Ribbons Quilts & Flowers

Before I start talking about quilt related things let me warn you not to click on pop ups that tell you that you have a virus. As I stated in my previous post I clicked on a pop up that said I had 41 viruses. Yikes! It looked so official, but it so wasn't! With the help of a friend I believe that my computer is back to normal. What a headache! My friend stresses that it is important to never click on a program that you did not start yourself. Even if your virus protection program flashes up a warning, always close out what you are doing and run your own scan. I have learned the hard way!

Now for a couple of quilt related things! I entered four of my quilts and a knitted shawl into my county fair this year. I brought home one first place, three second place and one third place ribbons. Not too bad of a showing I guess!
It is always a lot of fun to see my quilts hung up at the fair, and even more fun if there is a ribbon attached to it!

I showed you a little glimpse of this quilt here with a promise of showing you the whole quilt when it was finished. I started this quilt a long time ago (I refuse to pin point the exact time). A friend and I some bartering and in exchange I was to make her this quilt.
I am happy to say it is now finished! I don't have close up photos of the machine quilting right now, but I hopefully will have on my next post. Camera batteries always die when you don't want them too! The border is more of a burgundy color then what this photo shows. I sometimes have a hard time getting the colors to show just right in photos. This was as close to the true coloring that I could get.

I just had to share this photo of my Hollyhock. I planted this by seed in the early spring. After I planted it I read on the seed packet that this plant wouldn't flower until the second year after planting. Boy was I ever disappointed to read that. Needless to say I am thrilled that the packaging was wrong.
Look at this beauty! It shows up so well in front of the white fence. I think this is one of my prettiest flower this year!

I have been working on a guild challenge again. This time we had to use a certain fabric and make a tote bag or a hand bag with it. I am very happy with the results so far! Wish I could show you a photo of it too this time around, but that will have to wait until after the challenge is due on Sept. 22. Can you ever have enough tote bags? I don't seem to be able to!

I've Not Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth

Hello! I've not fallen off the face of the earth, but at times it feels like it. I have been getting some quilting time in here and there. This morning I did a very bad thing. While I was reading my email a box popped up that said I had a virus. I thought it was my regular McAfee program and I clicked on the box that said to erase this virus click here. Well, it looks like it was a Trogen Horse of some type. Yikes! A good friend of mine is going to help me out some time this weekend so I should be back up and running again soon. I have a quilt to show you, a new guild challenge that I am working on, but that will have to wait for now. I will leave you with this warning: Be careful of what you click on, especially if it says you have a virus!

Home Again

I am back home again! I had a wonderful time at the retreat. Susan Cleveland the author of Piping Hot Binding, Piping Hot Curves and Marvelous Miters was the guest speaker and one of the many quilting teachers there at the retreat. I took four classes with Susan and I am so happy that I did. She is a fantastic speaker/teacher. One of the classes I took with her was the Marvelous Miter class. I am a poor miter maker to say the least. In fact, I hated to make them. I decided that I should take the class because I am such a poor miter maker. Let me say I love her method! The thought of miters no longer make me shudder. This is the mitered block I made in that class and the block I made in the Piping Hot Curves class.
The art of making and applying piping isn't hard once you know the tricks. Susan is very generous in the sharing of her knowledge. I am planning on having fun with that curved piping technique.

On Friday night Susan gave a lecture. She showed many of the quilts from her books as well as some of her award winning quilts. We were able to see "up close" because of the use of a camera. That made it so much easier to see exactly what she was talking about when she referred to different areas of her quilts.
She also used the camera during her classes which made the many little details easy to understand.
There were many little quilts to look at and learn from. Susan pays quite a bit of attention to the little details, and that is what makes her work stunning.
Susan had her books and a couple of other helpful products available. Yep, I think I bought most of them. Yikes!
There were quite a few vendors at the retreat also. Look what I found! I think I bought two fat quarters for the usual $2.50 each, but the rest of the yardage was for $4.00 a yard. I didn't buy all that I would have liked, but I did find enough to make me happy.
See the four fat quarters on the right hand side? I won those in a door prize drawing. Fun!

Now the next photo will be understood by the city gals like me. When I pulled up in the parking lot at the college where the retreat was being held in Mt. Carmel, IL I looked over to the next street. There were fields of growing corn. What surprised me was that I was still in the town limits. See the stop sign and the 35 mph sign? Where I live you have to drive at least 25 - 30 min. away to see the first sign of crops growing in a field. By the time you see corn fields the speed limit is at least 55 mph. I'm not making fun of this by any means. I just think of it as small town charm!

What's Been Going On

Hello! I have been able to get in a lot of sewing/quilting time in lately, I have taken photos but I just haven't found the time to post about it. Yikes! Bad blogger Marilyn! But, first things first! Look what I received in the mail the other day!
I won a give a way from Paula, The Quilter. I love it, and boy am I a happy quilter! Thanks Paula, you made my day! I am looking forward to making this beauty.

As I said earlier I have been able to get a lot of sewing time in lately and best of all most of it has been spent in my Summer Palace. I got the "big guns' out the other day and did some machine quilting. All that is left on this wall hanging is the binding. I am going to make you wait to see it until after the binding is on. Shame on me! *G*

I went to Shipshewanna, IN with some of my quiting friends the other day. Did we ever have fun! I tried to be very very good and not buy as much as I have been know to when I visit the Shipshewanna area. This is what I bought:
I found some great buys and some fabrics that called my name. They just had to go home with me. Beautiful flowers were outside of all the shops. This was one of my favorite photos. Just lovely!

Tomorrow I am traveling down to spend a few days with my parents and to attend a Quilter's Retreat. I will tell you more about that in another. I will be taking four different classes. I am so looking forward to visiting with my family and of course the opportunity to meet other quilters and to learn more about the art of quilting! Now it is off to finish packing for my trip!