What do a Fest, a Fair, a Factory and a Fall have in common?

On October 17, I headed to Tulsa for October Fest. We immediately headed for the food vendors for lunch.

Here we ate with Ash's best friend Matt and his Mom, Jennifer.

Grey and Hazel shared a ride in a pink car. They had to stop the ride early because Grey only liked about 3 rounds.

He did like riding the carousel with his mom, Eva.

Most of you that know me, know that I do not like heights, but I rode the ferris wheel several times with my grands!

My sister-in-law, Ruth, and nieces, Beth and Charity, met us at October Fest. This is Beth and Charity right up front in this scary ride! The answer is No! I did not ride this with them!

Beth, Charity, Ruth and I headed back to AR that evening. On Saturday morning we went to a couple of Craft Fairs. This was War Eagle Weekend in NW AR. Thousands and thousands of people flock to NW AR to go to one or more of the many fairs, the biggest being at the War Eagle Mills. We went to a couple of fairs in Fayetteville and Springdale. 

We then picked up lunch and had a picnic at Wilson Park in Fayetteville. It is such a beautiful place. This old tree makes for a perfect photo op.

After lunch we went to Terra Studios and the Bluebird Factory. The girls had a tea party while we were there. There was a first for us. There was a wedding! One of the guests was dressed as Gandalf!

The girls had told me they needed me to show them how to use their sewing machines so they brought them to my house. While helping them, I tripped on the extension cord and broke a metatarsal in my foot. 

So there you have it--a Fest, a Fair, a Factory and a Fall on in 2 days!

Kathy

Quit Congress Mountain Home

The Hill N Hollow Quilt Guild sponsored a lovely Quilt Congress October 10-11. I drove up EARLY Friday morning in the rain to get to my workshop by 9 am. Now, the weekend before a lady had backed into my car at a yard sale.

Here is my poor door!

Well, when I got to the church where I thought my workshop was, I saw a woman standing by a door. I rolled the passenger window down to ask her if this was the door to go into. Guess what? It wouldn't roll all the way up and it was really, really raining. I used my sun screens to block the rain out while I was in my workshop. More on the window later.

Our workshop was about printing on fabric. Here are a few of the blocks I printed. 

These are the ladies who conducted the workshop. They are called Sisterspeak. This is me in the tye-dye(of course) taking a pic while someone is taking a pic of me.

Here's my pic! The background of this quilt was printed with leaves and weeds!

After the workshop I took the plastic that I had been using and covered my window with that. I felt like a true redneck! I left the workshop and checked into our motel and then went to the evening session at the fairgrounds. I met friends, Jeanie, Nora and Adele there. They had driven down that afternoon, stopping at every quilt shop, and flea market along the way.

This was the silent auction. They really had great prices! I came home with 32 yards of nice fabric and 47 books for pennies on the dollar. A lot of the books will go to my guild's store. It was really fun.

After the evening events Jeanie rode back to the motel with me. I had to close the door for her so that I could position my plastic over the window because it was still raining. Not being experienced in covering my car window with plastic, I left too much of a ruffle on the outside so it flapped really loud when we were moving. Jeanie talked to her mother and she thought we were having horrible car trouble. My sister-in-law called and I was chatting with her with the bluetooth on the car and she thought we had a flat tire. We were really laughing.

Back at the motel my 3 roommates surprised me with one of their purchases along the highway. It was a small t-shirt which they stuck on a pillow while I was out of the room. I tried it on, but it was kind of like  •♫♪"Fat man in a little coat"•♫♪. I threatened their lives if they took a pic of that so there is no evidence of that escapade(BTW, I have no idea how this font changed!). We laughed a lot!

The next morning I loaded Jeanie in the car, covered the window with plastic and went to Quilt Congress. We put some of our stuff down to save our seats. We always located them by looking for my yellow slicker. Can you see it hanging on the chair at the table?

They had several mini workshops. this one was on pieced hexies. That's me on the far left and Nora is 2 down from me. The lady in between us won the door prize.

Jeanie and I went on stage to show our guild's donation quilt. Jeanie is on the far left holding the quilt while I am helping a lady from our workshop show off the blocks she won at our workshop.

We all won door prizes and got goody bags. I won the centerpiece at my table!

Nora had to leave early to catch a plane so Jeanie, Adele and I headed out in the afternoon in my redneck car. Jeanie and I got the window rolled up better and we actually got to travel without the plastic. We stopped for diesel and Jeanie asked me how I got the window rolled up all the way. I had not done a thing, but somehow the window had gone up on its own. A Quilt Congress Miracle!!!

Kathy

I can't believe it! I actually completed some blocks this month!!!!

October was a pretty busy month. I will blog about some more of the happenings later, but now I need to post about the blocks I completed for the 350 block challenge at  Prairie Moon.

No 1 block

This is a block I started in a workshop with Jim Gatlin called The Insanity Block as is this next block. It was a really fun class!

No 2 block!

No 3-18

These are a few of the 16 10" blocks I made in a printing workshop at AR Quilt Congress. I actually made a lot more, but I intend to cut them up so I am not counting them in my total blocks. The workshop was a blast. We printed with stamps, bubble wrap, cardboard, netting, styrofoam, feathers, and plant parts. The plant parts were my favorite! I have fallen in love with papyrus. The blocks that look like fireworks were printed with papyrus. It is not a perennial in our neck of the woods so I will wait until next spring to buy a plant.  We also used ferns, peacock feathers, red bud leaves, weeds and various other plant parts.

 
                No 19-22
These are snail trail blocks I made to go into a bigger project. Stay tuned!

No 23

This is a small, modern block.

No 24

This is a small foundation paper pieced block that will be part of a quilt I will be making to commemorate my favorite childhood book, The Hundred Dresses. It is a story of bullying and really touched me as a child. My friend, Liz, was working on dog and cat foundation pieced blocks at our retreat and they looked like dresses to me. 

No 25

This is a small quilt top made from a pattern I bought while on vacation this summer. I think it will go in our small quilt auction in April.

No 26 and 27

These are the larger wall hanging tops made from the silverware pattern. They will be a Christmas present. Don't they remind you of the giant forks and spoons of the 50's and 60's? I actually have some of those painted in bright colors above my kitchen cabinets. They are made from a combination of new and vintage fabrics.

No 28

This is a quilt top that I am counting as one block which was made from a jacket and a couple of place mats bought at a resale shop. At our quilt retreat in Eureka Springs we went on a field trip to a resale shop to find things that we could recycle into quilted items. I wish I had taken a before pic of the jacket! It kind of has a Picasso look to it. Reminds me of an eye which is crying. 

So my grand total for October was 28. That now makes a total for the year of 382! Two more months--I think I'll crack 400 easily by the end of the year.

Kathy

Fun at the Fair!

I hit the ground running in October.  I went with my delightful grands, daughter-in-law Eva and various and sundry homeschool students to The Tulsa State Fair!
My grands and I made projects that were entered in the fair.

This is 8 year old Eowyn and behind her is her blue ribbon winning, denim, animal quilt. And, yes, it is me in the reflection, inadvertently taking a selfie.

This is 6 year old Ash and behind him on the shelf is his blue ribbon winning dinosaur, drawstring pillow case. 

Ash also won his heat of the cookie stacking contest.

T

This sprite is 4 year old Hazel and behind her is her blue ribbon winning Mooshka Kitty.

I was so proud of all of them!

Can't forget award winning driver in the toddler division, 22 month old Grey.

He also did some fantastic grocery cart racing.

Ash and Eowyn loved, loved, loved grinding and taking corn off the cob the old fashioned way.

It was a long, fun day! State and county fairs have been around forever and are iconic local and state wide venues for young and old to exhibit their handiwork and livestock. A friend told me that entries at fairs are declining which is too bad, because it is a great feeling to see something you made or raised displayed for all to see. I will have to admit that I have not entered anything in the Washington County Fair for the last couple of years because it falls at a time when I have trouble getting there to pick up my things after the fair. I will try to do better next year. Oh, and to top it all off, my grands each got a $8 check as a part of their awards.

Kathy