The Shelburne

 One of the places that I really

wanted to visit while I was in Vermont

was the Shelburne Museum.

The Horseshoe Barn

The museum is known for its Folk Art Collection,

the hand carved circus figure collections,

 

 historic houses and buildings

and so much more,

along with

the 500 plus quilts in their collection

that span 250 years.

At anyone time there are about 30 quilts on display.

And, of course, none of my

photos do any of them justice.

But it does remind me that

quilt makers have always loved

using color, fabric and design

to express their creativity.

 Until Next Time-

The Results Are In

Vermont is a lovely state,

hilly and green,
back roads and covered bridges.

This past weekend was the Vermont 100

Endurance Race.

While everyone else was sleeping,

there were a couple hundred people

standing in the dark, in a field,
waiting for the gun to sound,
and ready to take the first steps in a race of 100 miles.

Running Man and His Niece
were ready and waiting too.
The weather had changed and the forecast
was for sunshine, but cooler temperatures, thank goodness.

We meet up with our runners at the first
crew aid station at mile 22.5.

Running Man was looking good.

Unfortunately, His Niece, had fallen and
worse yet, had run out of water and
and was beginning to feel dehydrated,
but she pushed on.

The interesting part about this race, is that it's also

 a 100 mile race for horses and riders, so
there are times when you have to share the trail.

By now Running Man and his niece had separated.
At about the half way point, His Niece dropped out.
The lack of water had taken its toll and she
just couldn't go further,

 but Running Man was still going strong.

We met him several other places,
filled his Ensure bottles and his electrolite water
bottles and sent him on back onto the trail.

To help the crew, Running Man had a list of projected
times for each aid station.
We adjusted those times throughout the day
based on when he would actually show up.
He was pretty much right on schedule
until the aid station at 70 miles.

Now the full moon was out, it's about 12:30 am, and
there are a couple hundred people milling around
in the dark waiting for runners to
 suddenly appear and check in.

Runners continued to become further spaced out and
waiting seemed like an eternity.

Finally, I recognize his reflective stockings
as he came into the aid station.
He was later than he had planned.
Why?
It's easy to take a wrong turn
on a path in the dark in the woods,
especially if it's not marked well.
He had run 2 miles out of his way.
Grrrr.

 But he was still ready to go on and had
plenty of time and energy.

 The crew and Running Man and His Niece
Mile 70
( See I wasn't alone.)

At this point,
there are crazy people who actually
volunteer to pace runners,
to run with someone just for the sake of running
and to help a tired runner make it to the end.

Running Man asked for a pacer and
a running angel volunteered, Chad from MA.

 

Running Man and His Pacer at mile 96

What a positive encourager.
For the last 30 miles I knew
Running Man was in good hands and
he was.

The moon set and the sky
began to grow lighter.
Suddenly the birds were singing and
the frog sounded like a ribbit band.
Now it was one last aid station before the finish.
Right on time.

We threw the stuff into the car
and set off back to the start/finish line.

We weren't wating long before
Chad, the pacer, came out of the woods and

shouted, "He's coming!"

And then it was over.
Running Man had sucessfully completed
the 100 mile course
in 27 hours, 28 minutes and 44 seconds
of continous running.

It was the completion of a long time goal.

Great job, Running Man.

 I'm super proud of you.

Until Next Time

Running Man's Next Adventrue

 There's been a lot of training 

going on at my house.

Daily runs,

short and long,

around town, and up and

over the foothills.

No, not me...

Running Man, of course.

One more race is calling his name, 

It's an ultramarathon

where racers face both physical and mental challenges

as they attempt to

run 100 miles within

a 30 hour time limit.

Most of the race is trail running

or along back roads,

but always hilly.

Running Man and his niece will be 

running together as they each try

 accomplish their goals.

Me?

I'm part of the crew,

waiting and watching.

 Until Next Time-

It's Charming

 Despite the fact that

I just got my Roseville applique going again,

and I've been embroidering on a Halloween project,

I wanted to do some simple sewing at the machine.

Using basically 2 Moda Charm packs and
1 Mini Charm pack,
it was time to "just sew".

I wanted to make scrappy nine patches, but
I wanted to make them quickly and without much effort.
I came up with a plan
to eliminate some extra cutting.

This isn't probably new, but it
worked for me.

I used a long 2.5" strip of white
and sewed

halved charm squares along the edge.

Then I added other halves to the
other side.

But I needed to careful and stop and think.

The second row needed to
be dropped 2 1/2 inches, so

when I went to cut strips

the cutting would line up perfectly.

 Top and bottom rows done.

I did the same thing with the middle row of the
nine patch.
But this time the sewing was easier.
No calculating.

And I used lots of those mini charms here.

Pressed towards the center and

Voila!

Perfect nine patch blocks.
That was FUN!

Until Next Time-

Roseville Album "Back in Business"

We all do it.

We put a project away temporarily

and suddenly we realize we've abandoned it completely.

That's what I did to my applique blocks
for the Roseville Album Quilt.

I really did know it was there.
I just didn't want to pull out tons of
fabric and start auditioning for the next blocks.

I hadn't been in the mood.

I needed to look at the blocks that were done,

look at the next 4 blocks,
and then make everything jell.

The nice part was I actually had
the freezer paper templates cut and
ready to be used.

After making the initial decisions
I needed to lay the pieces out and try and get

a sense of how the individual pieces will look together.

Then I needed to see how all 4 blocks looked.

Balanced?

It's not always easy to tell at this point, but
it does help to see them close together.

The hardest part is just getting started,

and in applique it's starting with the pieces that

are the furthest back in the scene.

In this case, it was the circle.

Which meant the stems needed to be placed too.

That's always the trickiest and most time consuming part for me.

Because if those aren't right the rest of the block 

will be off.

One block done.

Once I got back at it,

 it didn't take too long.

Until Next Time-

CQC's Capitol Quilt Show

 Something's coming.

Some thing great.

What's hidden in these pillowcases?

 

Just a small portion of the approximately

275 quilts

that will be hung at the Colorado State Capitol Building

 

 in Denver this summer and early fall.

The 2013 Quilt Show is sponsored by

the Colorado Quilting Council.

It will be displayed from

July 29-October 10.

It's a magnificent venue for

spectacular quilts of all colors, patterns and designs.

And if that isn't enought

this years show has been expanded to include

 approximately 45 more quilts

hung in the Denver Central Public Library

in the 5th floor's reading room.

This show has been put together and displayed every other year

since 1988.

And the best thing is that it's free.

The capitol is open to visitors during normal business hours,

7:30 am until 5:00 pm.

Monday through Friday.

The quilts on display at Denver Central Public Library are

available for viewing during their regular businness hours as well.

Check their website for hours.

If you're in the area, I hope you'll

take some time to visit this wonderful show.

There's some beautiful quilts to enjoy.

Until Next Time-

Don't Leave Home Without It

 Waiting is always hard.

Depending on what's going on,

even a few seconds can seem like an eternity.

I had to take the car into a tire repair place.

Have you been to one recently?

It's the happen' place.

There were 29 people waiting in the 

waiting area at 10 am on a Friday morning.

Even with the appointment that I made on line,

my wait was going to be about 1 1/2 hours.

Pity the poor folks who didn't make an appointment,

their wait time was about 3 hours.

Fortunately,

I always have some handwork to grab and go.

 These funny pumpkins made me smile

even while I had to wait.

The good news was that 

I was out and back on the road

 in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Until Next Time-