Prairie Fest and a Finish!

Happy Father's Day!  We tend to spend our Father's day at Prairie Fest, in Oswego, IL.  Hubby sings in the local barbershop chorus, and they always have a float in the parade.  Guess who gets to drive the float?  Yes, me.  Before the parade, I always stop off at the 'Little White Schoolhouse' to see the quilt show.  The show is small, since they only have one room to put up all the quilts.  They show off antique (and some new) quilts on chairs, when they run out of room to hang quilts.  The show is put on by the 'Quilter's Dozen', a hand quilting group that meets at the Little White Schoolhouse each week.  Here are some of the quilts.

For all of those that are doing the 'house' quilts, here is one for you to see.

my friend, Donna, made this one

antique quilts on chairs

I loved the colors of this scrappy, antique quilt.

This next quilt was tied.

This lady used a picture of her home to make this quilt.  Lots of 3D in the quilt.

A different take on Sunbonnet Sue.

The next quilt was from a Woolworths kit, years ago.  She cross stitched the blocks, then added borders.  It's hard to see (couldn't get far enough back for the picture) but, she added long white, scalloped edges on 3 sides. 

see how tiny those pieces are

lovely hand stitching on this one

modern quilts on chairs

my friend, Karen, made this quilt

Here are two of the ladies, stitching on the groups current project.  They take turns quilting each other's quilts.

hand quilting during the quilt show

The ladies in this group made this quilt as a 'thank you' to the Little White Schoolhouse, a few years ago. 

Little White Schoolhouse quilt

Here is the float I pulled in the parade.  Sorry the picture is blurry.  The guys sang great!

Lamplighter's barbershop chorus

We always head to Red Robin for a late lunch after the parade.  YUM!  I love those freckled lemonades!

Now for the finish.  I used the double 4 patch block to teach my ladies in the beginning quilting class.  I used the same block to make a wedding quilt for my son's best friend.  Since I've been so busy lately, and really needed to get some projects finished quickly, I decided to put the motor back on my Spartan, instead of using the hand crank on it.

my Spartan with a motor, not a hand crank

This is the first time I've used the motor that came with my Spartan.  I took the motor off as soon as I got home with the machine.  Sometimes a girl just needs some extra 'speed' to finish a project.  This wedding quilt is due July 14th.  The top is now done! (the colors don't show up very well in the picture).

Oliver's wedding quilt top

up close of corner of quilt top

I'm going to machine quilt this, using straight stitch only.  Straight stitch, I can manage.  Now, to figure out what machine to quilt it on (electric or treadle).  Maybe a bit of both, we'll see.  I have time to decide, since I still need to get a backing for this quilt. 

Another busy week here.  So busy, I'm not even going to attend the International Quilt festival in Rosemont next weekend.  I just don't have the time (and it's only an hour away).  "Too much time, not enough to do. Stop, reverse that...."