Frieda Anderson Project

This week I worked on the class project from the Frieda Anderson workshop I took at the Nebraska State Quilt Convention. The Quilt is called Small Autumn Mums. This really was a fun project as Freida's technique is to fuse all the fabric and most of it is cut free form with the rotary cutter without the aid of a ruler.

It really is hard to just cut Frieda's beautiful hand dyed fabric this way after so many years of cutting with rulers but actually was quite freeing. I tend to be a perfectionist about accuracy and so this was way away from "normal" for me.

The background was fused together first on the large pieces of paper we peeled off the back of our fused fabric. Everything was built up and fused as we went...worked really well.

It is ready to machine quilt now and I am not sure how I want to quilt it or what threads I want to use yet. I did get some fabric yesterday to use for the backing. I didn't have any of Frieda's fabric for backing so this is just a piece of commercially mfg. fabric.

It sure is cold here this morning...when I left the house at 7:30 am it was 61 degrees and now at 11:00 am it is 54.  I guess it is supposed to be colder yet today so must be fall.  Yesterday was beautiful with temps in the mid 80s.

Lynn

State Fair County Blocks

With the new building at the State Fair they decided to have a display of quilt blocks to represent each of the 93 counties in Nebraska. The blocks are to be made 26" square and framed to 24" in black frames. The request was to have the name of the county a certain size and the theme is pretty much up to the maker. We could have anything that pertained to the county...history, industry, towns, etc. on our blocks.

I was honored to be asked to make a block for the county I live in. If we could get our blocks done by this past State Fair they would be framed and displayed but the final deadline is next year's State Fair. I am so glad of the longer deadline as I had the idea and had it sketched out, then broke my ankle so the work on the block stopped.  There were about 28-29 blocks done and hung this year.

I am glad to say that my block is now finished and will be mailed off to be framed to be hung at next year's Nebraska State Fair!

I fused the different elements to the background then quilted it all with clear polyester thread. My theme is a little history, a little nature and little industry. The Oregon Trail came through the county as did the Pony Express trail so depicted them on my block. The main industry here is agriculture and the two tall corn plants represents all the agriculture enterprises...corn, soybeans, milo, wheat, cattle, hogs, sheep, etc. Lastly I have flying geese in the sky as we are on a migratory route for geese and ducks, the blue on the bottom of the block is to represent the two rivers that flow through Nuckolls county...the Republican and the Little Blue. I quilted each motif down to keep it from releasing,  then quilted swirling circles in the sky to represent the winds that blow through here and the spiky quilting in the bottom section is to represent the grass lands in our county.

It was a real challenge to put a lot of meaning into the block and not make it too busy and I hope I accomplished that. I know there are areas I would probably do differently now such as the value of the corn and husks that tend to blend in with the stalk since they are the same fabric plus the ear of corn doesn't show up on top of the covered wagon but guess it is OK the way it is. Can't wait to see it framed as that will help it look finished and cover up the oops where I had to pull some of the fused wagon off the white background.

I enjoyed quilting this piece and am anxious to work on something else now...don't know what yet but an idea will come to me.  There are several UFOs I can pull out so if I can't think of something new I can work on one of them.

Lynn

Nebraska State Fair

I am a few weeks late posting these photos but here are the top two winners of the Nebraska State Fair quilt competition. They were beautiful and the workmanship was perfect!

The Best of Show went to this quilt made by Audrey Suiter from McCook, Nebraska.  It was beautifully done and deserving of the award.

The Reserve Best of Show went to Loriann Sanders from Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  Another applique quilt that was so beautiful. 

Congratulations to both and to all the rest of the winners of the different classes!

For those reading this that are not from Nebraska you may not know that the Nebraska State Fair has moved from Lincoln to Grand Island. This was a big move with lots of controversy which I am not going to get into here. The state fair was held in Lincoln for 100 years so it was an emotional move for a lot of people that had good memories associated with it in that location.

The first fair in Grand Island, a small city in the center of the state, opened Aug. 27th for an 11 day run. The amazing thing is that the city of Grand Island only had 13 months to build the huge, and I mean HUGE buildings that house most of the exhibits. Here is a link to the Nebraska State Fair web page. I can't even tell you how big the buildings they put up are as they are just enormous.  The facilities are state of the art!

I have heard that the livestock barns and show arena are the largest indoor facilities in the United States. I can't document that but that is what the rumor we have been hearing. The show arena is air conditioned and heated if necessary so it can be used in the winter for other shows. The Exhibition building and 4-H/FFA buildings are also air conditioned and heated so they can be used other seasons too.

The Exhibition building is where the quilts were housed this year. There is a "small" room built inside the huge building and the quilts were displayed in this room. When I say "small" I would imagine that you could put a basketball court inside that room alone.

Everyone was so excited to have a special place for the quilts but the sad thing is that a lot of them had to be folded this year. It isn't the space as there is the same amt. or more space than we have had in the past. The problem, and it is a good problem, was that there were 704 quilts entered this year. Last year there were 456 quilts entered from 177 people and this year there were 704 quilts entered by 257 people. All I could say was WOW - so many beautiful and well made quilts!

Grand Island is more centrally located in the state so it is easier for a lot of quilters to get their quilts entered. The show was great but already we need more room - what a wonderful problem.

I know the grounds are not finished yet and some more buildings are to be erected and landscaping done so who knows what the future holds. Hope it is as grand a show next year as it was this year.

I entered two quilts and they didn't receive ribbons but I knew that they would not place when I entered them. We know when we have done a good job and when there are problems. I just wanted to be able to show a couple of my quilts. The judges comments were right on...everything I already knew so it was not a surprise. She had lots of good things to say too though. (I can't imagine writing comments for 704 quilts!) I try to encourage everyone I know to enter at least one quilt as it is fun to see so many on display and it is fun to see your quilt hanging for the public to see. I always think maybe someone, somewhere might get inspiration to start quilting by seeing a quilt in a show and who knows maybe it might be one of mine that gets someone interested in quilting or trying a new technique!

Lynn

Slow Start But Hopefully I'm Back!

Getting back to blogging has been hard. After I broke my ankle in June I wasn't doing any quilting or sewing and mostly just was laying around with my foot in the air for weeks and feeling sorry for myself. This seemed to go on for ever and even after I was more mobile on crutches my days seemed to be taken up with just getting from place to place in the house and basic living.

I have had the cast off for 5 weeks now but had to wear a knee high heavy boot strapped onto my foot and leg for a couple of weeks after that. Learning to walk again normally has been work, hard work. The ligaments that were torn had to heal then have been really tight so I have been going to physical therapy two to three times a week - an hour drive from here. The exercises are helping but still have a long way to go to be able to lift my foot and point my toes upward.  Little by little I am getting more movement though.

This week I did sit down at the sewing machine for the first time since June - Hallelujah! The first thing I did was repair a work glove that John had wanted me to fix way back in June. Using the foot pedal was ok but did have to reposition it to make it more comfortable.

I then made a friendship star block for a quilt guild member that lost her mother this summer. The quilt guild I belong to makes blocks for members when requested for deaths of family members, serious illnesses, etc. It is a nice gesture and much appreciated by the recipients. I make a block for every request because I have been on the receiving end and know how much it means to know you are thought of during a difficult time in your life with these special blocks from your friends.

We make these 6" blocks in the colors we think the recipient likes so each time it is a different set of colors.

Hope to be blogging more now....kind of interesting to start again after such a long time. It is kind of like riding a bicycle though as it comes back to you.

Here's to "talking" to you all again!
Lynn