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happy, happy, happy!

I told Bobby I felt like the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and it was time to start dancing.
He reminded me that it was overcast, the only birds we'd seen were crows in the pecan trees, and he'd never felt like breaking out dancing, even before his wheelchair days.
But that's okay, honey. I've got enough excitement for the two of us. :)

This afternoon, I made a delivery to the Education Building at the NC State Fair.


The idea started three years ago when I saw this newly released fabric and made fun of it on Facebook.


A friend (Carroll Burt) dared me to buy some and make a quilt with it. She said I could display it at the fair. I laughingly declined. But then Bernina World of Sewing sponsored a bus trip to a huge quilt fair in Virginia, and I went. THREE different vendors had almost all of the animals in the Backyard Bandits series. Did I mention we rode a bus there, and had at least five hours to browse/shop?

And I started this quilt, and gave up. Too many mistakes, too many quilting things I simply didn't know. It sat halfway finished in a rocking chair.


And then in January, my sewing machine died (during a quilting class of all things). And thanks to Wish Upon A Quilt loaning me a machine to finish the class, I was hooked. Imagine my surprise when a month later they had a sale and my dearest husband said YES!  I finished the above quilt on my Janome machine, and seeing all the crazy animals and thinking about Carol's dare got my creative juices flowing again. After I finished the senior quilts in May, I scheemed and thought and planned, and had my husband help me with my math and double check everything, and we created our own pattern. :) (As opposed to "Seiko's Garden", the pattern above, which I still love.)

So in June of this year, I started "Front Porch View".  It's actually the animals I see out our BACK porch windows, but Front Porch just sounded better.


 
When I dropped off the quilt to be tagged this morning, the women were more excited about the back than they were the front. I think they were having the same reaction to the front fabric as I did the first time I saw it.

But I'm not going to post the front of the quilt until the fair actually starts on the 17th. But I will post it then, just so you'll know what to look for when you go. :)  It's not fancy. It's not the prettiest quilting in the world (it's wild animal tracks!). But it's mine and I've been working on it for four and a half months now and it's FINISHED!

And to think it all started because of an advertisement for 'possum fabric.

 
 


Comments

Bonnie said…
Congrats!! So happy you did it. I can't wait to go see it and tell Ricky, My friend did that one!! Maybe I will venture out next year and actually put one in too.
GOOD FOR YOU!!
Lydia said…
Whoohoo!!!!! Yay you!!! And I'm up for the fair this year! I owe Kimberly a trip since we missed last year, the year she turned 10. Wanna go?
Jackie said…
Beautiful! Great job!

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