MidAtlantic Quilt Festival

Blogspot changed the order of the photos, but you can still get an idea of what I have been doing.  The quilts I saw at the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival were truly amazing!  This is just a very few, largely because I couldn't spend much time walking around and photographing them.   Between working the booth and my blasted knee and back issues, I wasn't out often.  But oh when I was!

Second Beauty Quilt

I like the colors of this one, and the fact that every bit of it is from my stash, and most of it from my scrap box.  I have so much fabric, I really need to complete stuff with what I have, not buy more.  It is so hard to work in a place with the coolest, newest, most colorful collections, and not just buy everything I see.  But I am trying to get rid of stuff that I don't need, and use up stuff I have, so here is one installment.

Newest Sample

I haven't put the binding on yet, but it is almost there.  I am working on a second one of this pattern with a black, grey, blue and gold theme to celebrate the eclipse of 2017.... almost at the end of the last square, my machine threw itself out of timing!  So, it is into the shop and wait until Friday to get it back.  Sigh.

The Sewing Supervisor

The beginning of my next embroidered quilt, the Beauty by @sweet-pea-embroidery-designs

Whopping Big Quilt!

I made this for a friend and his wife, and it is absolutely the largest I have made so far.  I love the fact that I can make it from the choosing of the fabric to the design and construction, and on to the quilting.  I am so lucky to have access to a longer machine and a mentor who is wonderful.  A definate challenge, the half square triangles had a life all their own, but still and all, I like it.

Linen, Lovely Linen

These are some of the embroideries I am doing on some pale sage linen that I will combine with blue and green and maybe tan linen to make a quilt.  There will be flowers and insects, and I can hardly wait to start putting it together.  Still about 20 squares to embroider.  I love figuring out where to put each part of the embroideries....there are five elements to most of the blocks, though the bugs only have 2-3 for most.  It looks very old fashioned.  Until you look up close!  Then you see the steampunk sort of look.  I think I will love it!

Little Miss Muffett

A wonderful friend has made me a real treasure!  This is a tuffet, with the button looking like a comet, and a comets tail flaring out in blue and red, spraying out behind in wild exaltation.  Oh I have a fine friend, a very fine friend indeed.  Cosby and Strider agree, and Pippin soon joined them.  All six of my kitties have used it as their throne over the last few days, though I mostly keep it covered by a towel.

Oh My, These.......

The Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival..... More to come.

Devils Backbone At Dusk

I made this for my daughter for Christmas.  Last year she asked me for wall art with a tree theme, so this happened.  It is a state forest about an hour from here that I last visited in the autumn.  The inspiration was a quilt by McKenna Ryan, though it is not the same, just a similar style.  I will follow up with the sunrise piece, soon I hope.

Skyline Drive Fall Colors

The colors are still turning, should be at peak for a week or more, depending on where you are driving.  The oaks are still green, so that peak will be later, but the maples and gum and ash are in their glory.  The Parkway was filled with cars and people, each wanting to see all there was to see.  I could hardly get to the western overlooks safely, so will content myself with another trip after the oaks turn.
The last photo is a quilt representing Wind Cave Park in honor of the National Parks sesquicentennial...our group is certainly not the only one to do Parks quilts.  This one really caught my eye, and as it uses a technique I am currently trying out on one of my quilts, I wanted a photo to inspire me.  This one was done by a quilter in Nebraska.  

An Exciting Day in the Life of a Quilter

 Today a goodly number of the artists who made quilts celebrating the 150th anniversary of the National Park Service met at the Library of Congress for a tour and reception with a showing of the book in the Science Reading Room at the Library.  My oh my, what a thrill!

Back in the dark ages, when I was in graduate school, I used to use the Library for my research.  It was a far different place then, and yet has not changed at all.  The look is very much the same, but the procedures have definitely changed.  Much more security and movement control, you now need a special permit to use the main reading room.  They have preserved the historical structure though, and it is indeed lovely.  We haven't built anything like this since the 1930's.  The Jefferson Building was built in 1897, the Adams in 1938.  The Madison addition in 1974.  One of the highlights was a talk by Constance Carter, who recently retired after 50 years of service in the Library.  What a character, and what marvelous knowledge and life experience.  I can't wait until she publishes her life story!

Today brought back memories galore and brand new thrills..... a banner day, to be sure!