take home. Since their personal preferences can't enter into their actual judging, this is where they get to play favorites! We both selected a Viewer's Choice, but just Jo selected a Judge's Choice winner since with all her quilting experience she's able to discern better than I if a quilt is well made as well as personally appealing, something she said that as a quilt judge she would take into account because her favorite quilt, no matter how beautiful, could never be her favorite if it weren't well made. Me, I just judge using the Eye Candy Quotient, so I stuck with a Viewer's Choice. :-) 

As always, I'd love to hear which one(s) you like best, so please feel free to bestow your own Viewer's Choice award in the comments! (As always, remarks of interest from the artists' info cards are in quotes and italics, and you may click on any photo for a larger view).

First, here are my runners up…

I love the colors in this one, as well as the Flying Geese design around the gorgeous center compass, and the jaunty checkerboard pattern for the border…

13

Technique: Machine Pieced & Quilted

Artist: Jo Hadley-Day

Quilter: Laurie Sheeley

"This quilt is a combination of Mariner's Compass designs by Brenda Henning and Claudia Clark Myers with a checkerboard pieced border that I designed

 This quilt is named '13' because the big center compass 

and the three compasses in each corner equal 13."

(This is a small excerpt from a long explanation about this quilt. 

Should any quilters out there want the entire explanation, let me know!)

I love this dramatic black, white and grey star quilt, in part because my Mom had decorated the guest room at our old Maine farmhouse in these colors. It was a strikingly beautiful room, and this quilt would have been gorgeous in it...

Reflections I

Technique: Strip Piecing - Bargello

Artist: Buffy Shatek

Quilter: Laurie Sheeley

Pattern by: Jo Hadley, "Kitchen Table Designs"

And given my love of bright colors, how could I not be smitten with this fabric fiesta?!…

Mexican Party

Technique: Pieced

Artist: Jackie Waters & Kaffe Fassett

Quilter: Mary Jane Collins

"I designed this quilt with Kaffe Fassett in 2011 

at Material Girl Quilt Shop in Grand Island, Nebraska"

Wow! Thanks to attending our local quilt show every year, even a non-quilting rube like me knows who Kaffe Fassett is! A textile artist, designer, instructor and author from London, his fabrics are extremely popular, colorful, and recognizable. How cool she got to design this dazzling quilt with him!

And speaking of colorful and dazzling, I loved this whimsical wall hanging and thought the border and beads were great touches…

Who Cut Up the Rainbow?

Technique: Machine Pieced, Hand Appliqué

Artist: Nancy Etchingham

Quilter: Karen Van Houten

Pattern by: Susan Garrity

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for, here are our grand prize winners! :-)

Jo had no trouble selecting this striking maze quilt for her Judge's Choice award...

Jo with her "Judge's Choice" winner:

A-MAZE-ing

Technique: Machine Piecing

Artist: Kandi Davis

Quilter: Robin Wacker

Pattern is "Labyrinth Walk" from Quilt Magazine

Here's what Jo wrote about her choice of this quilt:

"I personally liked the A-Maze-ing quilt because of the bold graphic design. I loved the colors and thought the values were selected especially well. I loved the quilting pattern and thought the circular motion of the pebbles was a good complement to the angular pattern. It's a quilt I'd have loved to take home and just put on my bed!"

Here's a closeup of the pebbles she mentioned...

Detail of quilted pebbles on "A-MAZE-ing"

Jo's love of this particular quilt has a fun story to it. She was so smitten with it that she wanted the pattern and the opportunity to compliment the artist, but the info card with it didn't give us too much to go on, and we couldn't find a pattern for it online using the name "A-Maze-ing." So we looked up Kandi Davis' address and that's when I realized that we'd be walking right down her street the next day on our way to Kendrick Park. But when I did a Street View so I could see which house was hers, I was excited to see that she lives in one of my favorite houses in Sheridan! It's a lovely place with incredible mountain views, always beautifully landscaped with tons of flowers, right across the street from the elk and bison pasture portion of Kendrick Park and just a block or so away from Kendrick Mansion. Talk about a great location! 

Jo said that rather than call Kandi, she'd wait till we walked by her place and see if she happened to be outside. I told her that I've walked past her house dozens of times over the past couple of years and while I see her husband outside a lot (and have spoken to him more than once), I have never seen her.  So it wasn't likely to happen this time! But Jo said she would let Fate decide - if it was meant to be, Kandi would be outside. ("Yarite," I thought. "Fat chance!")

But as Jo, BW, the dogs and I walked by Kandi's house the next day, I could hear noises coming from their garage (which faces the side street, not the street we were on). Figuring it was probably Mr. Davis - but at least that would be a start - I walked around the corner to ask him if Kandi was home. Imagine my surprise to see a woman puttering in the garage instead! I waved Jo over and she walked up the driveway and introduced herself and she and Kandi had a delightful conversation! That Jo, stuff just works out for her, I tell ya! :-)

Kandi was thrilled that she had a little fan club for her quilt, but unfortunately the pattern was not her own design and she couldn't remember its name or where she'd found it. But after we got home, I did some more online sleuthing and located it! So that was a fun and happy story all the way around, don't you think? :-)

The eagle-eyed among you may have spied a small portion of this quilt peeking out from behind a corner in the second photo on this post. And those of you who chose "Garden Nouveau" from Part 1 as their favorite because of the bright colors on the dark background are in for a real treat with Jo and my shared "Viewer's Choice" winner...

Jo stands beside our mutual "Viewer's Choice" winner:

Catch Me If You Can

Technique: Machine Paper Piecing

Artist: Buffy Shatek

Quilter: Laurie Sheeley

"This was a challenging but so much fun to make project. I loved the outcome.

There is no traditional assembly to this quilt. Fun! Fun! Fun!"

Feast your eyes on the lovely, colorful details…

After we left the quilt show, we went to lunch and then to Sheridan's one and only quilt shop. There used to be more, and you'd think with all the quilters around here they'd all be thriving, but they've all closed except for this one…

Fortunately, The Quilter's Fix turned out to be a really wonderful quilt shop! Jo was very impressed with it, and we had a lot of fun browsing. Despite not being a quilter, I do love all the colors and textures of a quilt shop - and it's always fun to help Jo spend her money. :-) This time was no exception, as you can see from the shopping bag she's holding in the photo! Here is her haul...

The Sunflower Swirl Quilt pattern was done up as a display and it was really pretty! We both loved it, and since Jo and I have adopted a tradition of buying each other our birthday gifts when we're together, regardless of the time of year, I bought her the pattern. Can't wait to see the results when she transforms that pattern and all that delicious fabric into beautiful works of art! 

I hope you enjoyed this year's Quilt Show! It was really special having Jo here to enjoy it in person with me! If you still find yourself in need of more quilted eye-candy, check out my Pinterest Quilts board. There are some really beauties there (including a couple of Jo's!) 

Click here for 2013 Quilt Show Part 1

Click here for 2013 Quilt Show Part 2

Quilt Show 2013, Part 2 (non-quilt fiber arts)

This post is much briefer than Part 1, which features several of the quilts in Sheridan's annual Fiber Arts exhibit. For one thing, quilts take up the vast majority of the show, and for another there were far fewer non-quilt exhibits this year, and even fewer yet that I found blog worthy. And like my complaint in Part 1 about how the quilts were displayed this year, the fiber arts didn't fare much better. Most of them are inside display cases with cloudy, scratched glass which makes photography a real challenge, while this lovely piece was hanging on the wall about 7 feet above the floor! I had to stand on my tiptoes with my camera held over my head to get this photo! Sheesh.

But at least I did a fair job of capturing this lovely example of Brazilian embroidery, something neither Jo nor I had seen before and were quite taken with, admiring the wonderful textures (click on any photo for a more detailed view)...

Framed Floral Utopia

Technique: Brazilian Embroidery

Artist: Jenny Gunn

"Brazilian embroidery is dimensional and uses multiple weights of rayon thread.

Developed in Brazil around 1960 by Mrs. Elisa Hirsch Maia, it became very popular..."

Though not as colorful, Jenny's Brazilian embroidered pillow was my favorite of the two…

Floral Pillow

Technique: Brazilian Embroidery

Artist: Jenny Gunn

"Patterns usually include flowers formed by using both knotted and cast-on stitches."

Jo and I both thought this was a clever pin cushion display (it didn't have an info card with it, it was just sitting there in the display case being cute!)...

Pins & Pin Cushions Display

This was my favorite non-quilt exhibit - but then Michelle's fun mermaids always are!...

Danica's Mermaid

Technique: Cloth, Felting, Found Objects

Artist: Michelle Havenga

"I enjoyed creating a new mermaid for Danica. I try to have a new one 
for her birthday and Christmas. It is a joy to create and share!"

I'm fudging a bit by including this last one on this post since it's another quilt. But it's such a very wee and special quilt, I didn't want it to be overwhelmed by its much bigger competition on my other posts! :-) Jo and I found it so charming ~ amazing it was done by the artist as a child, but then I imagine having child-sized fingers probably helped!...

Mini Yo-Yo Quilt

Artist: Jan Maier

"Done as a child."

Stay tuned for Part 3, the grand finale of this year's Fiber Arts exhibit that will feature Jo and my favorite quilts from the show (along with bonus goodies!)

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 3

Quilt Show 2013, Part 1

Image from Shelterness

When the pumpkins appear in my neck of the woods, it's time for quilts! And this year's 16th annual October Fiber Arts exhibit at our public library was special, since my friend (and quilter extraordinaire) Jo got to attend it with me during her visit earlier this month! That was fun for us both, as I got the benefit of her insights and expertise while viewing the quilts, and she got to see them up close and in person instead of having to press her nose to her computer screen in Michigan to try to study some of the quilt details. :-)
Unfortunately, though there were many beautiful exhibits, we didn't think they were shown to their best effect because of how they were displayed. In past shows, the quilts were usually hung unfolded from the mezzanine railing from as close to their top edge as possible to make nearly the entire quilt visible from below or from across the mezzanine. This time many of them were folded over width-wise before being draped halfway over the railing, so that in many cases just 1/4 of the quilt was visible from any particular vantage point. To show you what I mean, here's an overview photo from a past year's show...

and here are this year's overview photos... 

In some cases you could still see enough of the quilt to get a good idea of its pattern and design, but in several cases hiding that much of the quilt made a big difference. I think were a lot more quilts in this year's show - which was great - but they also looked crammed together (often overlapping) with no thought to color or design placement, so some of the colors or designs clashed with each other. I don't know why they didn't use the stair railing to display some of them like they have in years past, and I wouldn't have wanted to be the person who labored on a quilt for months only to have it folded up and scrunched in a corner. And most annoying of all, several of them were hung very crookedly. I had Jo straighten out one of our favorites as much as she could before I photographed her with it, ignoring the "don't touch" signs because it was listing so badly! Anyway, I was disappointed since they've always been displayed so beautifully in the past, and I wanted Jo to enjoy our quilt show at its best! But we still had fun. I mean, just look at all those colors and patterns! So yummy!...

I'll start with the above section, since I took closeups of four of the five quilts displayed on the wall  (and you'll see more of that red and purple eye-catcher on the railing in Part 3!) As always, I've included, in quotes and italics, the exhibitor's personal note from the quilt's info card whenever I thought it was interesting or informative. And also as always, click on any photo for more detail. And enjoy! :-)

I thought this quilt was quite elegant...

Magical Medallions

Technique: Needleturn Quilting, Appliqué

Artist: Judy Peck

Pattern By: Karen Kay Buckley

"Begun January 2012, completed November 2012"

And this one was cheerful and summery...

Jane's Flower Garden

Technique: Machine Appliqué

Artist: Jane Rader

Quilter: Janis Farr

"Patterns for the appliqué came from the Kansas City Star in the 1930's.

The fabrics are all 1930's reproductions."

I'm always a sucker for dark backgrounds and bright colors, so you know I loved this one...

Garden Nouveau

Technique: Needleturn Appliqué

Artist: Judy Peck

Pattern By: Vicky Lawrence

"Begun August 2012, completed Februrary 2013"

It's a shame they hung this next beauty behind one of the display cases; Jo and I both admired it and I'd have loved to have captured it in its luscious entirety...

Aunt Grace's Circle of Friends

Technique: Machine Pieces, Hand Appliqué, English Paper Piecing

Artist: Maureen Humphrys

Quilter: Virginia Ohr

Jo and I also were really drawn to the reddish one to the left of the mitten tree... 

Its background color was quite unusual - a sort of rich, rusty burgundy - but it gave us both fits trying to capture it accurately with our cameras! No matter how many lighting or angle permutations we tried, it kept turning out too light, too orange, or too red. This was my most accurate attempt in a closeup, which still turned out too light and orangey-red, but which I wanted to include so you could see the details. Because the quilting technique - just vertical lines - was also pretty unusual, and the combination of the quilting and the color made it look like warm, cozy corduroy...

Falling Stars

Technique: Machine Piecing

Artist & Quilter: Susan Baggett

"Pattern is from Kim Diehl's Simple Charm book"

These next three quilts were made by three quilting friends named Jamie, Marcia, and Mary Jane ("JMMJ"). One of them picks a fairly simple pattern and challenges the other two to do it too. Here is the result of their latest "MJJM Quilt Challenge" trio...

L-R: Jamie Leupold's quilt, Mary Jane Collins' quilt, Marcia Suranyi's quilt

I thought they were all lovely and fun, but my favorite was Jamie's, I think because of the unusual colors and the fact it made me feel like I was looking out through the port holes on a ship, embarking on some grand adventure...

JMMJ Quilt Challenge

Technique: Machine Pieced/Raw Edge Appliqué

Artist: Jamie Leupold

Quilter: Becky Stednitz

Some more I admired...

Imperial Diamonds

Technique: Pieced

Artist: Peggy Gable

Quilter: Becky Stednitz

"I make each grandchild a special quilt for his or her 21st birthday. 

This one lives in Texas."

The quilt on the right, though not the main one I was photographing, deserves a mention too, especially since it's a quilt pattern that Joanne has also made!...

Tree's Up, Lights On

Technique: Machine Pieced

Artist & Quilter: Jennifer Golden

Another that appealed to my love of bright colors and whimsy...

Irish-Chained Pin Wheels

Technique: Machine Pieced & Quilted

Artist: Pamela Rapp

Quilter: Virginia Ohr

"Part of a Friendship Block Exhange"

And since tomorrow is Halloween (my favorite holiday!), I'll end this post with this delightfully festive pumpkin quilt!...

Primitive Pumpkins

Technique: Machine Pieced

Artist: Margaret Prout

Quilter: Becky Stednitz

In Part 2 I'll share some favorite non-quilt fiber art pieces from the show, and then will wrap up with Jo and my VERY favorite quilts in the show (and some post-show quilt goodies) in Part 3. But for now, click on the quilt-patterned pumpkin picture at the top of this post for DIY instructions on decoupaging your own if you'd like, and enjoy a happy (and bewitchingly healthy) Halloween! :-)

Click here for Part 2 (non-quilt fiber arts)

Click here for Part 3