Back at last for more quilts

Well, I really did mean to post more of the Kuna show a few days after the last post. Funny thing about time. Sometimes it goes by really fast, doesn't it? August is now gone, Labour Day and it's nice 3 day weekend has come and gone, and we are almost half way through September! Wow!

So, let's get back to looking at quilts, shall we? There will be even one more post of the Kuna show after this one -- I sure have managed to stretch these out now, haven't I?

First up is a super duper snowman appliqued quilt. Man, this one is really neat. I took quite a few close ups. There is a monthly theme to how these snowmen are decked out.

I have a few doubts as to how wise it is for snowmen to roast marshmallows over a campfire.

Skating somehow seems more appropriate! Great work on this quilt, don't you think? I like the brownish background too. Guess white wouldn't work out too well. Man, my snarky bone is working overtime tonight. Sorry about that!

Just cute, cute, cute.

More applique. At least this one has nice big pieces. I love the star blocks intermingled with the applique.

And I love, love, love the black floral print in the border. And the triangle thing going on between the black and red borders.

Another row quilt. I must like them. I sure have taken pictures of alot of them this summer. Guess at some point I really do need to make one.

Here is a little bit of a closer look. Not really my colours but I like this quilt anyway.

This one is Minnick and Simpson fabrics. Since you know I love red, white, and blue, you know I would like their stuff now, wouldn't you? I think I have a charm pack of one of their lines but it is tucked away in a plastic box cleverly labeled "charm packs".

I only have bought a few of them so far and have only used one. I showed you that quilt -- the Mary Engelbreit fabrics. I used to have trouble spelling Engelbreit until someone I worked with told me that Germanic names always pronounce the second letter of the ei or ie combination. That really seems to be true and it has helped me ever since in both the spelling and the saying. You all probably already knew that but it was a pleasant revelation to me.

Back to the quilts. Here is a closer look at the Minnick & Simpson fabrics. I can't decide if this quilt looks like flowers or fan paddles. Looks like it would go together really quickly and it sure shows off larger prints nicely.

Here's another I am not sure why I took the photo. I may have been thinking of it as something quick and easy to put together. And the colours are right up my alley.

Look at this one. Isn't it just really cool? It was made by the person who got the Kuna quilt show started. I love the deep colours and the high contrast.

It looks so much like a log cabin. Here is a closer look. I love the kind of night time, kind of stormy sky.

Well, that's enough time tonight waiting for pictures to upload. That seems like it takes forever. I promise to be back sooner for the rest of the Kuna show pics. Then it will be time to start sharing some of my fall decorating. Ahem. Once I finish it.

Funny, fall is my absolute favourite time of year but when I got down my box of fall decorations it seems to be full of Halloween. Not much just plain fall. I don't like to put out Halloween until October. And I am excited for Thanksgiving this year as I have been collecting wooden turkeys from the "crafts gone bad" aisle at the thrift stores all year. Not quite sure how I will use them, though. Might have to make a turkey farm....

Finishing up August

Man, August has just flown by. It's hard to believe summer is about over. Although that means fall is on its way. And fall is my very, very, very favourite time of the year. Anyway, I did manage to finish just a couple of things in August. Isn't funny how sometimes you can be incredibly productive and other times it is a stretch to get anything at all done.


I was cleaning out some things and came across a couple of cross stitch things my daughter had done years and years ago. Like when she was in middle school. I used to do tons of cross stitch and had tried to get her interested several times. Never quite succeeded at that but she did do a few things. She played the clarinet for a few years so the musical instruments seemed like a good project for her. Anyway, when I found them I decided to add some borders and turn them into mini quilts. I think they came out really cute and they will go in the box I have headed for South Carolina. I also finished this little bag. It's nothing spectacular but I thought it came out cute, too. I had a hard time taking a picture of it, though. Had to stuff it to get it to stand up straight.

You get a nice view of the mess in my sewing area, too.

Since I finally got to the end of the pictures from the Boise quilt show we can get started on the Kuna quilt show. They always have a theme -- this year it was black and white quilts -- so let's start with them.

I really like this kind of cock-eyed sampler. Look at that cute kitty up in the corner. Many of them had touches of other colours. I like the red in this one. And you know I am a sucker for stars.

More stars. Don't you like the positive/negative effect on this one? I really like the way the stars are bisected diagonally and I think the aqua border really sets it off. Might have to do something along these lines.

Here's a close up of a sampler type one. I love how it looks pixillated. Lots of dots.

Another star one. This one kind of has a hidden block look to me.

Yet another. Are you tired of black and white yet? I don't think I have ever seen this many black and white quilts in one place before. They are quite striking. Kind of hard to take pictures of, though. I feel like I am in a Woody Allen movie. And another. This one has the positive/negative thing going on, too. And a coloured border to set it off. I think this was a great theme.

And last but not least, have a look at this one. How cool to do a traditional applique quilt in such bright colours with, altogether now, black and white. This person was channeling Freddy Moran, don't you think?

I love the house in the middle. What a great quilt!

There are still plenty of pictures to share from Kuna so be sure to stop back by soon to see them.

Finishing

No, not quilts, the Boise quilt show. Let's put this puppy to bed.

This first pic actually goes with a couple other shots of this quilt at the end of the post. I wanted to show the super cool asymmetrical only one curvy corner and had blogger uploading issues so it will just have to be out of order. Grrr.

First up, an unusual Baltimore Album type quilt. I don't know if I have seen one in thes colours. And I love the border. Again the fascination with the unattainable applique. Sigh. From the complex to the simple -- let's look at a couple of baby quilts.

This one just looks so happy!

Now back to the really, really complicated. I know that lots of folks out there in blogland are working on Dear Jane quilts. This one was just gorgeous. I love the pink and brown colour combo. Wow, the work that goes into these quilts just blows me away. The blocks are so small!

This picture shows the colours a little better I think. Just amazing.

I like the use of primary colours on this one. Kind of makes me think of '30's but not quite. Grandma's kitchen maybe. Just needs the red and white enamel table and the red folding step stool. Well, that was in my great Grandma's kitchen anyway. In Wildwood by the Sea, New Jersey.

Here is another phenomenal one. Love the bright colours. These are often paper pieced aren't they? Another thing I don't do...

Let's do a little Christmas. I love Christmas quilts. And I love the plaid pinwheels.

Here is a farther away view of this one. Really striking.

One more Christmas quilt. Applique again, too.

I think this little bow is really, really cute. A change from flowers and vines.

This is another baby quilt. I didn't upload these in a very good order now, did I? Oh, well. I love the curvy corner.

And the nice colours. And the 4 patch in the middle is a little different than what you usually see in this type of pattern.

Oops, a repeat. This was supposed to be the full quilt shot. To show you that there is only one curvy corner. The other 3 are square. Bummer. After waiting for so long for blogger to upload these pictures, too. Please forgive. I will add it to top of the post because I just don't know how to move the pictures around and I am too tired tonight to play learning something new with blogger. Blogger always seems to win that game.

Geez! It took me two times to get the new one uploaded because I accidentally learned how to delete pictures. Why does it always seem that once something starts going wrong it keeps going wrong? I could delete this duplicate one too, but then I would have to rewrite this whole paragraph, if not the entire post and that just is not a goin' to happen tonight! So you will just have to accept a very imperfect post. Another sigh, heavier this time.

And last, but not least, the Gathering Place booth. When I first looked at this booth I was totally dismayed! Look at all the new modern stuff on display! Big prints, bright colours! Where oh where are the primitive country displays I love them for? Well, in the back corner that you can't see from this picture. But it is only one corner, and a tiny one at that. Even heavier sigh!

When I asked them what was going on they told me that they had lost their Thimbleberries club and while they still had a couple of folks on staff who love primitive they had updated. Holy cow! Kind of a bubble bursting event. I guess now I really need to get to the shop to see just how much of my style of things they have left. Sooner rather than later too, don't you think?

Thanks for putting up with me tonight.

There's so much to blog about

that I almost have bloggy paralysis! I still have lots of pics from the Boise quilt show -- so many they won't fit in this post, and then there's the Kuna quilt show, and then there is what I have been up to -- phew. Better get started.

I thought this quilt was cute. And certainly expressses how I feel some days. I should make just one block like this one and hang it outside my office door as a warning. what do you think? I justr love the little circle quilting. It makes me think of bubbles.

I always like log cabin variations. It's funny. When I first started quilting I really disdained log cabin quilts. Now I just love them. I have made several and they are always fun and always look great. Not to mention how much they contribute to stash busting.

This one is another of those mystery pictures. I don't know why I took it. Maybe because it is unusual to see a sampler in these bright colours? It sure is a happy quilt.

Applique, as you know, always attracts my admiration. The size of these pieces makes this doable to me. I really like the border with the little circles. Kind of like pennies.

Another log cabin. I actually took this one for a kind of snarky reason. In years past I held various positions on this quilt show committee including chair one year and being responsible for collecting and hanging the quilts one year. That's even harder then being chair, believe me! Anyway in the years after me they started putting up one row of 12 foot pipe and drape. Including this year. So it seems to me that this great big quilt should have gone on the tall pipe and drape so it wouldn't have to be folded. There were lots of little ones on the tall section. Oh well, enough snark. One thing I learned doing those jobs is that everyone is a critic and you ALWAYS make some people unhappy no matter what you do. With all that experience I should know better than even to THINK these snarky thoughts!

Another happy quilt. I like the black and white to white and black background.

Now I fell in love with this one so you get to see several views. I love the applique and the colours were unusual and the combination just looked terrific. And I love the upside down flowers on the top -- like drying herbs on a rack.

Sunflowers. I love sunflowers. And the darker colour of these is spectacular. These birds need to be ravens -- once upon a midnight dreary, etc., right? The Raven by Poe. These colours just kind set that mood for me.

Here is a look at the whole thing, well, almost. Does anyone recognize this pattern? Apparently I failed to take a picture of the sign on the quilt which probably would have told me. Wouldn't you know? Not like I would be likely to make it, but I am sorely tempted. Although all those skinny vines kind of make me shudder!

On a happy note, don't you just love this one? I like that it is offbeat Christmas colours.

Here is another really artsy one. I know the maker. She is very creative. I think it was named something about hot flashes. The name fits it for sure.

One of the things that makes this show unusual is that "ambiance" quilts are always hung around the perimeter of the room near the ceiling. They didn't have as many as usual this year. They usually have to be hung close together to fit them all in. They can be quilts hung in past years unlike the ones for the rest of the show. Sometimes it can be hard to get people to offer these up because it takes a scissor lift to get them up and down. That means they are last to come down, even after the pipe and drape. So when you come to pick up your quilts you have to wait and wait.

If you have never worked hanging a show it is really interesting. I always would marvel at how we would start with a HUGE empty room and within 8 hours or so have created a quilting wonderland. And then it all comes down in just an hour or so. Absolutely amazing.

I like the primary crayon colours in this one. Another happy one. I love the interlocking hearts. I remember it had a great story with it, too.

Well, that's as many pictures as I want to wait for Blogger to upload. Hope you like tagging along with me to these shows.