Second place ribbon!

Rainbow Sylvia (at right) won a second place ribbon in the bed-sized category at yesterday's Show and Tell at the Green Mountain Quilters Guild meeting. I was really pleased, especially because my friend Elaine's teal Storm at Sea was just as beautiful and won a third place ribbon. The winning bed-sized quilt was black, white, and bright blue - very effective.

It was a good meeting, with 8 vendors who had some wonderful items. I bought a few batik half-yards, some of which I've already cut into FQs to share with my secret pal, and a couple of other pieces of fabric that I will use eventually. They are already in the wash. I also bought some new iron-on tape that can be used to fuse pieces of batting together. I often zig zag pieces to make larger ones, but this should be more stable.

There were two very interesting workshops. Kim talked about making and working with hexagons. She uses template plastic for hers while I have been using double layers of freezer paper. I guess I will give plastic a whirl. She also uses a paper clip to stablize while she bastes the seam allowances. This is a great, simple method I'd never thought of.

Diane told about the many ways to use computers to print onto fabric. She showed us some lovely things, including a beautiful embellished jacket with "cameos" of her mother and a neat quilt of her dog and his favorite items to chase in the yard. I'm going to have to check on what type of ink is in our printer's cartridges and, perhaps, print some sheets and then wash them to see how colorfast the ink really is. I just printed a label onto June Taylor fabric backed with freezer paper and hope it holds up when washed. Hadn't even thought to check.

It was a pleasant day, riding down with Paula through the last of the foliage (more colorful than at "peak"). We caught glimpses of snow on the mountain tops, and she said she had some wet stuff at her house the night before.