Two whirl wind days

wow! the last two days simply FLEW by
on Monday we made our trip to the State Fair to see how the entries had done in the judging

these six items earned blue ribbons!

there were also a couple of red ribbons and 3 white ribbons

one of the special prize categories had not yet been judged, so I'll just have to wait until we pick up our stuff next week to find out how that one did

after we had looked at all of the items in the Creative Arts building, we went over to check out the Fine Arts building

this year there were a number of fiber art pieces in the Fine Arts building and I've been thinking about entering something there, but really had no idea how to do that

after we had looked at all of the items I went to talk with the lady that was acting as a combination greeter and "no food or drinks" monitor at the front door -- turns out she is the assistant curator of the fine arts exhibit for the fair, and after talking with her and letting her see the pictures I had of some of my Out of Africa series, she encouraged me to apply next year

I'm pretty excited about that possibility, so I'll be working on some ideas!

when we got home, the package from the Hoffman Challenge was in the mail box

the promised Hoffman fabric is awesome and the spool of Sulky thread matches it beautifully (I would have been really surprised if that hadn't been so!)

the cool pin (which says Hoffman Challenge 2010) is the color of the challenge fabric and has the main pattern image on it -- that will go on my quilt club badge!

oh yeah, and the book of the collection? I'm on page 17 --- whoot!!

yesterday, to celebrate the DH's birthday, we made a jaunt to Denver -- he wanted to see the exhibit about King Tut (having seen the one that came to California in the 1970s), so I got tickets specifically for his birthday

the exhibit was cool -- not as much about Tut as about the whole Egyptian culture, but we got to see pieces we had not seen before

after the exhibit we visited gift shops -- first the one for the Tut exhibit (they always end the exhibit in a gift shop!), then the general Museum shop -- where I had a conversation with the shops buyer about having some of my work there -- it would be wonderful if that could really happen
meantime, in the evenings I have been working on some new stuff

these two pieces are intended for the Lambspun show in November

so far I have rubber stamped over the background print and appliqued the big oak leaves over that

I plan to embroider around the rubber stamping next, but first I have to get some rayon thread that is the right color -- think I'll be experimenting with some of the cool colors that Sulky has out now

I have more oak leaf cut out, but I didn't like the way it looked against this background, so I'll be cutting a new square for it

the hippo and the chicken pieces did not co-mingle! (imagine a hippo with a beak and chicken feet)

I did finish up the hippo with his bunch of flowers -- very cute

and here he is on the fantasy quilt layout

I have only 5 more blocks to do on this piece, so it is really rolling right along

so today I need to mow the front lawn and do some grocery shopping -- my daughter and her husband (and their 2 dogs) will be here over the weekend to help us with some projects we can't handle on our own, so I need to have groceries in hand and there are a few housekeeping items that must be handled before they arrive

but I'll be thinking about lots of art possibilities while I'm working on the mundane