Just to smile ...

Fons and Porter TV show mentioned "Hypoteneuse" and I had to think a bit to remember what it actually meant. Then, using my brain that explodes in all directions, THAT word got me to remembering this silly joke. (Absolutely NO disrespect meant to any folks!) Enjoy.
---------

There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deerskin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant and the first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys.

This goes to prove that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.
----------------


Definitions: The side opposite the right angle in a right triangle is called the hypoteneuse. (This term applies only to right triangles.) The two other sides (those forming the right angle) are called legs. Often the legs are labeled a and b and the hypoteneuse is labeled c. Usually the angles opposite the sides of a triangle have the same letters, but capitalized: A, B, and C.

Quilt Show is Over

I didn't come home empty handed and was very happy to receive a Second Place! (Full photo is in my previous post.) It takes courage to enter our quilts, and yes, we all compete against ourselves. Color, subject matter, technique, skills are all so subjective. Mostly, you have to have something that has impact and eye appeal - at least that's what I've noticed. Skills were not particularly noticed, because the public is not aware of how we do what we do. We stand quietly and listen to what folks say. A friend said she can tell which quilts are mine. That was a lovely compliment. I was in a good mood driving home.

Here is First Place (below) in the same category as mine above - an amazing Sunbonnet Sue through the Seasons, by Ruth. She does incredible work, and Sunbonnet Sue is forever popular. She also said she wouldn't do another one! "It was a lot of work." The quilt show was a Viewer's Choice. It was 98 degrees outside and not too much cooler inside, but we still had a great time.


Our Theme was "Diamonds." Here is the First Place in the Challenge Category. She used diamonds in her background. Sharon is an amazing quilter and comes from a family of quilters. She gets together with Mom and sisters for a yearly "Quilt-a-thon" and our quilt guild is blessed to see their new creations. This creation is totally encrusted with beads - gorgeous. She said she took a class by beading expert Nancy Eha. This is very small and simply stunning. No other entry (especially mine!) came close.

Quilt Show Entry - Star in the Forest

This is my second entry which is also Diamonds, although it's purely coincidental that it actually matches the Quilt Show Theme.

It IS square - just held crooked. It's about 62 inches by 62 inches. The orange paper label says "This corner is the bottom."

I've been working on this for about 6 months, and am extremely happy with it. It is paper pieced, and I used many of my forest-y scraps. It is loosely based on many bicycle trips I made in the Smoky Mountains, years ago. I did the machine quilting on my DSM. Each of the 8 star segments is machine quilted in a different pattern, kinda sketchy in style. There are vines, mushrooms, and grasses quilted free-form in the side diamonds, many deer in the border, and a variety of oak leaves quilted in the corner borders. I used a variegated thread for the star and the deer, and a solid dark thread for the border leaves. The deer show up very well. There is a little bear hidden in among small diamonds. The backing is a busy fern-y melon color and hides my machine quilting where needed.

The quilt show is this weekend, and is a Viewers Choice. There are some amazing quilters in this area!

Quilt Show Entry - Challenge Quilt

Our quilt show theme was "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." I thought about where diamonds are mined - Botswana, South Africa, but her 'treasures' also include wonderful forests, landscapes, wildlife, etc, as well as diamond mines. The corners of this little quilt include a quilted sable antelope, a baobab tree, a lion, and a wild dog pup.

The center of the quilt has added texture of 'horn' buttons, tied with heavy threads, beads and jute. The horn elephant button in the center covers my PERFECTLY sewn center.

There are also 'diamonds' hidden in the seams (silver metallic thread) and a few crystals sewn in various locations.




I LOVE the label, with the 'tooth' and beads.

Footsteps

As bloggers, we sometimes wonder where our footsteps land, who reads our posts, who appreciates our photos and projects. Let me assure you, those photos showing YOUR neatly cleaned and organized closets and sewing rooms have given me an incentive to attack my sewing closet.
I knew the project would result in a LOT of guilt, and that I would unearth long forgotten ‘things,’ and let’s not talk about all the orphan blocks I found and added to my collection, now TWO tubs full.

The closet has been almost unusable, because of my bad habit of throwing stuff in it, and quickly closing the door. Also, I tend to use much-loved baskets for storage, but they don’t stack well.

All things in life are good AND bad, depending on ... whatever. The good part about a cleaned closet is that it clears the mind, removes the guilt, spurs a person’s energy. But the BAD part – unless I live to be 125 and remain in excellent health, and do not purchase any more fabric, I realize I will never accomplish all my quilt-y goals. Oh, and by the way, this is just the closet, not the ROOM, nor the room next to my sewing room. And you might just see more mess to the right of the photo - still working! And, I might add, to the LEFT in the photo is where my DH stacks his wood for his projects. We share a SMALL room, but manage OK.

But, another good thing is that I was able to ‘fess up’ to my DH that I had a new sewing machine buried – uhhhhhh OK, it was hidden in that closet, a Janome Platinum, purchased about 2 months ago. It was a kinda joke – “Hey, you’ll never guess what I found!” “Is this a Christmas present – for me?” – all sweetness and sugar-y. It weighs just 12 pounds, and does almost anything you could want in a big machine. I plan to carry it with me on a plane and make a quilt while I’m visiting. (Honestly, some people don’t actually HAVE a sewing machine in their home - OMGosh!). The little Platinum is in the blue case, next to my Viking machine. My Janome 6500 is to the right of the photo, the one I now use a LOT.

There are 4-5 quilt tops on the left, along with about 40 real silk ties -- another quilt project. The drawers hold other projects and I was smart enough to put stuff in CLEAR boxes and drawers.

I feel so relieved!

Orphan, or Puzzle Quilt

Several years ago, our Guild Membership gal asked for donations of extra blocks that we were not planning to use, to be given as door prizes. Well, I had extra blocks, and I was eager to participate in this worthy endeavor!

I opened up my tub of extra blocks, and the first one on top was ....uhh .. well, I decided to keep that one, it was made years ago while I was just learning to quilt from Georgia Bonesteel on PBS TV programs. How I loved that program and ohhhh dear, it brought back tears and memories. OK, so I won’t give that one away, and flipped it behind me on the floor, Eleanor Burns style. Next one came out .... well it has those cute little bunnies of that quilt I made for my little niece .. . throw over the shoulder to the floor, again. The next one, oh yes, that’s where I learned to string piece – I’ll keep that one and flipped it behind me to the floor.

Need I go any farther? I couldn’t choose even ONE block for a donation – every one of them had some really great reason NOT to give it away, and they covered 25 years of collections, brave starts, practice, less than perfect construction, and the ole familiar, "Some day, I’ll make that into a quilt."

And behind me on the floor - what did I see? You betcha (a Nebraska phrase) – those blocks had mysteriously practically arranged themselves in a setting, even though not one matched any other – except for the common theme, they were MINE! Yep, another quilt to make!


This has now become a puzzle quilt, as I think it’s called , and begs me to finish it. I’ve bordered each block, added sashing between, and created only a couple extra blocks (flowers) to make a very personal quilt that I am enormously fond of. You can date the blocks by the type fabric. Arranging the blocks is where I learned about reading left to right – it wasn’t easy to decide a balanced placement since they were all so different. See the words in the center? That’s a made-up word between me and my DH, meaning something like “A special space representing Peace and Patience” ... Note how jarringly wiggly, crooked and jumbled it’s laid out!

The flower is my favorite, with the crazy patch centers.


This queen-sized top is currently a UFO, awaiting inspiration for some type of border to calm it down. Those 2 blocks? False starts for the border – too busy, I think. However, since I last looked at it over a year ago, the problem of “What kind of border?” is less unclear.

If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. The length is almost finished, but I need the width of at least 12 inches on each side to fit on a queen bed.