Friday, August 07, 2009

Our Newest Family Member - a Puppy!


OK, this is a tad obsessive. However, we haven't had a puppy in over 20 years so our new "baby" is getting all my attention at the moment. Her official name is Spunkmire and she's two months old. Her mommy was a full blood Cavalier King Charles and no one has a clue about daddy - we we have ourselves an adorable mixed Cav. Cavaliers were originally bred to be companions to royalty. Thus, puppy is very much a velcro-pup and she follows me everywhere. At the moment she's howling in her cage after wetting the carpet - but it's 7pm and this is the first wetting so that's pretty good.

So I'll bore you with photos now and then. Hope you enjoy.

















Monday, August 03, 2009

Quilt Odyssey 2009 - Hershey, PA

My buddy, Sue Reno, entered this wonderful quilt - and my photo doesn't do it justice at all, at all!

I had a lovely time attending the annual Quilt Odyssey show in Hershey, PA this past Friday. We drove through pounding rain for over an hour but made it safely by 11:45am. I was glad that my friend, Irmgard Lee, was driving her sturdy SUV so I could relax and enjoy the ride - comparatively speaking! Central Pennsylvania is gorgeous, even in the rain!

I was amazed and impressed by the quality of the craftsmanship/workmanship at this show - and I took quite a few photos, of course, to share. I tried to photograph the tags with each quilt so I and all of you would be able to give proper credits to the artists and quilters who managed to pass the jury and be hung in this exhibit. Please note that the labels follow the photo of the quilt - and in some cases, the labels are WITH the quilt. Click on the image to enlarge it for better viewing.

Here are some of the entries in the Miniature Divistion:

This is the 1st place winner in the MINIATURE division! It was truly amazing workmanship.











And now for the rest of the show!













Rose Quilt - an applique triumph


































The above quilt was by Sharon Schlotzhauer from CO. I wondered if she was any relation to Joyce Schlotzhauer who wrote several books in the 1980's on curved two-patch piecing. Joyce was an amazing woman - technically superior and creatively astonishing. It was amazing to me to see how her system 'worked' for those who would prefer piecing picture-quilts as opposed to appliqueing them. Of course, there were many geometric styled quilts using her system as well. She asked me to contribute to one of her books, which I did. My contribution was too intricate for her purposes, however, so she put it on the back cover and did not include it inside the book at all! She felt those reading the book needed simpler projects to begin this style of working. She was, no doubt, correct on that. She passed away not too long after writing that book and the world lost a very inventive, creative artist with her passing.


The following were some of the "BEST" quilts from previous years' exhibits.





What a marvelous exhibition it was!

Of course, a quilt show is not nearly so much fun if the attendee cannot visit (and buy) the quilter's market where all the vendors display the latest fabrics, tools, kits, books and more. I didn't bother to take photos there - I was too busy buying. This is the first quilt show I've attended in over 2 years and I had money saved up just for this purpose. It was a grand day of beauty, inspiration, new ideas and friendship packed into less than a dozen hours. Hope you enjoy the photos almost as much as I enjoyed attending!