Mesa County Fair

Hello All

First up a very shaky video of a Demolition Derby for those of you who have never seen one. If you listen carefully you might hear my evil laugh I seem to do I every time there was a good smash up. It was in every video I shot. I wonder if I should be concerned?

Next an artful shot of the Fair and carnival

The Bookcliffs, north of town

Mt Garfield

And oh yeah these too!!!

I got a First place and a Judge's Choice. Needless to say I was very happy. The only halfway negative things the judges had to say was that my corners weren't perfectly square and that there wasn't alot of quilting. Well duh! It's a Crazy Quilt, and it is heavily quilted in the inside layer it was just covered up since it very irregular based on where it was needed.

The kids rode the rides and we pigged out on Turkey legs, funnel cakes and fresh lemonade. YUM


Later
Lauri

TA DA!!!

Hello All,

Well here it is. FINALLY!!!!!
You can click ( or is it double click?) on all these pics to see better detail. It took me several days fighting with the backing, binding and trims.Not to mention the buttons on the front and the back.

Jo suggested that I add a bit of color before the final binding. I was leaning that way to begin with , but it is always nice to have some one else independently confirm your thought. Thank you Jo!! I wanted a multi colored piping but couldn't find any. So I ended up with rat tail , which was nice but had to be sewn on by hand on both sides

Here is the inner border. This is not the trim I wanted to use, but it works well. Jjust could not justify $25 in gas to buy $4 worth of trim. I can see from this pic that I need to tack down that corner piece better. GASP!! I know it is almost sacrilege but may have to glue it. Don't tell the judges please.

And the back, a satin with glitter. Never again will I use satin to back at quilt!! ( Yea right, she says so now)It slid everywhere, including directions I did not know were possible

So that is it. Thank you for journeying with me on this 3167 day odyssey. The judging is Sunday and Monday I believe. I will let you know the results. Will try to hold out until Saturday when we go to the Demolition Derby again

Thank you so much
Later,
Lauri

Top Finished

Hello All

Well here is the finished top. I have been working on it for the last week. Not every seam in the border is beaded. I had to try VERY hard not to encrust every one. I have included pics of a few of the black and grey blocks. Also one of the beaded spider I had to do, since spiders are a CQ tradition.

I have already reinforced the piece with fusible knit interfacing. Next I will quilt it using Allie's false backing technique. I can't find the exact method on there for a link right this moment, but if you search you should be able to find it

Then I will put the real backing on it, tie with some iridescent buttons on the front and put on a very narrow binding maybe 1/2 inch wide and also a hanging sleeve.

The longest part will be quilting with the false back.

As this piece is only 30 inches square it shouldn't take really long.

I also dug a piece of sequined trim out of my stash that goes perfect. One or two slight problems though. I only have 1 yard and I need a little over two. Secondly I got it in Delta, over 5o miles away. Factoring 50 miles X 14 miles to the gallon in my new love ( a new to me "99 Expedition) X $4.06 a gallon. I am not sure it is worth it, BUT it so PERFECT to trim the middle section.

I am so proud of myself that this piece actually is square. It took me an extra 3 days to square up the middle section before I added the black and grey blocks. This meant adding small pieces to several colors but it was well worth the extra time.

I don't want to give the judges any ammunition against me. Crazy Quilts already have a notoriously rough time in judging. It is almost an impossible task to get all the blocks to lie completely flat. Due to the very nature of how crazy quilting is done and the fact that so many pieces are cut against the bias in the piecing method itself.

So we shall see if I get this done in time. Both Janet and I plan to take our quilt out to the Fair together next Friday. We both did colorstudies and it is very interesting how both interpreted them so differently. I think it will give the public a wider a view of CQ in general as our styles are so different. Though we have definitely have influenced each other .

So off to the store to buy some 'Warm and Natural' batting and the backing fabric

Later
Lauri