The Genesee Valley Quiltfest 2022 - the First of Several Posts with Pictures

This is the raffle quilt for this year with the proceeds going to Quilts of Valor.  I though t it was just stunning -- look at that machine quilting!!!!

I have made no attempt to put these into any kind of order as the show was not laid out in an obvious order.  This quilt was by Kim Werth.  I have included some closeups as the machine quilting was incredible!

This quilt is by Sharon Engel.  All I heard from people as they were heading down the aisles filled with more than 500 quilts was WOW!!  I heard it over and over again!

Unfortunately I couldn't get the name of the person who did this one.

This was done by Audrey Pantas.

This was done by Marilyn Springer.

This was done by Marilyn Springer also.

This quilt is by Judy Harbison. 

This is a closeup of the following quilt showing Chris Wickert's incredible quilting as well as her use of silks in her quilts.

Christ Wickert's quilt -- magnificent!!

This quilt was done by Mery McEvoy and looks like something i would like to try!

Loved the colors but again, didn't get the maker's name.

Also didn't get the maker's name on this one but just loved it!

This quilt is by Sharon Clark.  You can see the detail of the quilting above!

This quilt is by Antonia Hering.

This quilt is by Jackie DeRock.  Of course, I love the birds!

This quilt is by Sharon Sweetland.

This quilt is by Cheryl See.  Incredible!

This quilt is by Lynda MacDonald.  Oh My!!

Way, Way Behind in Posts!!!! First Some Birds from my Yard!

Sitting in my driveway reading a book was very rewarding for a couple of days, giving me glimpses of a couple of birds I hadn't seen up here including this Black and White Warbler who stayed a while entertaining me!

A Black-capped Chickadee also stayed around for awhile.  I have seen these before but usually at my neighbor's feeder.

There are always Goldfinches around in the summertime.  The next day after this, I saw nothing but pairs of birds!!  

We had a Robin's nest that I could see from my den windown but they have fledged now although the Robins continue to noisily sing outside!

We always have Cardinals hanging out.

I really enjoyed this little Tufted Titmouse hanging out in our cherry tree!

One of our Blue Jays on an absolutely gorgeous day which is rare in this part of the country -- we don't usually see the Carolina blue skies up here close to the lake!

I loved the colors of the crabapple tree against the bright green and deep blue of the sky!

A pair of Mourning Doves who were quiet now that they got together!


 

It's Been Awhile!

I've been busy finishing up baby quilts, quilts for charity and my floral challenge.  This quilt is one I did with my friend Dianne for Handmade with Love, a charitable group.

I finally finished all the quilting on the floral challenge quilt and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I went with very little quilting in the flowers except in the centers.  It was a fun piece to make.  I just have to sew down the facings and put on the sleeve now.

This is a picture I took with my  phone of my computer screen.  I have had fun using Electric Quilt (EQ8) to diagram all the blocks minus one from the Farmer's Wife quilt books -- that is over 200 blocks altogether!  I didn't do the swastika block on principle.  It was fun trying to solve the puzzle with each block of whether they were nine-patches, four patches or something different.  

This quilt and the following ones are all baby quilts.  Three of them use those troublesome blocks I had in some different configurations!

They also used my newest shortcut which has changed my feelings about borders forever!!  I no longer attach borders to the quilt until AFTER I do the machine quilting in the center.  When basting, I leave a few inches on all sides of the backing and batting.  I have found that the borders look much, much better and flatter and never have to be measured to make sure they are the right size.  You just have to make sure the border is  longer than the side.  I then iron them firmly down before attaching the binding.

Each of these is 40 x 40 inches. Except for the last one, they are all hand dyes.  I washed the with white fabric to make sure there would be no bleeding and there wasn't any at all!

 

And Then There Were None Plus...

This was the last quilt made from those many many squares I had and I think it may be the most successful!  I entered it into our Club show.  I still have to put the aqua border around it and quilt it but I am committed now!  I am naming it "And There Were None".  This is just a simple "Disappearing Nine-Patch".

Our Quilter's By the Sea Guild here  in Wilmington is having a floral challenge and I do like to participate in these when I can and have an inspiration.  I was thinking the color of azaleas but certainly looking nothing like azaleas!  These are all my hand dyes and I am literally using real scraps for the background which will be a challenge.  The finished quilt has to be 24 in by 24 in. I have literally been grabbing leftover greens from various bags, some piece only a couple of inches long.  Every time I trim, I take the leftover pieces and piece them back together.

 

Here I was just auditioning the various greens to see if they looked okay.  I was also laying out the "flowers" to see how much space I had given the 24 in restriction.  All is good.

I have started piecing around the flowers here and do have even more done and it is slowly coming together!

Even more progress here and I have done a bit more.  Hopefully I will have the top done in a couple of days.  Then onto the quilting which will be another challenge but I think I know what I am going to do but won't rush it!

Once a month, I participate in a group that makes charity quilts and my friend Dianne makes up the kits.  There was an awful lot of familiar fabric in this one as I gave her all my Christmas fabric a couple of years ago!  Wouldn't you know, that was the quilt kit I picked to finish!

 

Using up Those Squares Little by Little

 

This was my first thought on how to use some more of these pesky 4 1/2 inch squares.  It was okay but I found the green and aqua to be too intense so decided to try another setting!

This might look a bit familiar as it was how I was originally going to set up one of the other baby quilts before I decided I didn't like it!!  I had to make four additional blocks so that it came out the way I wanted but these blocks are soooo easy.  Each block is basically a 6 in square when finished so there will be a border on this (or a couple of borders as I am thinking thin yellow and then wider green) but these will have to wait until after they are basted and quilted!

Agaiin, another use for those 4 1/2 squares and I think it turned out very successfully!  I had purchased a bolt of extremely extremely inexpensive white cotton from Marshall Dry Goods and used this for the white squares.  I am very pleased with the quality but felt I needed to wash it ahead of time which I don't usually do.  This will also have a border but I haven't decided what color yet.  I still have enough squares left to do two more baby quilts.  I am thinking I am going to do disappearing nine-patches using these squares, the white squares and aqua blocks in the middle of the nine-patches.  The aqua seems to go with all these different blocks.

Auditioning and New Baby Quilts

This was inspired by a quilt I found on Pinterest that had been sold on Etsy.  Mine is a little different but is along the same lines.  I was shocked to see that the one on Etsy sold for $130!!  And I have been giving away 10 at a time sometimes!  Too bad I am too lazy to ever try to do Etsy!

This was made from leftovers completely.  The black and white rectangles were already made and had been used in one of the previous baby quilts.  I always overachieve in cutting!  I still have enough to do another baby quilt.  The strips were 7 1/2 inches long and 3 1/2 inches wide so I just added a 1 1/2 inch strip down the middle so they were square and did the stairstep arrangement.  I will still need to put a border on which will be yellow or green probably.

This was an attempt to use some of the 400 half square triangles that I made from those Hoffman "layer cakes".  I had planned on the arrangment auditioned in the last blog post but just didn't like it when I put it up on the design wall so contented myself with this arrangement  I probably won't do another of these but it was different and will be a good baby quilt.  No borders on this one.

This was an auditioning of a block made with more of those half square triangles as well as the 4 1/2  inch squares of the drop cloth fabric that I had cut all up.  If I finished it, the block would measure 24" square so making six blocks would be an okay size for Sweet Charity donation.  I am ready to give up these blocks as well as the half square triangles!!  I have a couple more ideas I have picked up from the internet for uses of the half square triangles so will try a couple of those as well before I give up an just donate the squares and half square triangles somewhere!

This was another attempt to do something with those squares I cut up.  

Here I have arranged the blocks from above with some blocks that have strips on two sides.  It still looks a little boring to me but an improvment and I haven't taken the time to really arrange them in any order here.  I am making 12 more blocks utilizing a pale yellow around the outside and a rose color.  Hopefully, this will perk it up a bit.  Will see how I like it and whether I will make it big enough for Sweet Charity.  It doesn't look like a baby quilt to me despite the paler colors.  We shall see!