An August Finish, I'm a Winner, and Fair Entries

Well!  One can tell we started working full time again, as I only have one finish this month.  Turns out I'm not so great at organizing my free time, weird.  (That's completely sarcastic, in case you couldn't tell lol).  However, I do have a finish, and I am so happy with it!

 

Using the Clover Clips for the first time.  And as everyone else says, they are awesome.

 

Showing off the backing and length of the table runner, it's 56 inches long, 18 inches wide.

 

 

And complete!  It maybe took me 2 hours to sew down the binding, and mostly it took that long because we were watching the Seahawks play the Raiders last Thursday.

 

I'm making this one extra big so you can see my quilting!  It turned out good enough, I have to keep telling myself I'm still learning, but I will say, my dad could tell it was footballs, and that is what matters.

 

 And the table runner is staying at our house, to complement our banner:

 

 

 

 

 So then, this has been a really "winning" month for me, and I fell so blessed.  It happens when it needs to most, the last few months have been a little tight.  The first item I won (and of course don't have a picture of) was the door prize at Guild!  I received six fat 1/8ths of baby-themed flannel and a package of crib-sized batting.  The second item was from Carol at Just Let Me Quilt who had participated in the Pets on Quilts Show at LilyPad Quilting and had a giveaway which I won :)

I was not expecting the amount of fabric she sent me, what a pleasant surprise!

And the third blessing was from my entry in the Sew Lux Christmas in July sew along.  I won a $50 gift card to their shop!  I placed my order and it will be showing up this week, and I'm very excited.  I was able to order items I normally wouldn't get for myself (a pattern and a layer cake), and some Aurifil thread which is always useful.  So a big thank you to the ladies who had these giveaways, and thank you to the fabric gods for my good fortune!

 

And last, but not least, we had the Walla Walla County Fair and Rodeo this weekend.  All three of the quilts I entered won blue ribbons, which surprised me.  John says it's because I know all my little errors in my pieces so I expect others to see them as well.

There's my BOO quilt to greet everyone as they come up the stairs in the Pavilion.

My star quilt is in the center on the bottom, and the blue hearts are on the right.  The judge left me love notes on the labels of my quilts, which I appreciate.

We received tickets to the rodeo via my dad (Thanks dad!) on Friday night, which was super fun to attend, especially since I work for the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association or NIRA, which in laymen's terms means college rodeo, and there were kids who's names I recognized!  And the fact that it is a PRCA event (aka professional rodeo...) makes it even more impressive that college level students participate and win.  Sweet.  Here are a couple of the more clear photos I got that night.  The lighting is hard to work with unless you have a REALLY nice camera.  But I got some fun pictures!

 

 

 

Now I have to finish up the block I'm entering in the Block Challenge for the Walla Walla Quilt Festival that is coming up in a couple weeks, I have most of it done but here's a sneak peak:

The colorful one is the challenge fabric.  I chose to make it a two color block because I felt it shows off the challenge fabric the best.

And here it is in process, the blanks are filled with quarter-square triangle blocks, it is very good looking I think.  I'm excited to see what everyone else's interpretations are of this challenge fabric.

Thanks for visiting, I'll be sure to share the photos from John and me visiting Kalispell, MT a couple weeks ago, it was fabulous!  See you soon!

~Brandy

 

Cowboy boot

I was so inspired by Carla's cowboy boot doorstop from the Don't let the Door Stop You blog hop that I had to make one myself!  Plus, I work for the national office for college rodeo, so I'm suddenly inspired by a lot of cowboy themed items.  One of the ladies I work with had her birthday last week, and I thought she could use a little something pretty in her office.  I used the pattern/tutorial from Riley Blake's site and it was quite a bit larger than I was expecting!  My boot ended up almost a foot tall!  Learning experience: there's a reason copy machines give you the option to reduce/enlarge.

Here's my boot next to the cheese doorstop I made.

 

The lady I made the boot for gave me this shirt (her husband tore a 4 inch rip right in the belly of it) and I thought it fitting to use in the boot-making.


Here's something great I learned: when you're turning corners inside out, use pinking shears to help ease the fabric into the correct shape.  Here's what it looks like when you don't:

 

And here's what happens when you pink the fabric:



 

Isn't that amazing?  By the way, this is one of those parts I altered for my personal taste, this book has a 4 inch space down from the top to hold pens, so I stiffened up the fabric and gave it a lining.

 

I am proud of how the trimming turned out, I just zig zag stitched over the top of it with Aurifil #2021 (white) and it blended nicely and held the trim in place well, especially considering the abuse I put that piece thru turning in inside out and such.

 

This was before I filled the boot with the crushed walnut shells, and hand stitched the "base" of the pen holder, which was a piece of the black fabric cut a little larger than the opening.

 

 

And this is it!  Sitting outside in the freezing rain, woohoo!

 

My co-worker thought it was a kick in the pants, especially when she realized I'd used her husbands shirt, and immediately loaded highlighters and pens into it.  I suggested we look for a plastic container we could cut down and set inside to provide a bit more support, if I make it again I will put my "base" another inch lower so the sides of the boot will hold the pens up.

 

Thank you for visiting!  I need to have a food post here soon, Pampered Chef just started their new catalog which means new recipes, yay!  Oh, better get some dishes washed then, :)

 

~Brandy