Monday, September 10, 2007

Cosmic Accord


My friend, Peggy, and I worked from February to November last year to complete a quilt for a competition in the Fons & Porter Challenge. We sent our entry in and, I'm sure this is due to a judging error , we did not win! Neither of us were used to working with anyone on a project and the year proved a wonderful stretch for both of us...we planned and sewed and frog stitched and sewed some more until finally we had something that we both could be proud of. Folks, here we have.....Cosmic Accord. It's 27" by 27". Each block is 3" finished. I asked Peggy if she minded if I entered the quilt into another competition. This time, I entered it into the New England Images 2007. This show is a juried show (They used to accept 300 quilts and this year they only accepted 130 quilts!) While we were accepted into the show, we didn't win anything. It's an honor to be accepted into this prestigious competition and we couldn't be prouder!
On another topic, I taught a quilt class in Cathedral Windows this weekend. For those of you who are not quilters, this pattern looks like little stained-glass windows and is traditionally done by hand. There are those who have figured out how to do it by machine but I learned from a very nice young woman (who learned from her grandmother) how to make this by hand and that's the way I teach it. I had 8 students, all who wondered if they would be able to complete the class project. I guaranteed to them that they would. I had 2 students who completed the entire project (4 windows) and the rest had at least one window done by the time class was over and we needed to vacate since the store was closing for the day. I am so proud of them! For some reason this class is quite popular at Merrily We Quilt Along and often asked for. I never fail to have a full class.
I often get questions regarding quilting here at the library ( the people I work with consider me the Quilting Queen). I also get questions regarding the military, and I'm always being called up to the front to interpret for the deaf folks who come in. Of course, the computer classes are always full, as well as the lectures on eBay. They are always sending folks back to my office who want to know about eBay!
I'm off to Wichita on Sunday the 16th to hear the Yarn Harlot! I simply can't believe how lucky I am! Lisa from One City Market (my favorite yarn shop in the world!) is going and has room in her car for 5 more...I'm one of them. I'll let you know how it went when I get back.
In the meantime, have a great week. Watch out for the bad guys, keep your stick on the ice, and buckle up!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Pig Heaven

Pigs eat like, well.....pigs! Over the course of 146 days, 6 pigs ate a total of 5000 pounds of grains. Yes, 5000 (thousand) pounds of grain. No more! Last Monday John and our neighbor took 6 pigs to the butcher. Two of them were ours! We now have almost 400 pounds of lovely pork in the freezer. And that isn't even the smoked portion! That should be coming in another week or so. Admittedly, about half of that is going to our son and his family when we visit them later this year. And, how does it taste, you ask? It tastes so delicious! We have roasts, cutlets, ribs, chops, tenderloins, and sausage. And soon, we'll have hams, ham steaks, and bacon! We've got two guestrooms and lots of pork! And John just loves to cook and BBQ!