Parthenon in Nashville

This afternoon Paul and I started off for Indiana to attend the viewing and funeral of his Aunt Emma Miller Graber. We decided to take our time and make 2 days of traveling instead of one long tiring day.

At Nashville we stopped at Centennial Park to see the Parthenon.

We took a hike around the beautiful man made lake and enjoyed the beauty of nature.

The building is a full scale replica of the original.

School Days

Life ...

School is out for the summer. I attended the 'field day' back a few weeks ago.

Stacy, Ashton, and Erica try to see who can eat the donut off the string without using their hands.

A balloon race.

The high jump was my favorite.

 Last night was the closing program. Magnolia School is on Magnolia Drive in Noxubee County, in Mississippi, in the United States, in North America, in the Western Hemisphere, of the Earth, in the Solar System, in the Universe.

It was a very good program.

... as a Quilter

Our Sewing Circle gives a quilt to any teacher who teaches 3 years for us. Miss Rachel was an honored recipient this year.

Spring Paducah

What fun I had in Paducah. There was inspiration in so many places. These quilts at the quilt show were breathtaking.

 

The exhibit of quilts by Victoria Finley Wolfe was wonderful.

I even got to sit and chat a bit with Victoria and then ...

... she so graciously posed for a picture with me.

Lunch at Max's Brick Oven Cafe ...

... in the courtyard was delicious and an inviting place to relax.

The volunteer at the Yieser Art Center made the exhibit of 'Fantastic Fibers' very interesting for me.

My friend Eva Marie tried out a long-arm quilting machine.

I made this quilt, "A Plate of Pineapples" in 2007.

Kayoka Hata from Japan took inspiration from my quilt and made this quilt "Motherly Affection."

Life and Patches Workshops

Life ...

The box of Dustin's forgotten boots was returned to me because the 'send' label came off. I quick took it back to the post office and they shipped it out again at no extra charge. How nice is that?

While Evie helped clean for an elderly lady from church, I got to take care of Teryn and Rusty.

I'm ready to go buy a new washing machine. The clothes wrapping around the agitator is quite bothersome.

... as a Quilter

My sister Polly gifted me with lots and lots of basting pins. I was so glad for them today getting Josiah's quilt ready for machine quilting.

Recently I have taught my "Patches" class in Virginia ...

... and Mississippi.

I just love the creativity of the students and ...

... their choices for the silhouettes.

Great Fishing for SAQA

This is my 2017 donation piece for the SAQA Benefit Auction.

I'm calling it "Great Fishing." See how that fish has been enticed by the lure?

It measures 12"X12".

Here's a detail shot for you to see the quilting stitches up close.

The back is signed and has a 2" hanging sleeve.

So, how did I make this piece? Here are some of the steps I took. I marked a grid on the background fabric on the left and cut out patches from the fused fabric on the right.

Next I cut out square patches from the fused fabric and laid them onto the background fabric.

More patches cut out and laid onto the background fabric a little at a time.

Now the patches can be pressed down and ...

... the piece is trimmed and ready to be layered with batting and a backing.

I chose Superior's Fantastico thread ...

... for the horizontal quilting.

This is the fun part.

Just about finished with quilting the background.

I cut out pieces of black Kona Cotton with fusible on it and arranged the pieces to form the fish.

After some modifications; I quilted the black with an orange thread.

And then I decided to add more and more orange thread. My black fish turned into a gold fish.

Linking to "Off the Wall Friday."