2010 April 23

I am having a horrible time having internet connection at this campground and have not been able to upload my photos. I managed to get one photo uploaded and then it disconnected again. I think I might have to wait until I get home although knowing me I will keep trying off and on while we are here.

The quilts were fantastic!! Such good work on both the hand quilting and the machine quilting – I’m amazed at the talent of the quilters. I think I must have been on my feet for 7 hours we did the show this morning then sat and rested while we ate lunch then we moved on to the vendors. I told myself I was not going to buy any books, patterns or fabric no matter what the price (the fabric I am saving for Hancock’s of Paducah if I see background fabric of the kind I want to go with scraps). I have plenty of books – plenty of patterns and plenty of scraps at home. I really want to use up some of my stash before getting more fabric. The only kind of fabric that I want to get this year is for backgrounds and backing.

I had a list of notions that I wanted to look at. I wanted to feel thread to see what the different kinds felt like – some are too thin for hand quilting and with ordering on line most of the time I really wanted to be able to feel. The main thing on my list that I wanted to find was a decorative useful thimble from TJ Lane – I knew they had a booth and I found them. The lady was so helpful and fitted my finger to the right size and I got it.

Isn't this pretty!! I use an open nail thimble when I applique but the one I use is adjustable and the thread gets caught up on it easily. This will be used. It is a little longer than some thimbles. I have a Roxanne thimble which is very nice but it is heavy and short and falls off my finger easily. This one I believe will stay on much better and I love it!

I did not have books on my list but I did want to find two instructional DVD’s and I found them!! They are both by Elly Sienkiewicz – one is “Teaches you Beginning Baltimore Applique” and the other is “Teaches you Advanced Baltimore Applique”. I know I am past beginner for most applique but I was told that the Beginners dvd has instructions on Papercuts which is a special kind of applique that I will be using in several quilts and I wanted more detail on how to do it. These DVD’s count as “classes” for me! I’m not even going to try to link these as I normally do as I am afraid I will get kicked off line again!! In fact I am going to post this right now and go back to trying to upload photos. If I have luck I will do another post and schedule it for tomorrow if I am lucky.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Part of Tuesday was spent at Jacksonport State Park - and no bugs!! we so enjoyed walking the grounds by the big old courthouse that is now a museum. The park was hit by a tornado in 1992 that did a lot of damage. You can see in the photos that there are no big shade trees around the building — I bet there were at one time. Money was raised and the damage was fixed to the building - one of the main attractions to the park is the old courthouse. This park continues to have its problems caused by weather. This past winter the old riverboat sank! Now they need to raise the boat out of the water and restore it. They need to raise some more money for that.

Here are photos:

The old courthouse - circa 1870's

the sidewalk outside leading to the building and goes all the way across the grounds

a close up - now I don't know about you but I can see a quilt pattern from this!!

the big old courtroom

the chandelier

Because this is a port town there are of course oysters in the bed of the river. In this photo on the wall you can see a photo of a necklace - some pretty big nice oyster pearls were taken out of here over the years. One pearl is supposed to be in a royal crown in England.

talk about recycling! oyster shell buttons. Look at the photo of the lady she is holding some shells after they had been put through the button cutter - they used a lot of the shell for buttons