Quilt Festival, Shoe Carnivals, etc.

This week is the Utah Quilt Guild's Annual "Quilt Festival" - doesn't that sound so grand and fabulous??? Well, it is! I woke up on Wednesday morning and couldn't stop smiling! I had such a hard time sleeping the night before, it was like Christmas when I was a kid (okay, as an adult too). I kept waking up and looking at the clock, waiting for morning to come.

This is my 5th year of attendance and I plan on going every year until I die!

There are all sorts of classes offered, fabulous lunches with National Quilt-y Speakers (David Taylor, George & Virginia Siciliano, Sally Collins) - 2 of my favorite things - eating and absorbing quilty-ness!

There are lots of vendors at the vendor mall, just waiting for me to stroll in and buy their wonderful items that I NEED. I am basically a lazy shopper, I don't like to go from store to store, getting sweaty, etc. So I love it when they all come together in one place!

This year, I took a scrap class - we learned how to organize our stash, and USE it, we got several patterns and I got started on a "Around the World" scrap quilt. What is that you say?- several hours in class and you got 4 (!) blocks finished? Yes - that is me. I took a lecture class with a fun batik quilt show. This morning I took a "Short Cuts" class with great ideas on ways to make flying geese, square in a square blocks, prairie points and more. I loved this class (taught by Bonnie Miles) because I love efficiency and she is very efficient and her brain works WAY better than mine at figuring out the most efficient/easy way to make blocks - and she shares her ideas with us! Tonight I am taking a hand quilting class and am looking forward to that. Tomorrow and Saturday - no classes, just volunteering at the mini quilt raffle/display booth and working on handwork + two more fabulous lunches!!!

Yes, I am aware that my quilt blocks look pretty skewampas, but I'm hoping when I make more blocks, I can arrange them in a way where they will play nicely together...

P.S. Did I mention there is a quilt show too??

P.S. S. Whenever I see the "Shoe Carnival" store, I keep thinking I'll go in and there will be high-heeled shoes riding a merry-go-round or something like that - I am always vaguely disappointed when it's just a regular shoe store.

Sigh...

You can see from my pics, that my projects are getting bigger and my design wall isn't! I guess it's more crawling around on the floor for me. I shouldn't complain, I am grateful I am physically able to get down on the floor, etc. But - in case you haven't noticed, I am a chronic complainer. (I think Mr. Handsome may have noticed a wee bit.) Here is my latest project from "Crazy Ladies Quilts":

I have 4 more "rounds" to go:

It's a Christmas Gift, it should be finished in plenty of time, which is great, except it is not even close to the amount of quilt-y gifts I am planning on giving this year. It is for my baby boy, Shane. He doesn't follow the blog (I try not to be insulted that he doesn't hang on my every word, now that he is married and expecting a baby of his own, etc.), so he won't see it, although he has gotten glimpses of it already.

Well -it's after 11 and I guess at some point I should shower and get out of my walking clothes...

I need a bigger design wall!

And somewhere to put it...

I have been spoiled with my design walls (flannel backed plastic table cloths), this quilt just wouldn't fit, so I had to crawl around on the floor. It was hard to get the perspective right too, I moved a couple of blocks around and numbered and stacked them, so we'll see. I can't wait to get this all sewn up and quilted!

Birthday Month...

Yes, it's my favorite time of year, September! I love that it's my birthday, fall is close, I'm anticipating the fun holidays, there are quilt retreats galore, the weather gets nice and cool, etc. This morning, it was nice and crisp when I went walking, which makes me think happy thoughts and want to quilt!

I just got back from a great visit to my family in Southern California. It was wonderful to see them all, it is so nice to be with a bunch of people that you love and they love you back! We celebrated my birthday (a little early) with "Death by Chocolate Cake" from Costco, always a favorite. Looking forward to a fun family reunion next month in Arizona for my Mamal's (grandmother's) 90th birthday.

Life is good and I am grateful.

P.S. Got a little folding & sorting in at the studio:

The Narrows

We went down to the condo this past weekend, and, since we hadn't been there in 3 months, it was great to get back there. We went to Zion National Park (as usual) and this time we hiked "The Narrows", a hike that is perfectly suited for the killer hot days of late August. It was 104 degrees in Hurricane, but we figured maybe 85 on the water and we were wet the whole time, so it was fabulous!

Even though we have been to Zion Park many, many times, we have never gone this far up the Virgin River, through the Narrows. Most of the hike is through the water, sometimes it was chest deep, a little less on some taller people. Where the canyon walls get super narrow, the only way up is through the water, it is beautiful!

We hiked about 3 1/2 hours up, but it took way less time to get down, not quite 2 hours, or so it seemed, we didn't have a watch or phone with us. (The camera was double zip-lock bagged.) Because for a lot of the way down, we swam, or really floated down the deep parts.

The only problem with that was, my light yellow/very large t-shirt got a little see-through-y, so there will be no close up photos...

And thank goodness, even though there were lots of people there, we saw no one we knew. There were lots of bikini clad Europeans in all shapes and sizes, so I'm thinking no one even noticed any sort of immodesty on my part (that's what I keep telling myself, anyway). We had so much fun, we are going back in a couple of weeks for my birthday! (Wearing something else, of course)

Happily we also got my "American Dreamin'" quilt hung up in the eating area at the condo... and I'm nearly finished with a new quilt for the double bed in the 2nd bedroom, the plan is to be finished for next time we head down there. (It is totally crooked-y, but that is the beauty of quilting, as I see it - homemade goodness - right?)

Yes, I am still alive...

It's been a little while since I've posted. I wish I could say I've been on an exotic vacation, but no, just here, doing a little quilting, a little working, tending my sweet grandson, reading some good books, etc. Here's what I've been up to in the studio:

1. This is a Christmas gift, (for someone who doesn't check out the blog), now all I have to do is take that stack of fabric at the top and subdue it into a quilt back for this baby:

Here are two more I've been working on: They may look like they match in this picture, but they are quite different. The back/square ones are for a simple quilt for the double bed at the condo (we are visiting it soon - hooray!) It matches the quilts on the bunk beds in the same room. The quilt I have on the bed now, my mom gave to me, which is great, but it is an extra enormous King-sized and even after I cut it and re-bound the end, it is still huge and unwieldy. The church dash in the front is a beautiful quilt in yellows, oranges, greens, etc. for my updated office upstairs. I put a chair in it with a light for reading when Mr. Handsome is watching something on the TV that I don't care to share with him. So this quilt is for the chair in the winter months, when something a little cozier is warranted.

I've got a ways to go for the office quilt, but I finished the 31 churn dash blocks and, after noticing they were a little wonky, was happy to see that I needed to trim them to 10 1/2 inches. Smiling with glee, imagining the neat stack I'd have after I trimmed, I was extremely disappointed to see that NONE of them even measure 10 1/2 inches BEFORE trimming... (sigh)

I am looking forward to fall, I have 3 (!!!) quilt retreats that I'm attending, visiting the condo, California, AND the grandbabies in Missouri - I love autumn...

Jeremy & Amanda

We had a wonderful day yesterday, Jeremy & Amanda tied the knot. It was small - just immediate family at his parents house. A beautiful day. They are beautiful too.
Jeff came from California and Brooke from Missouri: (We missed Ben & the kids)Of course, Mr. Beckham was perfect:It was a great day for sure! (Dad is hoping for some tall kids...)I am glad that Brooke made it - on Saturday, we spent the day at the hospital - Brooke had a huge kidney stone. They got it out (lithotripsy) and she was able to come home Sunday morning. She rested all day, until the wedding. Lots to be grateful for.