Chautauqua Quilts

Last weekend I went to the Quilting Around Chautauqua quilt show at the Chautauqua Institution in NY. There's this neighborhood of beautiful old homes, many of them are summer homes on the lake. They also do cultural events, I've been there twice before for performances. It was nice to get out of the house, and I definitely got my exercise- 800 quilts were spread out in buildings all over the general area. It might have been nice to have had someone with me, but I had fun and got to explore and see what I wanted. Both the houses and the quilts were inspirational. I love old houses and quilts so it was a great match.

Wouldn't you love to live here?

This little church was unique and really cute:

A tiny public garden that was cute, had some pagodas around:

A beautiful, huge hotel:

I think I found my house:

You know you're in a nice neighborhood when this is the "homely" house in the neighborhood!

And on to the quilts:



A beautiful 1800's fan quilt:

Cute to use log cabin squares as pumpkins:

I'm not always a fan of batiks, but they work well in this:

A cute Christmas log cabin, it'd be cute as a big quilt:

I love the log cabin/stars combo, but I'd do different colors:

What a cute snowman!

I don't always like "mod" quilts but I like this one (Basic Grey does scrapbook paper and fabric):

If you don't want to do a whole big quilt you can do a framed one, it could be cute:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE 30's fabric...here's a cute chicken wallhanging:

and 30's butterflies! The whole thing was like 18"sq.

1930's baskets were sweet in a wallhanging:
The mini quilts were amazing...this whole quilt is 11 and 3/4 inches square...each bear paw was tiny and amazingly exact! Whoever did this was really talented:

It was a fun afternoon, I was definitely the youngest person there! It was funny because the "soundtrack" for the day was listening to women ohh and awww over everything.

There were a lot more neat quilts but those were my faves. I'm trying to get into quilting, been reading books, hoarding fabric and collecting patterns for a few months now. I really have a fun time putting fabrics and patterns together...now I just have to actually do it! I really wish I had more space to do stuff like this!

Just Keep Swimming

Last Friday afternoon, we had an incident. I came home from school and I was helping to get the dogs in, there were a bunch of gnats bothering them. I had Grant the puppy and Mom went over to get Lars....and next thing I know my mother is shrieking and running.

She was being attacked by a swarm of bees.

What do you do? What are you supposed to do? There's this split second where you have to unscramble your brain and act. You instinctively want to help yet protect yourself at the same time.

Her housedress was covered with bees, and everytime she moved, they would sting or bite her through the material. She was laughing and shrieking at the same time, she was laughing at how funny she must look. I went over to try to help her with the bees and she yelled at me to not go near.

So I stood there still hanging onto Grant and yelled at her to remove her dress, the bees were not leaving her alone and flying away. I didn't know if using the hose would help or not. She unbuttoned the front, and ran to the house in her skivvies. We later joked about how it's a good thing the neighbors can't see our house!

So there was relief that Mom was in the house and out of the bees, but then a sinking feeling...Lars (Laura's favorite dog) was still out there by the bees.

We got Mom in the shower and I donned a big coat and gloves. By this time Lars had moved over in the backyard away from the bees and I yelled at him and he came to me. He was very happy to get in the house! We checked him over and figure he probably was stung a few times but could find no welts.

I dressed my mother's welts, she had 10 places where she'd been stung but some of the welts were large and hurt worse, we figure that she was stung more than once in those places. Thank goodness she is not allergic, I don't know what we would have done.

We called Dad and he came home quick. My mother hurt pretty good that night, but is doing a lot better by now. Compared to the amount of bees that were on her, she wasn't bit as much as she could have been.

So we had a really crazy afternoon. I was kinda stressed the rest of the weekend from it. I was running errands before I came home that day, and I just had this feeling that I shouldn't dawdle, that I needed to be home. I'm really thankful that I was there when it happened. I'm thankful my mom is okay and wasn't hurt worse.

Some good did come out of this, the incident was a big reminder of how much I do love my mother and how I don't want anything to happen to her.

Hours later, the bees were still on her dress:
The bees live in the ground and you can hear them at night, they don't sound happy. We'll be taking care of them, can't have this going on! They moved there recently, they weren't there a couple of weeks ago. We now joke about this whole incident, but it was scary at the time.

I {heart} books!

I love love love art books. I love most books. I tend to prefer non-fiction over fiction, I don't know why. Anyhow, I thought I'd share some of my current fave books in my collection, I'll likely share more in the future.


I really have an interest in color theory and how your brain and eyes work. I think it's important to know about these things as an artist. One of my fave books is Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing by Margaret Livingstone. It really goes into (understandable) detail about how your brain and eyes work together and why certain works of art are more interesting than others. Love it. I also love visual illusions, it fits along with that topic. Some of the illusions are pretty trippy, who needs drugs? Haha.

One of my recent vintage purchases was this book, I loved the cover.......and especially the 1940's illustrations inside. I would like to make copies one day to frame, they're so cute. This book was made in the 40's when my grandma would have been learning to sew (she took several classes), so it makes me think of her.

Another recent purchase is the book Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan. I really like this book, it has cute projects that are stylish yet relatively easy to do. I haven't done any of the projects yet, that's on the To Do List. I bought it at JoAnn's, gotta love coupons!

I recently found these books (still unpacking boxes after two years!) and I was so glad because I'd been looking for them. When my mother was a missionary in Colombia in the mid 1970's, she bought these fairy tale books that are written in Spanish. I grew up with them as a kid and I've always loved the illustrations. They're very nostalgic for me and now they live in my room.

Funny Story: When I was little I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I couldn't understand these books, not even when my mom would try to explain that they were in another language! It took me awhile to catch on. Eventually I did take Spanish in high school and now I can read them, though you get the gist of it with the pictures.

I have tons of books, I need more shelves! My bookcase (it only took 27 years to have my own! A dream has come true!!) is full and I have piles on the floor! I drool over IKEA catalogs and I dream of shelves....

More Pitt

Whoops, I forgot to add these pics to my Pittsbugh post. Here goes:

I rode in Kelsey's sweet mini cooper (I've never ridden in one before!) while going to and from stuff at the conference so I didn't have to drive in crazy Pittsburgh, what a sweet ride. Minis have amazingly comfortable back seats...even for tall gals like me!

Sorry about the bad pic, but the house on the left would make an AWESOME haunted house! I want it for that purpose!

This is the living room in the place I stayed...it was brightly colored! The tv cracked me up, it was almost like it was saying, "I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TV! BOW DOWN BEFORE ME! BRING ME OFFERINGS OF DRIED GRASSES!"

Yes I am weird. And random. I know that. ;P

Pittsburgh

I had a pretty good (though tiring) weekend, I went to a YSA conference in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is about 2 and a half hours away, so it's doable. Once again I was pretty much on my own since my galpals have flown the coop for BYU-I (they're each getting married, too, but that's a different story!) and a couple of people that I kindof knew from Erie left early. I'm proud of myself that I go to these things without moral support (aka, a friend) considering I used to not talk in high school. I've come a long way, baby!

Got stuck in construction traffic...took an hour instead of 15 min to get from this point to the church! Got there late and I was worried that no one would be at the church!

But I timed it just right...my housing person was still there AND I didn't have to play stupid get-to-know-you-games! I went with a group of local YSA's to a bar/restaurant in downtown Pitt and had a fab turkey sandwich!

I'm so ladylike, lol:

Made a new friend, Mary...we both enjoy art (and know who Banksy is!)

It was pretty funny having like 20 Mormons eating in the bar, but where else is open at midnight? There was this funny drunk guy who was talking to us and somehow remembered that it was Jewish New Year and kept wishing it to us! I'm such a heathen, I think this meal was the most fun I had at the conference, it was fun talking with everyone. And peoplewatching in the street was fun too!

We were at Primanti Brothers, apparently it's a local chain that's been an institution in the area forever. They do make good sandwiches!

Saturday we were up EARLY to eat breakfast and do some service at Hosanna House, a community outreach place. They help people find jobs, they have a food pantry, and do summer camps and activities for kids. They were cleaning up after the kid activities and getting ready for the winter, I helped wash white plastic chairs and tables and put them away:

Another group helped plant stuff:

My new friend Paige outside the front:

We also cleaned really grody locker rooms and bathrooms, I'll spare you those pics! After service, we had lunch and workshops. I went to one about improving relationships (my question: what do you do if the other person won't try? There's only so much you can do) which was a little tedious. I went to a pretty good one about traveling and another about money management (which I sorely needed!).

We got to watch a modern dance group perform several numbers, which was...not that interesting. I love dance, but they were too cliche, all running around and flailing about in black unitards.

There was also a dance that night, which was truly lame. Especially lame considering we are in Pittsburgh where there is enough YSA to have a great dance. We were out in the parking lot, which could be really fun. There was no dance space "defined", usually you string up lights. Most people were painting glow-in-the-dark T's to play in the park later. Only like 4 people were dancing, and I was one of them! The music was very lame. It's pretty bad when Auburn YSA dances back home were better! I'm sure the neighbors were laughing as they looked down on us!

I didn't play in the park, I was so tired (4 hours of sleep!) that I went back to where I was staying with one of the housemates who needed to study. I did get the best accomadations out of all the conferences I've been too, I must say! I got to watch "Toddlers and Tiaras" on TLC...once you start watching you can't stop because it is such a trainwreck! These mothers are insane!! One Utah mother pretty much had her 7 yr old daughter doing a striptease! Anyhow, back to the conf....

Sunday was nice, we got to hear from President Siebach, the Palmyra temple president. I wore my new fab very PINK (it's very bright, you'll never lose me!) jacket that I got on sale for $7! After the meeting, I mingled a bit, said my goodbyes and left for home. Pittsburgh is INSANE to drive around in, you need a GPS just to find a gas station! I was relying on printed directions, so I had a heart attack trying to find my way to the freeway and I did get a bit lost, I was so glad to find my way because I could have gotten VERY lost! Once I found the freeway I was fine.

I feel bad because there's no YW when I'm gone for the weekend...but the girls usually don't come anyhow on Sundays. I figure if the girls come when I'm not there that it wouldn't hurt them to be in RS and get to know the women and hear from someone besides me! The one girl who would have come was sick anyhow. I wish I had a councilor to take over on those days. I want to do my calling well, but I'm a YSA too...I hate these conflicts.

I have fun at these things and it's nice to meet new people (every conference bumps up my number of Facebook friends, haha) but is it worth it? I've been debating this lately. It's a tossup: I'm not going to find a man at these things but it is really good for my mental health to get out of the house and talk with people. And that's why I go. I made some new friends this weekend, it was nice. I've met other girls who really do go to these things just to get married, they kindof scare me!

And yes, there is always the weird guy in every ward and at every function, no matter where I am in the country....true story: there was a weird loner guy with manboobs almost as big as mine wearing an Empire Strikes Back T-shirt for nearly the entire conference! It was so stereotypical I had to laugh. I have to be really careful around what guys I let slip out that I have some Star Wars knowledge or they take that as a sign that we're meant to be or something!

Enough of my ramblings, I'll go for now. I really need to go have a tourist day in Pittsburgh, there's a lot to see and a lot of art museums and neat stuff.

The Fair

Recently I went to two small, local fairs and had a lot of fun. I like looking at the exhibits and the animals. I'm also amazed at the crap the vendors sell (that hasn't changed in 20 yrs!) ...and that people actually buy it! Scary!

So I went to our local Sparty fair, I'm getting to know my antique tractors:

Baby bunnies are the CUTEST!

I like looking at good art...and mocking bad art, like this effeminate Santa on an ironing board (cause ironing spells Christmas for me! lol). Note the girly eyes and high heeled shoes:


People still make burl clocks! lol


I liked this display about maple syrup solely because I want their little vintage pink fridge! It totally goes with my vintage toy stove!

Gotta love kid's pumpkins:

As a former rider operator, couldn't help but notice the danger of these operators sitting with their heads two feet from a giant spinning machine! Crazy!

I enjoy photographing rides at night, got to play with my new camera:

Carousel

And ferris wheel:

Loved the skyline:

Then before that there was the Erie County fair which was even smaller! Mom and I looked at everything in like an hour! Pretty dinky considering what big towns/cities there are in Erie County.

We met a group that teaches dogs how to be search and rescue dogs, very interesting. Basically they play hide-and-seek and keep hiding the person more and more. This dog was "reading" the sign (but really reading the person!):

I'm sure Kelly Clarkson would love to know her picture hangs up in a cow barn, lol:

Takes on a whole new meaning:

Black sheep are so cute!

This was a lovely baby afghan, though I was disapointed with the quilts at both fairs- hardly any and really none that were spectacular. Should've made it to the Crawford County fair this year, they have a ton of quilts.

Driving a tractor, lol:

I loved this trailer, told you I love carousels!

Didn't stay til dark, but took some b&w:

Fairs are a fun way to spend an evening, I look forward to them each year!