And the winner is....

First, thanks to all who entered and shared with me their favorite colors--or inability to choose a current favorite, LOL! 

The breakdown was :

RED --7 votes

GREEN--4 votes

MANY or CAN'T CHOOSE--4 votes

BLUE--3 votes

PINK--3 votes

PURPLE--1 vote

Red is my second favoite color, and red and green my favorite color combination, especially in the antique quilts. 

Given the odds, I would have thought Grant pulled out one with RED on it.

But Marj was the winner! (my poor cutting skills lopped off the J) 

Marj said:  My favorite color is blue. I find it to be very calming and close to nature. Thanks for having such a great giveaway.

Congratulations, Marj!  I will send you an email and will need your snail-mail address to send you the goodies. 

A stack!

O, happy day when the mailhuman brings fabric goodness to your doorstep!  This arrived:

A beauteous grouping of fat quarters of Sanibel, my winnings as the lucky pick of Mr. RNG himself on Heather's giveaway on her blog, Trends and Traditions.  I have been looking at Heather's patterns but decided to wait until I could personally view and pet the fabrics before picking the book or pattern I liked best for this collection.  I am thinking of this one making the "Chain Reaction" quilt, or this book, making the "Scrappy Sixties" quilt.  So hard to choose, Heather!  Speaking of giveaways, only one more day to win my little giveaway.  See the bottom of this post to enter!  Drawing tomorrow evening when I get home from work.

Tuesday's Orts

I'm thinking this may be a new feature, a place to round up all those scraps of thoughts or funny or annoying things that happen and float around in my head trying to get a spot in a post.  So, tonight's orts are:

• Note to self: 45 seconds on high is really too long for two pieces of Canadian Bacon to be heated.  As in they exploded and it took 5 minutes to wipe all the bacon shards off the inside of the microwave. Next time, 12 seconds.
• Never underestimate the power of sibling's idea of "fairness".  Case in point, 20 year old daughter Erica's instantaneous response to her father's notation that I am trying to get him to stop doing her laundry:  Her retort: "I think I should get as many years of my laundry being done as Elaine did".  Too funny, I had to laugh. But that means only six months left, ha ha.
• Mall shopping on weekends should be avoided, especially if you turn into a C.O.W. (Crabby Old Woman) like I seem to.  Example: A baby is crying.  Crying, crying for 15 minutes in the stroller/cart.  Here's a solution: Pick The Baby Up! or better yet, Take The Baby Home! No one is enjoying this, least of all the infant/toddler who is hungry, tired, bored, uncomfortable or sick.  Also, please inform your rambunctious children that this is not a playground and running, chasing, and shouting is really not meant for retail establishments full of non-school aged people.  Thank you. 
• Gratitude for good health: My 27 year old cousin collapsed a couple of days ago at a summer camp where he was a counselor and ended up in cardiac arrest!!  He was found to have pneumonia and both his lungs were filled with fluid.  He was revived after the Code Blue but today had to undergo surgery to remove all the fluid.  You might be surprised at how many people die from pneumonia.  So take care of yourselves people!  
• Stuff expands:  But what is most curious is how it also migrates!  Every corner of my sewing room is now filled, as is the closet.  Which is unfortunate because in another 10 days I will be packing it all out.  Our son is moving back in with us for financial reasons.  I am sad to have to give up my sewing room (sob!) but it will be temporary and Grant and I will go back to sharing our former family room downstairs, so I will still be quilting, just not ensconced in a lovely separate room (boo hoo!).
• Finally, another note to self:  Just because you wrote it down on a list does not mean you have done it.  It's not crossed off yet, see?  It's still there, waiting to be finished.  So get to it, self, sheesh!  

Design Wall Monday

On my Design Wall are more bowtie blocks.  I need to cut a lot more background squares in order to put together a bunch more already cut out, but I'm up to more than 3/4 of the 50 blocks I need. 

Also a lot of cutting got done for piecing the backing of Erica's quilt.  She is begging for it to be done! I still have not figured out how I am going to put it all together but bought more of the cream background, all my LQS had.  I may end up buying yet more yardage to fill out for the 93" square backing needed for this queen sized quilt! 

The backing so far is just her initials, E O.

I considered using some of the purple suede to frame the initials but decided it is too soft and drapey to be a good frame.  On to the next idea!  Go here to view all the other Design Wall Mondays on Judy's blog.  See this to participate in my little giveaway for my 200th post.

Still more Long Beach IQF; 200th post giveaway

**It is 3 PM Pacific time and Comments are now closed for the giveaway.  Thanks for entering and check back for the winner!.

Last of the astounding quilts I got pics of at the 2010 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.  Many, many more I simply admired and adored, especially the antiques!  All quilt photos that follow were taken at the Festival.

This approximately twin sized quilt was amazing in its Celtic applique.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of star quilts!  The red and green caught my eye of course.

Another red and green antique was charming in its slightly off balance arrangement.

Funny birds and decidedly not perfect berries--so quirky!

This cheddar quilt was all perfection and symmetry, in contrast!

Stunning applique and quilting everywhere.

This iris was done by the same quilter as the Dahlia in my previous post.  It was a huge flower and startling in its accuracy.  I do not know how the shading was done so magnificently!

Closeup of the quilting that followed the probably hand-painted background fabric.  Loved it!

Finally, this large quilt was made of African fabric, I believe only two different prints.  Look how skillfully the quilter manipulated the motifs and made amazing use of the colors.

I did not realize this was a bird until I zoomed in for a closeup! 

And now for my little giveaway.  There is something wrought, something bought, something to make and a mystery item or two that I won't reveal here.   

I was happy to use the Moda Boutique charm pack given by Kim to make this pinwheel quiltlet with yo-yo center.  The dot is Love U by Deb Strain for Moda.  The pineapples pattern is a symbol of welcome and the yo-yo maker a fun tool for embellishment.

I had a lot of fun making this!  It is quilted with rayon thread for a bit of shine.  To enter my giveaway, leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite color is and why.  My favorite color is green and I love it because it is at once lively and soothing because of its connection to nature.  There is only one shade of green I dislike--pastel mint! 

The giveaway is open until Friday, August 6th.  I will select a winner at approximately 6 pm Pacific time.  Please make sure there is a way for me to get in touch with you either by your profile or leaving your email in the comment.  Anonymous comments are unfortunately disabled on my blog for various reasons.  You can email me privately at vtaannieo(at) gmail (dot) com if you do not have a blog or do not wish to leave a public comment (I understand spelling out the email address discourages spammers).  Thanks for spending time here with me in blogland!

More Long Beach International Quilt Festival; No Reply

I've gotten a little traffic from the giveaway from Trends and Traditions.  I reply to all comments but there have been a bunch that have come up as "no reply" bloggers.  Acknowledging comments is something that means a lot to me so I'm sad when I can't, especially to first time visitors.  So, readers, please double check that your profile says "show email"--otherwise I can't say "Hey" back!

Here's some more eye candy from our fantastic Saturday.  All photos were taken at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival:

Fabulous piecing on this star.

Another wonderful antique.

It is hard to see, maybe impossible, but the quilter repeated the applique leaf's shape in the quilting.  This was hand quilted. 

Amazing realistic wallhanging of fairly large size.  Love the kitty!

This was one of the quilts in the Hoffman Challenge fabric exhibit.  The fabric was paisley.  I loved the 1920's glam and styling in this portrait of "Margaret".

Large size quilt with astounding piecing and proportions.  I loved the red piping emphasizing the scallop around the rays.

A closeup of the center medallion.  Fun fabrics!

One day I will make a Lone Star.  This was very vibrant and happy.  There are a few photos left to share, plus news about my giveaway for my 200th post.  Stay tuned!

Long Beach International Quilt Show

Our party at the Long Beach International Quilt Show was fun and oh so enjoyable!  The car ride down was smooth--we arrived nearly 45 minutes before the opening!  Parking was smooth, and entry to the show was smooth.  Immediately upon entering we headed to the extensive exhibits area.  Our first stop was the antique quilts show and there were some spectacular examples--the sad thing was that so many of them were "Unknown Maker".  Ladies, labels are a good thing!   All photos that follow were taken at the Long Beach International Quilt Show.

This was all silks with strips finished at about 1/2" for the logs.  It was exquisite!

A Nearly Insane quilt.  This feathered star finished at 6 inches.  Definitely insane!

This realistic looking Dahlia was about 4-5 feet wide and nearly as tall.  Stunning!

Closeup of the satin stitch outlining. 

Tanya, a blogfriend from Japan!  When we were coming back to the show from lunch, I recognized her son Takumi and his girlfriend from her blog and knew she was there and was so happy to get her phone call.  It was great to get the chance to meet this lovely lady. She graciously met my mom and our friend Dawn and gave us handkerchiefs as souvenirs.  My mom gave her a used tube of L'Occitane hand cream.  Oh, Mom!  We chatted and shared show loot.  I did not realize I was towering next to her until she posted a photo on her blog!  Later my sister Kathy joined us about 2:45 after arriving by plane and getting a ride to the show from our very agreeable dad.  Thanks Daddy!

These hexies were about 1" in size.

That's a kersquillion of those suckers!

So, so pretty wall hanging that had a woodblock effect.

Closeup of the unusual colors the quilter used.

It was hard to choose, but this was one of my very favorites.  It was about 4 feet by 5 feet and absolutely beautiful.  All pieces were appliqued on and it was photographic in quality.  Amazing work!  I took lots and lots of photos so will share more later.

We definitely shopped until the others dropped!  My friend Tanya and I were ready to stay and close the show but finally dragged ourselves away at about 5:30 from the vendor mall.  Going on Saturday was definitely better than rushing through the shorter hours of the show on Sunday.  We had plenty of time to meet in a group several times as well as have a relaxed lunch at a restaurant across the street, and see all the quilts and vendors we wanted. 

My loot consisted of some shot cottons, some one yard cuts that were $5 apiece on sale, a bunch of fat quarters that were $1 each, a redwork pattern, some Texture Magic that I wanted, pincushion filler, and the big item, the stack of Bonnie Blue Cotton Basics.  I looked for but did not find any Frolic yardage, or Monica's Santa Gnomes.  I'm sure they were there, but with over 300 vendors it was impossible to see it all in one day!  But what a day we had, just terrific!