Busy, Busy, Busy

Yes, I've been busy.  You probably thought I've been downing all those bottles of Volver that I bought last Tuesday.  Nope.  I've been sewing, shopping, and viewing quilts shows.  Exhausting, but someone has to do it.

Yesterday I picked up my Chicken friends Mary and Judy and we headed out to Ortonville for the first show.  I first got into quilting because I was a member of the First United Methodist Church and volunteered to help with their quilt show in 1990.  Wow, that's a long time ago!  I'm so grateful to Betty Owen and Marilyn Featherston for getting me started by teaching me to hand-piece and hand-quilt.  I probably have one of the oldest WIPs around -- a quilt for Holly begun in July 1990 that's all done except for the quilting on the border and a binding.  Egad!

Here are a few of the wonderful quilts on display at yesterday's show:

This Sunbonnet Sue/Overall Sam quilt is so cute.  The quilter found the one on the right at an antique shop and made an exact copy of it -- right down to the quilting pattern and the signatures that were in the original, tattered version. 

This amazing quilt was made by Colleen Richard and every block is more incredible than the last, including the squirrel picture below it:

This Palm Leaf quilt is said to be from the Civil War, made up of long underwear -- crazy!

Love this hand-appliqued, hand-quilted beauty:

This one was made by Brenda Heffernan, owner of the Mabelena Quilt Shop in Ortonville:

This Double Wedding Ring quilt was beautiful but there wasn't a lick of quilting in the wedding ring pieces -- too bad -- so it didn't hang too straight.

This interesting wall hanging probably did not have its points meet in the center so the quilter solved that problem by sewing a large button in the middle:

For a small show, they sure had a lot of high-caliber work and I love seeing all of their antique quilts, owned by various members of the church and community. 

We visited Mabelena's while we were there and I was able to snag some fabric I had previously passed on and regretted.  

More tomorrow about our outing.  Time for bed for me!