About to begin anew!

Here it is almost September, and it's not only nearly time to start school again, but to begin our new Bead Journal Project for 2008/2009.  I have been toying with several ideas but haven't decided on one.  Last year's theme for me was flowers that were my own photos.  This year I'd like to do something that is more extemporaneous and less planned.  I think I will try to work a little smaller so I can be sure to finish within a month, so I will not be in a panic all year worrying that I won't finish in time.  I did finish in time last year, but much of the year, I was behind and it gnawed on my conscience.  I hate that panic feeling of being behind.   

Since I last wrote, we've found out that we're going to be first-time grandparents in January 2009.  Since our daughter, Sarahjoy, lives in Costa Rica, it will involve a trip to the tropics in the middle of the winter.... pretty hard to take!  LOL!  Unfortunately, their house is small, their business is growing (www.boyerotours.com) and they have a baby coming, which means they no longer have a guest room for us to use.  So, we are busy looking for something nearby that is more of an apartment than a hotel.  I have been looking on line for some places, and found a few... need to get our daughter's input.  

I have spent most of the last month working toward our county fair.

 I am the co-superintendent of the Textile Department at the San Juan County Fair in Friday Harbor, WA. That's me on the left in white and Christy H, also a BJP-er on the right in rose.   This year, the state judge awarded our department with the black and white ribbon for our fair.  Every year he/she gives this award to one department..... and I am proud to say that our department won it this year!  You can see how proud we are of this award-- two cheshire cats there!!  

Here is a photo of the whole barn from the end, so you can get the "flavor" of our little fair.  We are truly a small town fair!                            

Every year I look forward to the fair, and spend a lot of time there in that building.   Actually, except for bathroom  and lunch & dinner breaks, I spend most of five days sitting among the most beautiful creations made by our local artists. This year, I also demonstrated hand quilting on a beautiful antique Dresden Plate quilt top.  You can see the quilt frame there set up on the left.  

  Of course, just before the fair, I realized that the baby quilt that I was working on for our new grandchild would not see the fair if I didn't finish and enter it in this year's fair.  So, I pulled a couple of late night sewing and quilting sessions and finished it in time to enter it!  I named it "Star Baby".    It was all paper foundation pieced to get those peaky points.  Sarahjoy chose the fabrics and the block patterns, but she had no idea how I would place the fabrics.  I am pleased with the way it looks!  We will deliver it to her in January when we go down to Costa Rica to wait for/greet the baby.

I spent the week prior to the fair, sewing with my favorite 6-1/2 year old twin boys! They are infatuated with birds, and know names and habitats of all the different types of birds, so we sewed our own little birds. We stuffed them really hard, sewed on beads for eyes and added florists' wire for legs. They were so on task and devoted to the project! I was really surprised that they could concentrate for three hours a day to sew! We used my sewing machine, and they got to take out the pins! It's different to sew with young kids! They don't have the coordination to push the pedal, guide the fabric AND take out the pins all at once, so as long as they were focused on the fabric, helped guide it under the needle, and took out the pins, they got credit! It's amazing how much attention the pins need when you are 6-1/2! Getting the pins into the pin cushion is really important. Since the fair we have been working on quilt blocks. They are each making four 12"x12" blocks, and will be latticing them together and adding borders, then quilting them before Wednesday afternoon! We are ready to add the strips between rows, so I'm sure we will make it! We have three 3-hour work times left together. At the end of our last session, we laid out all the parts on the bed to see how they will look when we finish them. It has been fun to work with them!