The County Fair

Another week has flown by.

I've been helping my daughter reorganize

her 2nd grade classroom,

getting ready for my Florida daughter's visit,

and even had a bit of time for some sewing.

More hst's to trim.

****

The interesting part of my week was

being a quilt judge for the local county fair.

The day started early with

stacks of quilts waiting to be unfolded,

and having them shout, "look at me!"

"I want one of these."

Better yet,

"I want one of these!"

The fair guidelines try to make this a 

positive experience for everyone who enters.

All the quilts are accepted and hung.

The judges accentuate the positive and

provide feedback in areas where technical skills

 might need some improvements.

Even then, it's still a competition.

There are commonalities that can be critiqued,

are the blocks square,

are the borders straight,

are applique edges smooth,

is there even distribution of quilting,

  and don't forget about that binding.

It was a long day,

and I hope that the quilts that I looked at

and critiqued felt that it was done fairly.

It's a heavy responsibility as a judge to look at someone's

work and then making comments,

 and

it takes courage and confidence for the quiltmaker

to enter a quilt show, locally or not. 

 Hopefully, we all had 

a positive experience.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

 

 

 

The Hazy But Not Lazy Days of Summer

In 1963 Nat King Cole

sang about the

 "Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

the days of soda, and pretzels and beer. 

You'll wish that summer could always be here."

We are in the midst of

 the hazy days.

 

 Most of this thick haze is due to 

wildfires to the south or north

depending on which way the wind is blowing.

There wasn't much time
to be lazy this week despite the hazy part.

I  spent several days helping

my daughter set up her second grade classroom

for the start of a new school year.

Last year she was in 4th grade, so once again, she had

to change classrooms and

 get ready with a new curriculum. 

It was good to have a helper with us to

 keep us on task.
"toot sweet"

Having been an elementary teacher
a looooong time ago, there's energy

 when the bulletin boards start going up.

****
I spent another day last week
being a "quilt judge" for the
local county fair.

It's an interesting and challenging task.

The quilt makers come to listen

 to your critique and comments both positive
and the suggestions for improvement.

You get to see a lot of fantastic work.

I did noticed the lonely little pile of 3 quilts
in the hand quilted category and nothing
was hand pieced.
It's an almost extinct area for 

some shows.

I know hand quilting isn't something I do as

much as I use to.

I did hand quilt my Mountmellick quilt last year.

(I'm giving myself a positive nod)

There was one hand appliqued quilt entered

and no hand embroidery quilts. 

Binding for the most part were

machine finished.

(There's a real skill to do that well, 

I'm just saying).

It all must be a sign of the times.

The slow quilting movement either needs

to pick up speed, (hahaha) or 

come to my area of the world

or those special categories will soon disappear. 

****

With all that work behind me

maybe this week will be the

lazy days of summer.

 

I can't speculate

 about the

crazy part.

Until Next Time-
Kyle