Mid Valley Quilt Guild Quilt Show...A Peek

The weather couldn't have been more perfect than it was this Thursday. Quilting Babcia and I enjoyed the day by driving down to Rickreall, Oregon, for the biannual Mid-Valley Quilt Guild quilt show.  We were both pleasantly surprised by the number and quality of the quilts.  Clearly there is a lot of talent in the local area, which is made up of many very small communities.  Despite the relatively small population, there is a big quilting presence.  It was on display at the show which opened today and runs through Saturday.  

Of course, I took a lot of pictures...until my battery ran dead.  That was a disappointment, since I thought I was there with a fully charged battery.  Still, I think you'll like what I have to show you over the next couple of days.  I haven't taken the time to sort through and edit all the pictures yet, but just to entice you, I'll show you the quilt that won Best of Show.

Isn't this stunning?  It is hand pieced.  There were quite a few of these Baltimore Album type quilts on display today.  I've been wanting to take a class in needle-turn applique, and today inspired me to look a little harder to find one.

That's the only quilt I have to show you just now, but I will have more over the next few days.  As I've said before, I enjoy the vendors as much as the quilts.  Another technique I love to look at, but have never tried, is quilting with wool.  These little quilt kits caught my eye, and Pat noticed this cat.  Here's what I said next:

"Oh...look at the cute little mice...

...And look at the cat and his button nose...

And look at his spotted coat!"  Well, that was it, of course.

He reminded me of someone else:

The spotted coat made it impossible for me to walk away, which would be obvious to anyone with any sense.  The earth could tilt on its axis or something bad could happen.  You're welcome.

Anyway...it comes with everything, including the batting.  It's just 13 x 15 inches, so its a small project, good to give the technique a try for the first time. 

I didn't get these fabrics at the quilt show.  Rather, I rifled through the remnant bin at the quilt shop the other day when I went for my class.  That shop has the BEST remnant bin.  The remnants are generally around one yard cuts, and they are 25% off.  I always find a few things there that I like.  I thought this one would make a good night sky for something.  It would have been a good choice for my Hello Moon blocks, but a tad too late.  I'll use it another time.

These next two were just useful for their design.  I don't have any particular plan for them, but I expect I'll find plenty of places to use them.

When I got home from the quilt show, I was surprised to find this quilt block from my partner in the Block Swap Adventure way back in November!  I'd long since given up on ever receiving this one, but there you go.  Thank you, Debra, I do appreciate your following through.  Still time for me to put this into a quilt since the other blocks are sitting in a pile waiting their turn.

Finally, I finished up the top-stitching on the January Folk Art Cat block.  I decided to go ahead and embroider that dark line to bring out the dimension in the cat's hind and fore legs.  I like it better this way.  Also I added his whiskers and his mouth.  Now he needs two borders and he'll be finished.

So that's my Thursday.  How did your day go?