Getting Ready for the Fair

I have been working for a couple of months on a quilt I wanted to enter in the county fair.  I had filled out the forms, and sent in my entry fee.

I got to this point 1 month before the fair, but still had borders to put on, and things went awry.  I needed more fabric for 6 additional pieces as well as a middle border. I had purchased these ombre fabrics in bundles and so had no more of a couple of them.  The middle border was simple there were some gray ombres that I had not used so I ordered some, but matching the other colors was not as easy.  I was trying to match the golden yellow, and didn't want to buy another bundle.  After ordering more yellow (not the right color) I found a bundle which was much smaller called waterfalls and it had the gold in it.  Once I got the fabric I got the borders on (mitered, thank you very much), and measured the quilt. with 12 days to spare to quilt.  The quilt ended up being 83 inches wide by 95 inches long...rats!  I had purchased 10 yards of black Kona recently so the length was not a problem, but the width definitely was.  I needed at least 4 inches more in width to give me a couple of inches extra on each side to quilt.  I decided to use the fabric cut off of the blocks which is what gives the illusion of the twisting and turning.

It made a neat pattern and gave me enough to add a couple of inches so that I could sandwich and have some room to quilt.  I then began quilting, but it just was not to be (insert sad face).  Between charity needs, and other things (house A/C dying, computer dying)  I didn't even come close to getting the quilting finished. 

I will work on finishing  the quilting, and I will take out some of the quilting where I hopped the ditch or had to back track, and hopefully have it ready in time for the guild show in October.

Never fear, I had a back up quilt and so the star quilt was entered into the fair.

I embroidered a label using my new embroidery machine,  to cover up the small tears in the back which I showed in this post, washed it and attached the label so it was all good.  No color bleed or anything.  I dried it hung between 2 chairs in the dining room. 

Now that the fair is going I decided to take a breather and do a reset.  I wanted to acquire 3 more rows in Michigan for the Row by Rows, and I also wanted to attend the Chippewa Pow Wow in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan which is a couple of hours North West from me.  Why not combine my wants into a day away!

My day started at 7 am and I headed to the first store in Grand Rapids, Michigan called Smith Owen Sewing Center.  I arrived just a couple of minutes after they opened.

Love their row!  I also acquired some more music themed fabric.

Grand Pianos and blue guitars.

The next stop was Abbi May's in Muskegon, Michigan a little over an hour away because the freeway was closed.

Cute store, the owner is very sweet, and if I lived closer I would definitely frequent that store.  Of course tiny scissors are my downfall!

The next store was in Baldwin which should have only been a little over 1 hour away, but I sat in a traffic jam for about 1/2 an hour.  What caused the jam?  People turning into Michigan's Adventure which is an amusement park.

Fabric Peddler in Baldwin is not big, but they are very sweet, and had some great fabrics.

There row were a series of guitar picks, and they had this neat keyboard fabric.

I made it to the Pow Wow around 3 pm.  Had time to watch the drum competition, a few dances, have an indian taco, make some friends and wait for the Grand Entry that started at 7pm.  Then the different dance competitions started.   While there are only a couple of different dances for men, and for women, they have different levels of competition dependent upon age, and different styles such as southern, southwest, plains.

When I left my spirit felt buoyed and I was ready to get back into the groove of life.