Kansas State Fair

 Let's travel back in time a little more and I'll show my pics from the Kansas State Fair.  We attended with our friends, one of whom is a vet who grew up in Kansas and has attended every year, several times volunteering in the veterinary building.  She has lots of traditional things she liked to do, so it was fun to share it with her.

The guys spent some time going through the machinery, while we visited the domestic arts building.  There was some really neat cross stitch.  I took a picture of this Harry Potter themed one.

And then there was quite a lot of quilting that was well displayed.  Only one was hanging upside down.  (I've quit putting quilts in the Missouri State Fair simply because of the lack of care they show for displaying things.)

I thought the wall hanging below was quite clever.

And this t-shirt quilt caught me attention with the way they did the shirts in a swirl.

And it had more on the back.  I didn't care for the quilting though.

Below is the grand champion and the next photo is the back of it.  It was quite something.

We also went into the 4-H building.  Wow!  Was it ever impressive.  I took several photos to show Sarah, so these will feature more of the "sciency" stuff.

Case after case of Legos............

And this charcuterie board.............had fishing lures in it!  Sent that to my brother-in-law who makes these.

The sewing/quilting/knit/crochet was also impressive.  I took pics of this crocheted costume of Toothless from How to Train your Dragon.............

and from the back............

It was a huge building and was totally full.  There were at least 1000 photos, over 50 bug boxes and even more rock boxes and it was all very well displayed.  Again, it made Missouri look sad.

We got into Kansas politics as there was a debate going on that had drawn quite a cheering/booing crowd.  It will be interesting to see how the election comes out.  

We visited the vet building which I thought would just be a building where you could ask questions of the vets volunteering to staff it, but it was actually a birthing center.  They had all sorts of animals and I got to see new born calves, lambs, and more.  They had seating where you could just sit and watch.  I could have spent the day in there.

Meet Rosie who I visited in the cattle barn twice and each time she was more than happy to suck on my fingers.  

We were also going to ride the Old Mill ride, a long-standing tradition of my friends.  It is a permanent fixture on the fairground since the 1950's.  We were in line, and just as we got up to the entrance, they closed it down because it had stopped and needed repaired.  So we missed that tradition.

It was a fun weekend in Kansas.  We checked out interesting restaurants, played cards, and visited a castle.  There is more to Kansas than I had thought.

Since my last post, I have returned to the sewing room.  I cleared away the 4 bags of t-shirts I have been given to make a quilt.  I rough cut them to get rid of the excess, and now have a much smaller pile of usable parts stored in the closet until I'm ready for a game of Tetris to see how to fit them together.  I also made the backing for Mom's Christmas quilt and hung that fabric up.  Then I opened one of the project boxes I had last worked on at the retreat before Labor Day and sat down and actually sewed quilt blocks!  It was such an amazing feeling.  I sewed 40 sets of 4 half square triangles.  They still have to be trimmed, but I have decided the fabric is so pretty that I want to sew an extra seam before trimming them to save the bonus triangles.  Anyway, it was a really good feeling.

Busy day at church today.............my bell choir is performing for the first time this season, we are on the hospitality team for greeting and ushering, and it is the church tailgate party, so I have food ready to take.  It is kind of fun to get to wear jeans and my Chief's shirt to church.  And of course, we'll watch the game this afternoon.  Chief's vs. Raiders, 2 unbeaten teams!  

Well, it's time to grab some breakfast and hit the shower to get the day started.

Christi

How can it be October?

We're so glad the dog days of summer and the extreme temps we had are over.  My animals are very much like me.  We really enjoy air conditioning!  Harry Potter and Mabel did their best work sleeping in the house during those hot days!

It's confession time.  I have not sewn a quilt block since that retreat back at the beginning of September, so before Labor Day............can you believe it?  It was a very busy month with piano lessons starting and a few more trips.  Let's time travel back a little ways............

The second weekend of the month, we spent in Kansas with some friends.  Our goal was the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas, but our first stop was at the Eudora Quilt Show in Lawrence, KS.  It was a very nice show, well displayed.  So I'll just let you browse through some of my favorites.

The quilt below, I'm pretty sure, is a pattern called My Kinda Town.  This one is on my UFO list, but has barely been touched.  Also, I'm pretty sure this person rearranged the town a bit because it's not really how I remember it looking.  

I love how they did this panel in the quilt below.  You know about my weakness for panels and this one really captured my attention.

I'd like to try the one below as a scrap quilt from my stash.  

And this was another scrap quilt idea.  I make a lot of four patches, so I thought this would be a different way to use those.

And they had vendors at the quilt show.  I told my husband that I didn't need anything, but just wanted to look...............which is what I did at the Vendors.  But at the guild garage sale, I was like a kid in a candy store.  

There are several books and patterns (which I didn't need, but at a dollar a piece, I couldn't resist), a Christmas fat eighth bundle on the right, a Christmas jelly roll, and the bundle tied with twine is five one-yard cuts of Christmas fabric.  I gave that bundle to my mom the next weekend since she has a book of five one-yard cut quilts, and she already has a top together from the fabric.  She sent me a picture with dimensions so that I could get backing for it.  (and I haven't pieced a block in over a month 😕)

I did get the Jelly Twist quilt quilted and shown at the September meeting.  

And I got 3 mondo bags and a couple of little zipper pouches that had been started in the middle of August finished for someone.  I still need to get them in the mail.

They were made from a Peanuts jelly roll.  You can see what Esme has to say about the "dog" thing.

And I just finished Bert and Ernie, for ME!  Actually, I still have to sew down the hanging sleeve on the back, but I can get that done before the quilt show next weekend!  I really wanted this finished for the quilt show.

While quilting this one, I noted what large noses muppets have and how much hair product these two must have used to get it to stand up like that!

And I quilted 5 table runners for my mom and this large quilt for another guild member to show in the quilt show.  

She chose this orange minky for the back which looked awesome, but I did have to vacuum a lot of orange fuzzies after it was done.

Well, I'm leaving you here for now.  I'll post about the Kansas State Fair and some other stuff over the next few days, so keep a lookout for more posts.  

I should update the UFO list, but the only real change is that Jelly Twist is finished.  So that just leaves 3 quilts, My Kinda Town, Legendary, and the 30's blocks.  None of those appear to be going anywhere too fast.

Christi