My Entries into the Jefferson County Fair won ribbons!

1st Place my Mini Egg Quilt

1st Place My Beaded Butterfly Mask

 Wow! how exciting Six of my 12 entries in the Jefferson County Fair took ribbons this Year.  This is the 1st time I've entered anything into a fair... 2 took 1st Place Blue Ribbons, my mini egg quilt and my Beaded Butterfly pin, I received a 2nd  Place Red Ribbon for my Leather Cord Beaded Ceramic Flower Necklace.  For 3rd place I had 2 White ribbons, one for my Thanksgiving Wall Hanging and One for m Kitchen Towel and Pot Holder Set.  I also placed fourth with my Spring Postcard Mug Rug.  This is the one I used my wedding gown lace in.  Wow!  How fun... I usually don't enter into the fair but I was inspired to this year after working at the fair with my FCE group taking entries in.  I enjoyed seeing what everyone was entering so I decided to give it a try.  I'll take better pictures when I pick up my items this coming Sunday. 

3rd Place My Harvest wall hanging

4th Place my Postcard Spring Mug Rug on the Left.

this is a clearer picture of the Mug Rug that won 4th Place

A close up of the piece of lace from my Wedding Gown

Wow! Where did June & July go?

I can't believe it is already the 1st week of July.  It has been since June 14th since my last blog note.  I have been on vacation since June 24th and the week before was spent getting ready for my trip.  My youngest daughter Beth and Grandaughter Zuri & I took a road trip back to NY State to see my brothers an visit with family.  While there we all  met our goals.  My granddaughter went to visit with her Aunts and Cousins and my daughter wanted to see NY City and did take the train down twice spending the day with her cousins.  I enjoyed visiting with my brothers and their families.  Beth and I were Able to attend my Niece's Wedding and she got to visit all her cousins.  I also got to have a short Visit with my Granddaughter Jess and her family on our way home.  the drive to and from went well.  We missed a storm in Chicago going and took the wrong road into Chicago on our way home... we did stop over to sleep in Toledo Ohio on the way there and in Clinton Pa & Rockford Ill on the way back.

 I did finish one little project before I left but did not have time to post it.  I made a pinwheel mini Quilt using scraps from my Civil War Quilt "Flying Geese" Blocks.   When making my flying geese I used the left over triangles cut from the flying geese and made them into HST then sewed them together in pairs to make pinwheels.  After I finished the quilt I appliqued a woolen flower and leaves on it.  I also applied a small sleeve on the back using the binding material.





My Mini-Quilt is finished

The finished quilt front - note the quilting in the ditch with the stars

I finished my quilt and renamed it "Christmas Star/Autumn Pumpkins"  It is 14" x14" square.  I enjoyed making this little quilt and sharing it with all of you.  After I finished paper-piecing my middle star within a star with fabrics from my stash, (the smaller star was hand pieced), I took a look at my stash to determine what I could use for my double borders and I just loved the black & gold print for the smaller border and then used a beautiful green mistletoe for the larger border.  I did make both borders a little larger than the pattern called for and I love the way it turned out.  I then decided to machine quilt it using clear thread in both the bobbin and the upper thread, (since the print was so busy I did not want to distract from it).  I did stitch in the ditch for my center star and then used my machine embroidery stitch for the squiggly lines in my outer border.





note the surface stitching on the pumpkin block, the quilting that was
 done on the front shines thru on the back side of this quilt



Choosing the backing for my piece was a little harder - mmmm - What would it look like if I used autumn colors on the back?  I had some leftover blocks from a project I did last year, I could add a small border and then applique it onto the back...So my reversible quilt was born.  I chose a multicolor striped fabric, (leftover from some Christmas projects), to use on the back.  I did some surface quilting on my pumpkins with some small stippling in the background & outlining the pumpkins to give some texture and help them stand out.  Then I applied the block by using the same squiggly lines around the border after carefully lining up the patch to match the small border on the "Christmas Star" side.  You can see the quilting that I did on the front much better on the Autumn side.  I do think it turned out well and would love your comments.  right now it is hanging out on my livingroom sofa table and does look quite handsome there. 


 



 Surface Quilting: This is where I quilted on the surface with the batting underneath and then applied the block to the background surface.  This way I could quilt the pumpkins without interfering with the quilting done on the front of the quilt.