Not since the mid 1990's

have I been really enthused about a quilt shows.  Not since the mid 90's have I gone out of my way to  attend one either.  To be supportive of the quilt guild I decided to join shortly after I moved here, I decided I would help in whatever way I could  with the quilt show the guild held last January.  It was a good way to get to know some quilters in the area.  Then I  decided to fill the guild's trip coordinator  slot when it was vacated this year.   This volunterism resulted in me on  Saturday having my behind plopped down on the front seat of a coach bus  and on a road trip to Jacksonville, FL to attend the Florida QuiltFest.  Funny.... after not attending any shows in the last 15 years, here I am in  2011, attending three. The third one is in November.  I will be aboard another bus  riding along with the group attending the Mancuso's World Quilt Show Florida III show in West palm Beach.

Just so you know where my mind and motivation is right now.   I've been out of the quilt guild world for many years and ventured back into the competition part of that world a year ago.  But to get back into the "helping out" side of a local quilt guild after all that time ( more than 15 years ) was something I gave a great deal of thought to and let me just say I stepped back into it with a great deal of  hesitancy.
But once in I shrugged and thought "in for a dime, in for a dollar."  So I helped with planning the quilt show floor layout; worked with the committee on quilt take in day, helped put up the poles and oversaw the hanging the quilt, the take down and return.  Now I am adding my vision and hands to making the guilds  raffle quilt.  I am hand appliquing 3" diameter circles to the center of 38 blocks.  Now I am the bus trip coordinator and serving on the nominating committee that selects the slate of officers for next year.  No one so far is bubbling with joy and enthusiam to be elected to the top position, that of being President of the guild.  "Would someone please volunteer."  So I can move on to something else.

For those who do not put in the time or the labor to get a show with hundreds of quilts in place in time to open the door for those who come to view them  have no idea of how much effort it take by so many.  The Jacksonville Quiltfest  shows was well done and  worth seeing and to the organizers; I for one know and appreciate all the behind the scene effort it takes from inception until the last quilt is taken down, folded and returned to the owner. So a pat on the back is in order for the seven quilt guilds in the Jacksonville, Fl area who come together to produce this annual show.
 
At this show, hand quilting seemed  to be making a come back. The best of show was accomplished all by hand including the quilting.  While there were several quilts that were obviously influenced by the style employed by national teachers the overwhelming amount of them were based on traditional block and patterns in the public domain and quilt block, done with  tradional settings using the fabric of choice these days, which is batiks. Good use was made of those  popular happy 30's colors and print of that era in known for too.

 The dominate color of fabrics for sale at the show was overwhelmingly iof an Autumn palette.  Knowing how much of a saturated pure color late spring/summer color palette person I am, there was nothing that insisted it come home with me.
I promised to made a quilt for my daughter Rene's to hang in her apartment in Louisville.  Her color choices speaks of Autumn.  I did not buy any fabric for her project either.  I forgot to take with me the two pieces of cloth she picked out when she was here over Labor Day weekend. They in all likelyhood will not be in the finished quilt.  My thinking was to  use them as a guide  to either dye some cloth or buy other pieces with colors she decided she could live with.  Then too I thought, it does not make sense to buy willy nilly when I  has not firmed up in my head what the compostion will look like or the size.  So I  just looked and touched and hummmed and kept my cash in my pocket.   I did buy a thimble like the one I have misplaced somewhere  here in Apartment 434. Drat!!!  Don't you just hate forgetting where you put something.  What would you bet that I will find it now that I have replaced it?   I also picked up a couple of packs of hand sewing needles; ones I like to use and am running short of.  Double Drat.... would you believe I lost one of the packs of needles somewhere between buying them and unpacking my back pack this morning.

As a point of interest, the convention center where the show was held is housed in a renovated train station. 

The aisles were quite generous and while there was a good crowd on Saturday, you never felt like you were being squished.

This is the best of show, a collage of it follows with detail shots and credit to the maker.

I have several things on my adgenda for today, blogging was just one of them.   Now I am on to clearing the assortment of stuff that clutters  all the flat raised surfaces in my space.  Cleaning up so to speak before I begin my next things.  I have progressed to the point where the coffee table has only one book resting on it that I plan to finish reading and the desk top where I am current sitting, blogging.  It is neat and organized no longer strunned with  empty envelops the contents of which have been discarded or dealth with, like bills,  junk mail and scrap paper with quickly jotted notes that are no long relevant, . 

Here are some images from the reception at Bethune Cookman University Visual Arts Center. We had a good turn out with great food even though the weather was threatening all evening.

  
                                           Grace Edghill and me.

  
The others with me with work in the exhibit, the ladies in white are members of the Underground Quilters Guild of Palm Coast Florida, Grave in Black next to me and Polli Jean Harris

  This is a sample of Polli's work on exhibit

  Two of the many quilts on exhibit make by the ladies from Palm Coast

 On the way home we ran into rain, thunder and lightening of firework proportion but the other side of the storm was a wonderful rainbow

 

A good way to end a very good day.

A cup of tea

was my reward for having finished this piece in time to meet the deadline for the Mancuso World Quilt/Florida show.  I'm looking at it from across the room, trying to see if I needed to add some final touches.  A shadow here or there.  It remains on the foam board while I check out the second set of images I took this morning.  The first set I took this morning was distorted because I did not shoot them straight on and without the use of a tri-pod.  So the second time I used a long level to verify straight.  Taking short cuts often makes a chore take longer as it did in this case.
So  now I need to go shopping for a pair of black pants to wear to the opening reception at  Bethune Cookman University tomorrow evening and I need to get to the market. I'm out of staples, like milk, coffee, blue berries and Charmine.

All done

Thanks to Lyn.  We were up and at it early today.  She was the driver again as well as the one who was  up and down the ladder.  She also has a wonderful eye for "level" and "straight"  which is so important when hanging stuff on  walls.  Yes... I know how important a tool a level is and we did have one along with the hammer and nails.  I am looking down from the balcony area after making a final trip through the three gallery levels to make sure all was ship shape and it was. Lyn is rolling up the pieces we did not hang, not that I had planned to.  Here's Grace, Lyn and me not pictured putting sticky backed velcro on the back of the labels for our pieces.

Space in the main lobby

In the above picture I am looking down from the mezzanine level.  There are two other areas in the gallery that I have pieces displayed.  So in total there are 12 pieces on exhibit.  So again, if you are in the area, stop in and see all the exhibit in person.

Here is the exhibit space Lyn talked me into adding  a couple of more pieces to the display section you  see in the  picture  above.   It faces the main entry door to the lobby so it is a good spot to have several pieces featured.  The quilt at the bottom is one of Lyn's  favorites she told me today and one of two  pictured in the 500 Art Quilts Book

I'm back

I have a new laptop that I am trying to get used to.  My last one had Vista which I never had any problems with.  Now this one has windows 7 which I am trying to get used to.  I am missing some of the software programs that I had on the old laptop and trying to get used to the one on this one.  

My life has been a little busy of late.  I'm quilting on a piece I hope to have camera ready in time to submit to the Mancuso show in West Palm, dead line 23/Sept.  Then there is the exhibit I am that I need to get installed.  I will be making my second trip back to Daytona Beach and to Bethune Cookman University to hang 10 pieces of my work in their galley space.  I spent aa full  day on  Monday being a good  person, helping one of the artist who has never installed her work in a gallery venue before and she had not pre-planned what she would display and the amount of pieces she brought to consider was staggering.  But non-the-less with the help of my daughter Lyn we got through it.  Good thing I'd given up my  plan to hang my pieces on Monday too deciding for sanity sake  tomorrow would be better.  So off Lyn and I will go in the morning to get it done.  I plan to be in and out in less than an hour, but certainly by 11:30 since Lyn has a job interview.
Today I give a talk and trunk show for the Ladies of the Lake quilt guild in Lakeland, F; about an hour and 30 minutes from my place.   Lyn was my driver. I'm getting really soiled.   My girls and my grandson when he was here are following  in their late father/grandfather's footsteps of chauffeuring me about.
 This is a large metal swan sculpture in front of the library on the lake front. Lyn slowed the car to a crawl so I could get a shot of it.  it really was quite impressive. 
I was happy that I had some time before my talk to take a quick tour around the downtown part of Lakeland.  It was charming with all the swans and other waterfowl that populate the lake there.  They also use artist decorated really large fiberglass swans in the same way other cities use, cows, or pigs or race horses like Louisville.Here is a black swan, that I captured before the battery in my camera died.
With a fully charged battery in my tote bag tomorrow, I'll try to remember to get some shots of the gallery space.  The opening reception is Friday September 23, 5-8, Visual Arts Gallery in the performing Arts Center 698 W. International Speedway Blvd. Daytona Beach, FL.  So if you are in the area, do stop in and say hi. 

as far as whine goes

this is proving to be a very good summer.  But thankfully  I think it is coming to an end.   September is my signal that  summer is ending and the weather that this area is famous far is approaching maybe with that to look forward to some of the piddly things that seemed to make me whine so much these last  few month will not seem so whine-worthy.
  The latest  whine-able thing in my life happened two days ago as I was searching online for the next author and a series of books I wanted to read, is my trusty lap top died, well the motherboard did.  I shouldn't have been totally surprised.  I've had it and thoroughly used it for five years.  The space bar was not working and the tracking ball was temperamental.  Good thing I had the sense to copy everything to backup disc a couple of weeks ago.  So all I will loose is the most recent stuff, unless I choose to have everything downloaded from the internal hard drive to an external one. 
It looks like I will be shopping for a laptop over the weekend,  HMMM maybe there will be some sales.  For now I am in the business center using one of the four computers they have on site for the residents to use.
Update on car. I found a used Toyota Corolla, one owner, well maintained, silver in color.  A far cry from the Yellow VW Bug I saw myself tooling about in.  I am NOT whining about this.  My requirement for a car was only that it went forward, had air conditioning and stopped when I needed to stop.  This one does a whole lot more than that, so I am pleased.
I hope all who read my blog, know that I whine in jest.  Watching television this past weekend and seeing all the damage so many people incurred as a result of their  encounter with IRENE I know  they on the other hand  have big problems, not piddly ones like I do and are truly justified to do more then whine.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.
I will get back to you all soon.