Lavendar Days

This is the first year that I have grown lavender and I am hooked.  I started out with three little plants that were planted last year.  The variety is Munstead which is hardy to Michigan winters.  

The above bouquets came from these three little plants that were planted last summer.

They grew into this.

My flower garden is not large but it does get the hot afternoon sun and the bed is ever-so-slightly raised by just a few inches.

I used twine and divided into three bundles and hung to dry in a closet.

My plan is to sew pretty sachet bags for my homegrown buds.

This afternoon I attended a lavender festival held at a local orchard.  

A lavender-colored bike welcomed attendees.

NQA Show Part 3

More photos from the 2014 NQA Show in Columbus.  It is my third and last posting from this show although there were many more awesome quilts.  A DVD of all quilts is available for purchase from the NQA website.

A miniature quilt made out of thousands of pieces of silk.

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Note the fussy cut border.

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The wall hanging was made by NQA'S 2013 teacher of the year.

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This is a Dear Jane quilt which took first place in the Scrap category.  

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Second place in scrap category of which my quilt took third.

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The following photos were taken when I was on overload as I completely missed photographing their entry card.  My apologies that I cannot give due credit.  However, I still wanted to share these quilts with fellow quilt bloggers.

The following quilt maker has so many blocks made, that she put the extra blocks on the back with the result that the backing matched the front.  

Thank you for viewing.  It was a fun and inspiring quilt show.  

Recently, I attended the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in Indiana.  It was a smaller juried show with beautiful quilts.  Monetary prizes were awarded.  To see photos of the show, may I recommend hopping over to Fabric Therapy.  Teresa does an awesome job of posting photos for those to view who were unable to attend.  The room was too dark for my camera and flash photography was not allowed.

Soon I hope to get back to sewing either by hand or machine.  At this point I don't have a preference other than I need to make time. 

NQA Quilt Show Part 2

A few more photos from the Columbus, Ohio quilt show hosted by the National Quilters Association.  This one was made entirely of silk including the batting.  Hand appliqued and hand quilted.  EXQUISITE!

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 MINIATURE quilt

(so sweet)

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I am partial to basket quilts.  

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Below are two Halloween applique quilts designed by Pearl Pereira.  I have always liked this pattern and am considering making one.  The second quilt has a different outer border.  They were both so pretty to view in person.  I liked them both.

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Aisles and aisles of quilts nicely hung for display.  The vendors were at the back of the convention hall.

Another reason that I enjoy traveling to Columbus is to visit a wonderful French pastry kitchen, Pistacia Vera.  Delicious yet light pastries without being heavy with flour and shortening.  Yum!

  
More photos of more wonderful quilts from the NQA show will be in another post.

I like showing the larger images to best display the pretty quilts, however, if my photos are taking too long to load, please let me know.