County Fair Wrap Up

I did try to take pictures of quilts at the fair so I could share some quilty eye candy but, again, as last year, the quilts were not hung. The champion hand quilted quilt was displayed and a portion of my map quilt was displayed, as was the champion afghan.

But that was it. The rest of the quilts were folded and propped up so you could see about 12 - 15 square inches.... sometimes less. And they were behind glass.

I so wanted to see everyone else's quilts, and I know I wasn't the only one to complain. We were told that they have solutions in mind for next year and they will hang the quilts. We'll see.

After I picked up my quilts I took final pictures of the Map Quilt with the corrections and cars.

Car on gravel road with "dust" . . .

On the South side of the road is our old farm.  The new owners have chickens and horses.... we just had horses.  On the North side of the road are the neighbors that God plunked us next to for our first several years in the country.  Many thanks for that - they are awesome people . . .

Town. And the strip of houses just south of town where we now live . . .

On Point BOM Month 7 Block 1

My sewing machine in back in the shop (again) and I'm using my long arm machine to piece. The only foot it has besides a quilting foot is a rolled hem foot, which is completely flat. Very hard to piece with, but how can I not sew? It doesn't handle thickness well so where seams come together it sometimes bunches up. I'll have to pull a few stitches and fix a few seams when I get my regular machine back. (Hurry, please!)

County Fair - UPDATED

So I went to the county fair to see all the pretty quilts hanging. I was looking forward to seeing everyone's work and drooling and being inspired. And I was looking forward to seeing my map quilt hanging. I thought a few people would get a kick out of seeing how I represented their farm or store on the quilt . . . . the place with big and little matching barns, the one with just 2 cows and a pony, the pig farm (LOTS of pigs), the farm with the red white and blue silo, the Dairy Queen (of course!) , the quilt store . . . . I know - get a life. But all the quilts were folded and stacked on shelves behind glass doors. WHAT?! There were three small wall quilts hanging and the champion quilt was hung on a hook like a coat. boo hoo!!!

On a positive note, all of the photos were on display so Sarah and John's photos of Cooper are all over!

UPDATE (07/21/09) When I picked up my quilts I spoke with a couple women who were working in the building where the exhibits were displayed. They were very nice and agreed that the quilts needed to be displayed. They said space was a problem but were planning to try to figure something out for next year. They also said one of the women working during judging "lived" on my map and recognized several farms!

Map Quilt - final stages

Map Quilt Blocks Coming Together

There were a few problems with the creeks overflowing their banks and flooding fields, roads and even homes. That's been a problem in our county the past two years. Everything is under control now and 18 square miles of fields, farms, creeks and roads have come together. 18 more square miles to go.

Map Quilt Update (And World too)

For those of you (Karen) who have been waiting for a Map Quilt Update here are a few pictures.

Now, it might not look like much has been done but my seam ripper would tell you different. My math skills went right out the window with this one.

All of this WILL be a quilt. And SOON. The entry form and entry fee have been submitted to the County Fair office and I will NOT waste the dollar.

I can't wait to put the cars on . . . they are going to be sooooo cute!

I have enough greens leftover for another Map Quilt but I don't think I'll be doing this again anytime soon.

I decided on one border for the Trip Around the World. I really didn't want the quilt to be too much bigger and just wanted to frame it a bit. That's going on the quilt frame today and will be ready for the Fair too.

Map Quilt - Town Block

The town block has had me stymied, intimidated, challenged. I've put pieces together and taken them apart. I've colored and discarded and colored again. There have been trips to town to look at and take pictures of buildings that I thought I knew. I think I finally have it figured out. But there was one interesting thing . . .


. . . when I looked at all the buildings in town that I colored, for some reason Dairy Queen was much larger than the rest . . . hmmm.