Goodbye "Fun" and Fair

Jarod and Cheryl serving rice dressing and roast beef.

Last weekend was our annual church fair. Richard and I keep busy helping out where necessary on Saturday night. For him that meant working at the Coke booth. For me, it meant collecting money and calling numbers at the Bingo table. 

Mrs. Anna serving rolls and
Richard closing and bagging plates.

On Sunday we helped serve lunch. Nine hundred plates of rice dressing, roast beef, sweet potatoes, cold slaw, and rolls. It takes a small army, but we had a great crew this year. Two plates are served at about the same time. Richard, whose job was to close the plates and move them to another area, stayed especially busy. 

Another way that we pitched in was to head the Silent Auction. That was really my job and I set everything up early Saturday. 

These items were donated for the auction. Add to these the cross that Richard made and the quilt I made, See Such Fun. Every item was made by a local but well-known artisan. Well-known except for Richard and me, of course. 

Though I don't know how much money the fair raised, I can say that I'm happy with the auction. The items would usually sell for much more, but the auction wasn't advertised as it was added only a week or so before the fair. One artist donated her work and suggested the auction, and in only a few days we had items from several people. I'm excited to find out how well the fair fared. 

See Such Fun (62" x 62")

To See Such Fun ~~ finished!

And another finish! This little quilt is a 62 inch square of pink and yellow scraps to be given away this weekend. 

The pattern is Amanda Jean Nyberg's from her book No Scrap Left Behind. (The link goes directly to the QAL.)  I made another quilt (here) during her June Quilt Along in 2017. 

I made several changes with this quilt. Mostly I turned everything into  4½" blocks and then sewed those into strips. The center sections create large four-patch blocks, the cornerstones are made of broken dishes blocks and finally I made the 4½" strips in to square blocks and didn't worry about which way they got turned. 

My original version of this quilt
following Amanda Jean's directions.

Nope, wait. One more difference is that I didn't use the on-point setting. Hmm, is this still Amanda Jean's pattern? I'm not sure, but it was definitely inspired by her design.

To quilt it, I decided to use some of the curvy medium-sized motifs that are such fun to drop in. They are smooth and easy and, if I keep them large enough, are easy to see and appreciate. The quilt should be really soft and wrinkly when it gets washed. I haven't washed it because it's going to its new home this weekend after the church fair. We will have a silent auction, which I agreed to run, so I decided to add a quilt to the mix. (More on the fair and the silent auction early next week.)

For the back I used a fuchsia linen and some lighter, wide pink strips left over from previous projects. Every bit of fabric came from my stash or scraps. My latest roll of batting came in just days before I loaded the quilt, which was great timing. 

The title To See Such Fun is from a line of the "Hey Diddle, Diddle" nursery rhyme, so this quilt goes into that series. I just couldn't resist the title because everything about the quilt is simply fun.

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	To See Such Fun
	Size:	62" X 62"
	Fabrics:	4½” pink strip scraps, 4½” yellow scraps
	Pattern:	Inspired by Amanda Jean Nyberg QAL
	Backing:	Pink cottons and linens from stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Binding:	Pink scraps from stash
	Quilting:	Mid-size curvy graffitti motifs

Oh, the LINK UPS!

The Scrappy Camper, who has her first linky party today. Good luck, Amy!
Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl blog for Finished Or Not Fridays 

My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thurdays

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant

Old wooden cross ~~ finished

Our church fair is coming up in just a few weeks. Richard and I try to do something extra to donate. This year we decided that he would make a cross from some cypress wood that he has in the shed and I would add a short Bible quote. First, the cross. 

I asked him to include as much of the character of the wood as possible. I love this piece. After he made the cross, sanded, and painted a clear-coat of varnish, he delivered it to me. 

I decided on the quote from Psalm 86:11, "Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth." 

It took several attempts, but eventually I got the foil adhesive cut and "weeded." Then came the difficult part: deciding on a layout for the quote. 

It's possible to choose a layout, put all the letters in, then realize that there's a problem. Thank goodness for cameras. I find more errors looking through the viewfinder than any other way. So back to the letters. I gently, carefully, slowly removed all five, keeping them in line and spaced correctly with a strip of tape that wanted to stick to everything. 

in the sun

in the shade

Then I took it outside to take pictures both in the sun and in the shade in the hopes that I might see any additional problems. I will go back and add "Psalm 86:11" in small letters. I just can't decide where it should go. Any suggestions?

Edited to note: I've added the quote text and decided it would go just below the end of the quote all the way to the right. And I like the finished product. Plus, thanks Anonymous for the tip: I've fixed the photo-loading problem. (I hope.) Every now and then Google just won't cooperate.

What people say...

doesn't always translate into what, exactly, they mean. Ha! What do people mean when they say, "We can make a quilt for so and so's birthday!" Ahh, does that mean you'll make the blocks and I'll do the quilting? No? Oh, would you prefer to do the quilting? No? Hmm, who do you mean by we?

Mostly they mean me. Me. The person frantically typing on this laptop because it's quite late. And it's quite late because we have been making blocks. Alone. 

Yes, I fell into that pit knowing it was there. I may have even thrown my clumsy self into the pit. Funny how I can't miss even the huge gaping holes that I see are ahead. I just walk up to the edge, look down and think I'm done. Then nosedive. Right in. 

Are you wondering how this happened? Fast. I attended a meeting for our church's 90th anniversary celebration, which will occur in the fall, about a month after our church fair. 

Someone mentioned that our priest will celebrate his 50th birthday right after the celebration. So we have three important events tied to our church that happen about a month apart from each other. Boom, boom, boom. Three big events. 

Father's birthday, we all nodded in agreement, needed to be extra nice. 50 years, after all. In two shakes of lamb's tail, I was making a quilt. That easy. That fast. 

The good news is that when people say, "But I don't know anything about quilting," it translates into "you make the decisions as well as the quilt." At least that's how I translated it. 

And that means I can make all design decisions. Ha! There's the silver lining. I'd be making all the decisions. Boom. 

I asked Father what his favorite liturgical season is--so I could choose colors. Since he quickly answered Easter and those times of the year when we anticipate the coming of Christ, I decided that white and red would be great colors. It turns out that he loves the color red. What is better than a red/white quilt?

I worked up a quick quilt in EQ8 and finally decided to create something of this order. The white will be used for signatures, and the red will be frames. There are no other options: this is what I'm willing to do. 

I pulled almost every red from my stash and started cutting 2½ x 8½" strips of red and 4½ x 8½" strips of white. Sew. Sew. Sew. Boom, tonight 132 blocks are ready to be signed and sewn. That will give us a 88" X 96" queen-size quilt. Two weeks later, we're here. All the blocks sewn and ready for the next step. 

I'm not sure that this quilt really fits into the improvisational definition, but since I pulled fabrics to cut as I went along, and I still don't know how this is going to work with what others have in mind, I'll say it's iffy enough to go into Kaja and Ann's AHIQ #32. The first link goes to Kaja's blog, this one goes to Ann's. (You really should visit both.)

When have you heard those words, "Let's make a quilt." If you have a way of avoiding those "requests" please share: I have nothing but a deep pit. 

More Link Up Love!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

Flowers, etc. finished!

I've been very busy recently, but not really telling you what I've been up to. I haven't any idea what I've been posting, but it's time to show you two little projects.

The first is a set of flowers that I've recycled for our church. When our youngest son and his wife got married, I bought and arranged flowers to put on the tables during the rehearsal supper. At the time I had four containers of these beautiful deep purple peonies with some greenery. Both the eggplant and greenery were wedding colors.

The wedding was several years ago--Rory and Meggan now have two girls, 6 and 7. My parents died not long after the girls were born, so I thought I'd use the flowers in arrangements on their graves. I have seven sisters, many of whom put flowers on the graves, so the opportunity never presented itself. However, it's time to make some decisions about the extra things in my studio. Use it or toss it, but no more hoarding it.  

The flowers are too pretty to toss, and they are in beautiful condition, so I decided to re-arrange the flowers and give them to our church. One of the smaller vases was cracked, so I removed the flowers, shared them among the other three vases and tossed out the broken vase. I brought the flowers to church this afternoon and put them in church. The larger vase, meant for the head table at the rehearsal dinner, is now on the floor in front of the main altar, and the two smaller vases are on either side of the back altar. 

The other small project is a group of small, round purses. They are just the right size to hold a set of earbuds and cellphone charging wire. I'm hoping that the colors will be appealing to teens and pre-teens. These will go in my booth at the craft fair in a few weeks. I'm no longer concerned about having enough items. 

Anything that I add to my inventory from now will be beyond what I was planning for. If I do have time, I may make a few more of these little purses and a few more rectangular bags to use as pencil cases or makeup bags so that I can have a larger variety of lower price point inventory, but it's not going to be a huge disapointment if I can't get to it.

I've finally gotten the printer working so I can print some price tags and business cards. I've checked on bags and have enough left over from a previous fair, so that's taken care of. 

Hopefully I can get to a practice run on how my booth will look. I plan to set up the canopy, hang quilts, set up tables and two shelves with small items, and figure out where I'll have a "checkout" area.

Several years ago I had a booth at a festival. It was awfully cold, so I was dressed for the weather, not the occasion. I had not really thought so much about how my booth would look, and though I did a dry run, when I looked at the photos later, I was shocked and saddened to discover my booth looked more like a flea market than a micro-store that I'd like for my brand. 

This time around I want to do it right. Whether there are many sales or I barely make enough to cover my costs, I want people to walk away remembering my booth. Of course, I want their memories to be positive.

But just as much I want my booth to have a clean, modern look. I'll post pictures of the booth after I practice. I think taking pictures and looking at them as I add/subtract ideas and things will help me to see the booth the way other people see it. 

If you have suggestions of other things I can do, I'd really appreciate your input, both now and when I post pictures in a few days. By the same token, if you know of interesting posts or articles that might help me, please send the links either to my email (mary.marcotte@gmail.com) or in the comments below. I need and want your opinions and input.

Because it's already Saturday night--we've been working at our annual church fair--so I'm late to all of the linkup parties. Only a few linkups left open, so I'm extra grateful to them.

Loving these Linkups

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Scraptastic Tuesday (She Can Quilt)

Working Weekend

Even the kids get involved.

A couple of weekends we worked at the annual church fair. One popular activity at our fair is bingo because we have such good prizes. The local business are very supportive and some of the church members pitch in with additional prizes. Finally, the couple in charge of running the bingo table donate many prizes that Angela purchases throughout the year. 

Prizes run the gamut from week killer to oil to home decor to kitchen appliances and anything else that comes along. . This year I donated a white wall hanging with three fleur de lis designs in navy.

One table of sisters and family playing for prizes.

A few of my sisters showed up to visit, eat and play bingo. There was jambalaya, hamburgers, hot dogs, cracklins, and pulled pork sandwiches along with every type of cake, cup cake and home baked goods that you can imagine. Angie, my older sister generously donated fancy cup cakes and her daughter Stacey brought white chocolate bread pudding. 

After our visit and suppers, they sat at a table to play and I got back to work collecting money, cleaning tables, and calling games. When it was time to play for the wall hanging that I'd donated, my sisters had great fun teasing me about getting one of my quilts for the low price of one dollar. 

Angie and her grandsons showing off their winnings.

 I answered back (on the mic) that "you can pay, you can play, but you can't win." Well, I was wrong when Angie called bingo. She and another lady were in a tie and force to pull a number to determine who would get the quilt. Angie pulled the high number and won the small quilt. She quickly noted that she won it twice.  

Patience Quilter's Show 2015--WOW!

Here are a few of the quilts shown at the Patience Quilter's Show in Pineville last weekend. I have more but am busy trying to get caught up with grading papers since I didn't get to do any teacher work: I was busy but two quilt shows and a weekend-long church fair for our church, no less!  Whew!  Talk about not stopping!  

But we had fun and I definitely enjoyed the shows.  The work for God was pretty awesome, too, but it definitely qualifies as work since we served 850 plates in about three hours.  Most of that time I was serving both sweet potatoes and cole slaw.  My right arm is still sore but that's not a complaint.  I enjoyed the fellowship and fun and especially like that we were working to improve our church.  

Enjoy the show!

Best of Show

 Happy Quilting,