Other Winners

I've been watching some of the Olympics and cheering on our local County players--Troy Dumais of Ventura and his 19 year old diving partner Kristian Ipsen won bronze in springboard synchronized diving; it was Troy's fourth Olympics and first medal.  All the Dumais siblings were divers and the two youngest were in school/graduated with our kids. 

Our other proud Venturan is Phil Dalhausser, beach volleyball player, who unfortunately got knocked out of the games. 

The Bryan brothers Mike and Bob play tennis and are twins from Camarillo.  They are extremely high level players and also funny guys.  Hoping to see them get a medal--they have reached the finals!  We also have an equestrian competitor who is riding a horse partly owned by Ann Romney, the presidential candidate's wife.  He's at 13th place, the last time I looked. 

The Paralympics will see a competitor who was a former CHP officer struck by a truck veering off the road into him as he stood by a car he had pulled over.  The truck driver was DUI and lived, the driver of the pulled over vehicle was killed, and the officer was knocked over the embankment and paralyzed with no use of his legs.  He was a triathlete before the accident and found a way to return to his love of the competition. 

At the County Fair, I took a few shots of some other crafters' works:

Simple snowballs and 16 patches--love the scrappy look.  Each snowball has a different quilting motif in the center. 

Pretty colors and very effective use of stripes for the sashing. 

Embroidered Irish blessing and flowers in the center and wonderful creative machine quilting of a Celtic bent.  The lighting is making this brighter green than it was in person.

Representation of my hometown with the beach, hills, mission, Two Trees, planted fields/orchards, mountains, palm trees and poppies.  Yep, that's what it is like here!

I have to believe these cats are all original designs--each one was so different and creative.  Look at the one with the eye patch at the top!  I liked the blue pieced border as well.

I loved this orange kitty with a fun checkerboard in 1" or smaller squares, and look at the colorful narrow framing.  The little pieced cornerstone blocks are no more than 3" square.   Tons of work in this piece and it won a special recognition award. 

This throw sized quilt was really sweet too, with the little Japanese dolls.

Nine patches, four patches, and flying geese all in flannels combine to make a warm and cozy quilt.

This wall hanging was probably about three feet square.  The lighting is making the colors much brighter than they were in person. 

Just look at that miniature smocking, embroidery, and orange peel quilting in the background.  Exquisite!