She's Alive

She's alive and well but not so on the ball.  I'm so glad that y'all are hanging in with me. 

It's been a pretty busy time around here, at least for me.  Our guild's biannual quilt show was held September 27-28 and I was kept busy from Tuesday of that week right through Saturday.  I was a worker bee for the quilt intake and judging which took two days.  Then on Thursday I helped transport the quilts to the show venue and work on setup.  The show started on Friday.  I worked admissions on Saturday and then helped some with takedown.  It was a busy week. 

I entered three quilts and one of them won a second place ribbon in its class. 

Picture doesn't do it justice but the colors are so vivid.  Working with all those aboriginal prints and colors at one time was a real step outside my comfort zone.  It's a big quilt so the top is folded over the hanger rod.    The second quilt is all hand applique.  I machine stitched the blocks together of course. 

Across the Wide Missouri

I started the quilt several years ago and used it as my means to learn how to do needle turn applique.  Just let me say that it was a journey that I'm still traveling.  This quilt was not judged, just displayed.  

Then, four days after the show ended, I headed over to Smith Lake near Cullman, Alabama for a quilting retreat.  Ladies come from several states for this retreat and I haven't missed one since the retreat began in late 2010 or early 2011.  Can't remember.  At any rate, it was 4 1/2 days of fun and sewing.  The only picture I took was of the quilt top that I made while there.  

Again, the picture doesn't do the colors justice.  The tan is much richer than it shows here.   I arrived back home on October 6. 

On October 11 I drove down to Jekyll Island, Georgia to attend the Georgia Ornothological Society's meeting and do some coastal birding.  I had never been to the Georgia coast so it was interesting to compare it to the other coastal birding I've done along the Gulf coast.  

We had a good turnout for the event and several days of birding.  I had met a few of the attendees at an earlier meeting but didn't really know anyone there.  The one fellow I knew who had planned to attend had to drop out at the last minute so I just headed on out by myself.   Our banquet speaker was Kenn Kaufman and he was a delight to be around.  The event was held at Villas by the Sea.  I drove back home on Monday, October 14, after a short outing to Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge.  

All this activity and traveling simply wore me out!  I was one tired puppy at that point and spent the next several days just resting up.  I had no ambition to do much of anything.    At this point I've had a couple of weeks of recovery but I'm off again on Wednesday for another adventure.  That'll be for another day. 

Thank you again for sticking with me.  I do appreciate it.  Y'all take care.