Catching up

Being a bad blogger lately, I had to wade through my photos and edit down to these "few."  Ha!  Get ready.

The weather was warm just a week or so ago!  Now it's fully autumn and the heat is on.  On a recent warm day The Viking discovered slides at the park.  It was great.  He belly laughed all the way down and wanted to go over and over again.

Lilly Pilly got finished and delivered to the state fair.

Thank goodness.  I was getting stressed out enough to fall into my old M&M sorting habit.  I guess it's a control thing.  Heh.  :-)

T-shirt quilts have happened too.

As well as a Needlestars workshop with Paula Nadelstern.  Fabulous!

I had an iced tea incident in the car.  Sigh.  Wet seat, wet pants, and wet purse with all the contents.  The purse washed up fine but my old wallet was looking pretty threadbare, so I gathered up some batik scraps and made another one.  Love it!

Speaking of batiks, The Viking liked my new fat quarter so much he wouldn't let go of it even to eat lunch!  Training him right, don't you think?

The North Carolina State Fair ended yesterday after 11 days of madness fun.  We're lucky it's so close to home.  We can hear every fireworks display.  :-)  On day 5 we had our day at the fair with ED, LZF and The Viking.  He was less than impressed with the huge pumpkins.

Monday morning is not the most crowded so we were able to give him some walking time.

No rides for us but the amazing number of food vendors were enticing.  Two words......Funnel Cake!

We stopped in to see my ribbons.  Willie got a blue!  Woot!

And Lilly Pilly had a second plus a Golden Needle Award which is given by the Capital Quilters Guild.  Double Woot!  And it was so cool that it was hung next to Marilyn's stunning Alaska wall hanging.  I wish you could see it up close all sparkly with crystals.  Beautiful!  So many friends won ribbons.  :-)

Before we left The Tramp managed to talk LZF into testing out a Krispy Kreme cheeseburger (He declared the new Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe would be too messy to eat in public.  I quite agree.).   He said the only thing the "burger" was missing was bacon.  How male.

On Thursday I took Mom and Dad to the fair.  This time I was able to take the time to admire all the quilts and needlework.  Inspiring.

Thursday was much more crowded.  ED, LZF and the Viking joined us and it was hard to walk together.  All the action, color, humanity and noise can get pretty overwhelming.

At 8:00 this morning I went back to the fairgrounds to pick up my entries.   Since every inch of the huge fairgrounds are used by the vendors and rides it was strange for those of us who had to drive in, wend our way through and find a place to leave our cars so we could go inside with our claim tickets.  What a Twilight Zone experience.  The rides and games were still and silent.  A few carnies were just arriving to continue the job of packing up.  They couldn't have had much sleep!

Most of the food vendors and smaller rides were closed up.  A few were gone already.  Some of the tables still had cups and plates on them as they must have been left when the fair closed at midnight.  Like those movies where all the people suddenly disappear.  Eerie.  I could hear the Twilight Zone theme as I walked.  :-)

The myriad of trash barrels were full or overflowing.  The crowds were so thick on fair days I had never even noticed them as a hot pink feature.

Since the majority of the food is deep fried I had to be careful as I walked between builings.  After 11 days the pavement is greasy and slippery.   Ugh!  Some of the booths had full kitchens.  Look at those gas hookups.  Wow.  Some large scale frying went on here.  The pavement was filthy black in there.  I don't know how they clean it up but they do.

Friend Kathie won ribbons too!  I picked up her entries this morning as well.  She sent me this happy photo with her dyed silk scarf....which someone actually tried to buy from me today!  Kathie sells them, so she was pleased.

This is Kathie's gorgeous sunflower.  I believe she learned the technique in a Susan Brubaker Knapp class called Wholecloth Botanicals.  I think I need a lesson.  :-)

And her nuno felted scarf.  Lovely.

Mom just finished this cool beaded project.  I'm impressed.  The Tramp and I are going to make a stand for it and then it will be ready to enter into next year's state fair!

We are excited that Mama Cat and her Stardust Kitten are coming to visit us this weekend.  Can't wait!

So.  Consider us caught up.  Goodnight!  ;-)