I Like Thursday #204

 Welcome to my 204th I Like Thursday post.  Each week a group of bloggers post things that they found that they like/love--Something they saw, ate, read, watched, or accomplished.  You can find us all in one spot at Not Afraid of Color, the blog of LeeAnna, who encourages us even during the darkest times.  

I like that I had a few days off and wandered down to Sauder Village in Archebold, Ohio for their annual quilt show.  I met up with Kris of Kris Loves Fabric and we viewed the show, ran into some more quilty friends, ate lunch, and wandered the village and the quilt shop, and did a lot of catching up.  There weren't as many quilts as in years past, and so the set up configuration made it difficult to get good pictures, and I had one of those moments where I neglected to catch the card on many with the information about the makers.  

I liked this quilt called Hee Haw.  The quilting was very cute too.  Reminds me of my favorite sign from Etna, California.

I also liked this one which was amazing, and I know the quilter, she does some awesome applique.  

 This quilt was called Lady Liberty

Lori Holt's Farmgirl Quilt.  I love the border with the fence and the animals. 

365 paper pieced three inch blocks.  This quilt was made by someone I know, and I succumbed to peer pressure and joined this QAL last year.  I think I am in week 3.  :D

This was just a few of the quilts, and I didn't get anywhere close to getting pictures of many of them.  

Mother's Day is low key around here, everyone seems to have to work that day.  I got flowers from the kids.

While I was off, and it was rainy, so I had an excuse to not do any yard work, I cleaned up downstairs just organizing fabric.

I had a pile of Halloween fabric, a pile of neutrals, a pile of Christmas fabric, a pile of fabric for Bonnie Hunter's Rhododendron Trail, and a pile of fabric  I will call "I know I bought this for a reason, but at this point in time I cannot remember."  I got it all sorted, put into kits, or folded and put away!  

I got caught up on the Moda Blockheads 4 blocks.

Block 7 Gameboard 4.5 inch block

Block 7 Gameboard 9 inch block

Bonus Block 3 Star Turn 4.5 inch block

Bonus Block 3 Star Turn 9 inch block

I was all caught up until the release of block 8 on Wednesday.  

I also made one more Ribbon Star block.

While visiting with Kris and shopping at Threads of Tradition the quilt shop at Sauder Village I was looking for gray fabrics.  I have been on step 6 of On Grassy Creek, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt from 2020 which is 60 string pieced blocks in gray.  I don't have much gray, and I only had 10 made and they took me forever to make.  I mentioned to Kris that Gray is not a predominant color in my stash.  Imagine my delight when Monday I received a squishy envelope full of gray fabric from Kris.  Thank you so much, words cannot express how much I appreciate it.

There was also a super cute wool kit from Primitive Gatherings.

I will say when I do something really unintelligent I will share with people because I can laugh at myself.  I mentioned earlier in this post I don't have much gray and I would cut scraps and I had this teeny tiny gift bag full of gray strips I was working out of, it was pathetic when I dumped it into my 5 gallon bucket.

I was shopping online checking out the Mother's Day sales, and looked at the Accuquilt site, looking to see if they had a good sale on dies.  I spied a die that had 4 different sized strips on a single die, and I thought on that would help with my strip cutting.  Then it dawned on me.  I think I have that die.  I checked my previous order history and sure enough I do!  I had bought it when I was the head of the charity quilt program for the quilt guild to cut up the fabrics that I received in donations.  

That is when the light bulb really went off.  I can cut a ton of strips at one time!  So I grabbed my gray fabrics, cut a 4 1/2 inch strip and started laying them out crosswise on the die. 

In less than 10 minutes my bucket was full of miscellaneous sized strips just waiting to be string pieced.

I have sewn for about 2 hours total and have 37 pieces done, and 23 partially finished.

Obviously I need to learn to work smarter not harder.  Once I am done string piecing these I will remove the paper and finish up step 6 which shouldn't take much time at all.  

I read a lot of different books the past week, but time is short and I have to go to work.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope I gave you a giggle or two.  Now head over to LeeAnna's and check out the other I Like Thursday posts.