It's Friday!

Finally the weekend is here, and I have BIG plans to sleep in tomorrow! It's surprising how much more tired I am on Friday nights when I work all week than I am when I'm on vacation. Okay, maybe it's not toooooo surprising!

First, thank you all for the comments you left about the chicken quilt. This has been so much fun to make! I put the borders on tonight and I have a photo for you, but it's really so large that it's hard to get a good photo. Still . . .

I thought I'd keep the borders somewhat simple and somewhat small--the chickens are pretty overpowering and--quite rightfully--take center stage!

During our lunch hour today, my friends and I went to the quilt show and I took a few photos to share with you. Some of them came out rather dark, but I'll post them anyway. I didn't get very much information about the quilts or the quilt makers because my time was limited and I was mostly running around and taking photos of the quilts that appealed to me, but here's what I got. First I'll show you a few more traditional/country quilts. This first one was made by Lindy, the owner of Bear Paws & Hollyhocks.

This next one was kind of interesting, I thought. It's a memorial quilt for the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Wild Child won an essay or speech contest in school once when she was young, and she and I were invited to attend one of their meetings; the Wild Child gave her presentation to the group. Seeing this quilt brings back some memories! I had forgotten all about that until I saw it.

This next quilt was fun! I love houses and barns, and this quilt was three-dimensional--some of the pieces lifted up. Kind of a neat idea, huh?!

Now a couple more "arty" quilts. I wish I could tell you who did this one. I love the colors and the arrangement, don't you? I think that even if you're not "into" arty quilts, you probably appreciate this.

I thought this little one was neat and different because it's mostly "thread play" and crayon drawing. If you click and make it larger, I think you can read what the quilt maker said about it.

And, of course, this last one--the colors and the applique were just gorgeous! And it looks like a few of the judges agreed!

And no visit to a quilt show would be complete without a visit to the vendors, right?! I was really looking mostly for fat quarters to use in the Pieces From My Heart Christmas quilts I want to make, and I was disappointed to find very few of the vendors had fat quarters this time. There was also an overabundance of fall colors and fall kits and very little for Christmas. Last year, someone had a whole basket full of red and white fat quarters, and I was hoping to find that again, but you know--whenever you have something specific in mind, you never can find what you're looking for.

One of the local vendors, The Pincushion, specializes in what they call "Sweet Treats" which are packets of 8 coordinated fat quarters, and I found one I liked--mostly from Minick and Simpson, I think. For some reason, these photos came out a little blurry--sorry!

Then I found a couple other red and green fat quarters that will do. The tones look much brighter than the Sweet Treat packet here in the photos, but in person, they aren't too far off.

And, finally, a few more fat quarters and half yard cuts that just appealed to me--I'm sure I can use them in some project or another, and the price was good.

Unfortunately, one of my friends got a call from the office and needed to get back to take care of an "emergency," which meant cutting our excursion a little short, but really, by the time the call came, we were pretty much done anyway.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of the quilt show. Now it's time for me to get started on my main priority--sleeping in on Saturday morning!