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Craftster Lap Quilt Swap: 2 New blocks!

I finished these two blocks for the lap quilt swap I am involved with over at craftster. These are both for Klum78. One is for a baby quilt and the other for winter holidays/Christmas. I now have 15 of my 24 blocks finished!

Can you guess the state?

I knew the fight song when I was six. I attended all most all of the home football games there from the time I was 6-7 until I was 23. That is a lot of football games! My dad "threatened" to disown me if I attended the rival school-although that was never an option to me. It is where I met my husband. When I was at school here, I had at least 6 first cousins~second cousins attending with me at the same time-maybe more?. Football games were mini-family reunions. My father, my brother, and all of my aunts and uncles also went here-6 of them! The majority of their children attended Auburn as well. War Eagle!

"One little thing can revive a guy, and that is a piece of rhubarb pie..."

"One little thing can revive a guy, and that is a piece of rhubarb pie/ Serve it up, nice and hot/ Maybe things aren't as bad as you thought. Momma's little baby loves rhubarb rhubarb, Be-Bop-A Re-Bop Rhubarb Pie..."

We went to Red Rocks last night to see Garrison Keillor with The Prairie Home Companion on their Rhubarb tour. The show was scheduled to begin at 7:30. We arrived in the parking lot around 6:30 to have our picnic dinner and proceed to hike up to the amphitheater around 7:10. I say hike, because it is seriously a hike up the mountain and then up many, many stairs. Red Rocks is almost an 1,000 feet gain in elevation from Denver so you can feel it-at least I can! We arrive in our seats around 7:30 and the show started at 7:35. We had 4th row seats. Isn't that awesome! It turned out to be a beautiful night and you could see the stars up above.


Although, the amphitheater was not completely full there were tons of people there.

Garrison Keillor came out and performed an opening song and a song about Colorado.

He was shortly joined by the very talented Pat Donahue.

They were shortly joined by Suzy Boggess who later sang three solo's which were impressive. She is truly an impressive singer. Her songs were beautiful.

Garrison and Suzy sang several duets throughout the night. They were all so pretty with their harmony .
Garrison definitely joked around with her and was very improvisational with their act. He would state something to her as a compliment with high-falutin' literary jargon and catch her by surprise. It really was quite funny. I wish I had been able to get better up-close photos of their facial expressions because they were so great. The show is much more spontaneous than I ever knew from listening to them on the radio.

Fred Newman came out several times throughout the night to perform sound effects for the show. He is so funny-I thought I might wet myself. He doesn't just add the sound effects improvisationally based on where Garrison is leading the story, he adds gestures and acts out the effects.

I can not even remember all the different sound effects he performed-a sperm whale (which came after a joke and song about sperm), dolphins, a boy from Georgia, a boy from Harvard, coon dogs, wind, water, the ocean, a missile, cats, and the list really goes on and on. He is awesome and my new hero. In fact, after his first appearance with Garrison the crowd gave him such an applause that Garrison's next monologue was an allusion to Greek? Mythology with poor Fred chained to a rock, with ravens pecking out his eyes to "show the crowd to be careful who they were applauding for.." It was hilarious.

Of course, we got to here about Lake Woebegon "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." It was very funny in the beginning, but lasted for more than 15 minutes it seemed. It became really dark and was told from the viewpoint of a guy as he is being buried by people who don't really know him and the gravediggers who are just there to do their job. It was the least impressive portion of the show. The rest was fabulous. He does not use a script-which I found impressive- throughout the entire show.


During "intermission", Garrison led the audience singing "America the Beautiful", "Home on the Range", and "Can't help falling in love with you". At the end of the show, the crowd started pouring out and I think they were planning on an encore-but everyone left so quickly that it didn't happen. He did not perform Guy Noir-which I love....

The show ended at 10:30-which is impressive- and we arrived back at our house around 11:15. I am really tired now because I have to wake up at 5 to be at work at 6:50-which is ridiculously way too early. It was completely worth it. If you have a chance to go see the show, you need to go. It was beautiful, funny, dark, and overall a great experience.

Craftster Lap Quilt Swap Blocks Received

I love seeing how my lap quilt swap is coming together! Eleven out of 24 blocks are received and ready.

Be prepared to be jealous-we are going to Red Rocks tonight to see Garrison Keillor's A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION “Home of the Heart” Rhubarb Tour. Woohoot! We have to pack raincoats because it might rain-which is good as long as it can wait until after show.

Can you guess the state?

I love this state. It is where my husband and I would go on impromptu vacations. I went with theatre buddies in college to Boone when they were working in summer stock theatre for Horn in the West. I spent my honeymoon here and got engaged here. I live near huge mountains now, but miss these tremendously. Can you guess the state? (without clicking the links, of course because, really, that is cheating!)

Thank you so much for sending me the focus fabric Stephanie! I love it! It completely reminds me of this state and what I love about it.

On another note, I bought and read Breaking Dawn yesterday. Many people seem to be unhappy with it, but I really liked it. I also see many weaknesses in this novel that I did not see in the other three. It is a little too "everything workes out for everyone" in the end. I do believe I am Switzerland when it comes to Edward Cullen and Jacob Black; how could you choose? I am also very sad that the series is over. I hate it when you find a series you like, read all of the books, and then there are no more. If you haven't read the series, I would recommend these. They are considered young adult, but I think they appeal to a pretty vast audience. If you have girls in high school or junior high, this is definitely a book that will hook them.

On another note, it has felt like late fall here in Denver lately. The high on Friday was 57 degrees and Saturday it was 59! It poured all morning Saturday, and I was wearing sweatpants and a sweater Saturday-in August! It snowed in the mountains above 11,000 feet. Very strange for August to me, of course I am from the South, so a day in the 50's doesn't really happen until late November-not August. I will say that it made for awesome sleeping weather with the low in the upper 40's and the windows open in the house. We don't have air conditioning so it was nice to have cool nights again. It is going to back in the 80's this week which I am very happy about. I am not ready for Winter yet.

Star Quilt Along Top Finished

I finally finished piecing together the top of my star quilt today. I wanted to hang it up outside to get a picture, but it was raining! It does not rain here very often, but it was today. Thank you athenamat for sending me some more of the dark brown squares for my setting blocks. I needed 7(?) 2.5 inch blocks of the dark brown and really did not want to go to Joanne's and spend 30$ on a new fat quarter set, but I didn't have to because she sent me some! Woohoot! Thanks athenamat!

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's post, too! I had fun with that and it reassured me that the block does represent the state so I will probably continue with that. Yes, it was Washington! Home to apples and coffee/starbucks. I have fabric coming from North Carolina for my next set of blocks, which I am really excited about. Thanks to Stephanie over at Scraps for sending it to me!

50 States Quilt Block Swap- Can you guess the state?

Can you guess what state this is? I chose apples as the focus fabric because it is this states official fruit. In fact, this state produces more apples than any other state in the union. The background fabric is coffee beans on black. This state produced a certain coffee company that is now found on almost every corner throughout America and is the biggest coffee chain in the world. So what do you think?

Craftster Lap Quilt Swap Fall: Progress August 6th

I have good mail lately! I love getting fabric surprises. These are the blocks that have been made for me so far in the newest round of the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap Fall Edition. These blocks are from -top row from left to right: ritapizza, whoopdedoo_5, and sewhelpme -bottom row from left to right: Mommythemaid, athenamat, and kaishabackwards. All of the blocks are 12.5 inches square-just in case you were wondering.

Block for j_q_adams aka. quiltdad

Since school starts back up soon, I won't have as much time to sew. :( Therefore, I have been busy trying to get ahead on everyone's blocks so I will be ready to send by the Oct. 1st deadline.
I posted a few before here and here.

Block for 1boy1girl1kitty2

I am still using the Amish Star pattern from the tutorial over at crazymomquilts.

Block for 1boy1girl1kitty2

1boy1girl1kitty2 is in two groups at the swap so she gets two blocks! One is for her daughter and one for her grandmother. Which do you think is for her daughter?:)

Block for athenamat
Athenamat's block is going to be in a Christmas Lap Quilt. She has cute skater fabric that is going to in the quilt too.

Block for FlashleyAshley

I believe that FlashleyAshley will be using this block in a baby quilt. I love the polka dots and the apple fabric.

Block for homerof2

This is going to be another baby quilt. I love the fabric in the middle with the elephants and the giraffes. I am really enjoying seeing all these great fabrics and playing with the different color combinations. So far I have 11 blocks made and 13 to go. I think I can make 13 more blocks by Oct. 1st.

Athenamat also started a flickr group for all the blocks. Go check it out! Not everyone has contributed yet-therefore only 4 members out of the 36 in the actual swap.

50 States Quilt Block Swap-Florida

This is Florida. Doesn't it remind you of Florida? I love this dolphin fabric so much. Yes, I do believe I will marry it. It is from Robert Kaufman's Island Sanctuary. I picked it up as a fat quarter at a local quilt shop. When I saw it, I immediately thought Florida.

When I was young, my family would go visit family at Uncle William's cabin on the bay outside of Ft. Walton, FL. He had this really long pier that extended out into the bay. There were all these crab cages hanging off the side and benches at the very end. You could sit out there and watch dolphins go up and down the bay, jumping up and down, from the pier. It was very, very cool.

I chose the orange batik because it reminds me of sun rays and heat. It also reminds me of oranges. I like the contrast between the cool blue and warm orange as well. Plus, they are the colors of the best college football team ever.

50 States Quilt Block Swap- Colorado

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado! Colorado is now finished. I found this white water rafting fabric on clearance for 1/2 off (love sale fabric) and it completely reminded me of Colorado.

I also had this tree fabric that reminded me of the great outdoors that I decided to use for the background fabric. Part of me likes it and I also wonder if I should have chosen something with more contrast.
I do like that it mimics the mountains with the rivers and the trees.

The one above is an image that could have been taken in Colorado I think with the mountain right above the river. Only 36 more blocks to go!

Thanks j_q_adams and jacquie for the suggestions regarding North Carolina. I completely understand the team spirit because I am an Auburn girl myself and when I get to my Alabama blocks there might be some War Eagle fabric. :) I am very tempted by the turtle fabric and am going to the fabric store to see if they have any this afternoon because I have seen it before and it is gorgeous.

50 States Quilt Block Swap-Montana

I joined another quilt block swap over on Craftster a while back. The basic premise of this one is that there are 6 people in the swap and we each have 8 states. For each of our states, we make 6 blocks-we send 1 to each of the other 5 people in the swap and keep one for ourselves. At the end of the swap, we will each have a block for 48 of the 50 states.


My states are Colorado, Alabama, Kentucky, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and North Carolina.
The pattern for all of the block is the sawtooth star. We are using only two fabrics. The main focus fabric is supposed to be anything that represents the state such as the state flower, sports team, famous food from the state, etc.

For Montana I found this great center fabric! I love the pictures of the mountains and the animals. What made it even better, is that it is from the "Big Sky Country" line from SouthSeas Imports. "Big Sky Country" is a nickname for Montana. How perfect is that! The background fabric is Moose Lake from Exclusively Quilters Collection.

I have fabric for Colorado and Washington right now, but I am stuck on what to do for Oregon, North Carolina, and Utah. Suggestions I have heard so far are wagon wheels for Oregon due to the game Oregon Trail that I, for one, loved as a kid.