American Quilters Society Quilt Show

 The AQS quilt show came to Grand Rapids last week, 900 quilts on display from all over the world, lots of classes and lectures, wonderful. There was so much to do my girlfriends and I started out of course at the merchants mall. I bought a lot of white plaid and striped wool fabrics that I will over dye with natural dyes.
I especially enjoy the quilts from around the world. This piece won second place in the machine quilting category. I didn't get the makers name but she was from America. The details are unbelievable, it looked like a painting.

 The "tent makers" came from Egypt with a large display of hand-appliqued quilts, all for sale. This man was demonstrating, his applique needle was huge and he really tugged it along. Between the front layer and back they have a canvas like fabric instead of batting. They said the makers get no "credit" only the designers. But things are changing now as they had the appliquers names also listed on the description cards.

There were about 30 or more there and they were all for sale, and selling very quickly.  The designs and workmanship were beautiful.

Most had flowers and vines on them, also a lot had birds.

I love loved the exhibit from Japan. The card gives above gives the description of the quilt below.

The workmanship was beautiful on this quilt, I love the dragon with the tail wrapping around the quilt on the boarders of an old obi.

This was one of my favorites, Please read this description card.

As I was enjoying this quilt I could hear comments on how this shouldn't be in the quilt show, etc. etc. but to me this quilt had so much soul.

Close up

I love the use of the old kimono linings in this quilt.

And speaking of the moon, remember this Friday is the second full moon of a month, when that occurs they call it a "Blue Moon". This months moon is also known as the "Harvest Moon". I'm working on my moon block and will share it with you and my "Blue Moon party", and blocks next week. If it's clear out Friday go out at sunset and see the full moon rising, when it's near the earth it appears much larger and oranger.

Speaking of orange my cosmos are so cute and perky and waiting to be picked. I've dried most of them but had to use a little.

 I like to put my fabric in the dye pot dry that way you end up with mottled colored fabric. The fabric on the right was the first one in the dye as I took one out I put another one in ending up with lighter and lighter shades. The end fabric is a silk scarf I dye printed with leaves last fall, it needed a little more color so I put that in the dye pot also.

It turned a peachy fawn color and the leave prints show up more clearly.

The Polk berries are ripening and begging to be used. They say that the fabric fades right away with this dye so I never really use it. In this new book I have it said if  you use white vinegar as the mordant and in the dye water the color will stay. I'm giving it a try.

I crushed up the berries and put them in the dye pot with water and some vinegar. Simmered the fabric in the pot on low a couple of hours, no high heat with berries. Left it over night, then hung the fabric out in the shade a day. The next day I rinsed it with clear water.

This is how the wool looks now, (actually it's not this pretty in real life, a little duller). I'm going to leave it out and see if it fades.

I also threw this piece of alum mordant wool in the pot, this piece is real dull and not a pretty color. (The picture looks better than it is)

This is the book the recipe came from.

I don't know how this picture came up at the end of this post, of well, this is how the berries looked before I pulled them off their stems and mashed them up in the dye pot.

I hope you can get out and do some moon watching, I'll see you next week!

Camping & Hiking

Last week we went camping in northern Michigan. The weather was wonderful not too hot in the day and cool in the evenings. There are no cabins on this lake, no large noisy boats, no jet skis, just little fishing boats and a few campsites. Ours had it's own dock! I sat there every evening quilting while watching the sunset. Thought I died and went to heaven.

 Grandpa and the boys fished during the day and into the night. The twins especially love to fish.

 The lake had beautiful water lilies, fragrant white ones,

 and bright yellow ones.

 Fall is in the air,

the leaves are just beginning to change.

 We went on long hikes, the woods were full of mushrooms, I never saw so many brightly colored ones with so many different shapes, I thought I fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. The following pictures are a FEW of variety of mushrooms we saw. Large puffy red ones,

 Teeny tiny red ones,

 Rusty peach ones,

 And this bright orange and yellow one that looks like it's plastic! This one should be in a fairy movie.

 Light powdery brown ones.

 Traditional white ones.

 Big fat red ones with red stems,

 And pinky, peach ones.

 Pure white ones,

  tiny bright yellow ones,

 Brown, wet, slimy looking ones,

  puff balls waiting to explode.

 Pale yellow umbrella shaped ones,

 Creamy ones with tops that looked like cocoa powder was sprinkled on,

  large curly ones,

 and large flower shaped ones.
OK, hang on were getting near the end....

 You wouldn't want to miss this bright yellow one,

 or this group of Indian Pipe flowers. They have no color.

 

 This brownish red one had brown gills underneath. Most have white.

 These light brown mushrooms had creases all over the top.

Goats whiskers?

 And you wouldn't want to miss these tiny red ones growing in the moss.

 Our boys loving the hike.

 And one more pale yellow mushroom with dots on top.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my mushroom pictures, (I know your thankful I didn't post all of them)! See you next week.