Lavender Pie: Solar Circle Quilt/More NQA Quilts

Today was a beautiful sunny day. The temperature was comfortable enough to leave the windows open after I returned home from work. My kitties love to sit by the screen on the french doors and watch the squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and bunnies. Sometimes all four of them line up and lay flat to the floor so as not to be detected. On a few occasions I have observed all four of their tails swaying back and forth at the same time. That's when they are truly intent on watching something.

Judy M. stopped by after work to deliver the left over pieces of fabric from Tanzania. Last year my friend Carol Sc. and I made a quilt with African fabric that Judy had brought back from Tanzania. Our friend Kari did beautiful machine quilting on it. The quilt was raffled in February 2008 as a fund raiser for Solar Circle. The goal was to raise $7,000. The goal was greatly exceeded. Judy told me that the winner donated the quilt back to Solar Circle so she is thinking of another way to raise funds with the quilt.

The Solar Circle raffle quilt.

Another view.

We did not cut the fabric up into small pieces. We wanted to feature the Tanzanian fabrics.

Solar Circle helps fund solar ovens for the women in Tanzania who normally cook over an open fire with their children on their backs. Next to AIDS, the leading cause of death in African women is from lung disease from cooking over an open fire. In addition, it depletes the forests and vegetation that is used to fuel the fires. Solar ovens use the sun as their source of energy. Judy and her group partnered with the MSU Department of Engineering to design an easy to build and transport solar oven. The people in Tanzania are taught how to build and market the solar ovens so Solar Circle is helping the economy as well. Find out more information about Solar Circle at http://www.solar-circle.org/.

Last Spring Judy dug up some ferns from her yard and gave them to me. Tonight she got to tour my shade garden to see how well the ferns are doing. Her patch of ferns is huge. Mine has a ways to go.

The shade garden.

Ostrich Fern.

Lisa ( and Genny) and I went for a long walk in the neighborhood tonight. After the walk we picked cherries from my North Star sour cherry tree. It is really loaded with cherries this year and the birds have not eaten them yet. It did not take us long to pick enough cherries for a pie. Lisa hopes to bake a pie to bring to my Fourth of July celebration on Friday. I will be anxious to find out how good the cherries taste.

I completed the background on my Italy quilt. Tomorrow I will add the trees. Stay tuned.

For some reason my Photo Gallery program won't let me save the fixes I do to the photos so these colors are a little off. No sewing on this so far, it is all fused.

As promised, here are more quilts from Columbus NQA 2008.

A poppy sampler.

Up close.

This award winner was beautiful. I love the colors. Orange may take a lead over Lime Green soon.

This part of the quilt was magnificent. The piecing was superb and the fabric selection was perfect.

I just love this one.

The special exhibit at the show was Rose quilts. This one is Rose of Sharon. I have always loved this pattern. This quilt is so soft and delicate looking.

Up close.

One great intricate pattern.

Up close, great use of fabrics to get the scrap look.

In the Rose exhibit, this was my favorite. All the other Rose quilts were red or pink this was the only lavender/purple one. My maternal grandmother would love this quilt. She loves lavender. I thought of her when I saw this quilt. It not only has lavender/purple but it has green with it too. Green and Purple, one of my favorite color combos.

Up close.

This one is from a Piece O Cake pattern. The quilter only used dots or circle fabrics to make this version. I love it. Sophie wants to make one. I might have to join her and make one also. I could use all my bright colored fabrics.

Close up.

As you may know I am not a lover of the color red. But this quilt was beautiful even though it was loaded with red. The quilting was wonderful. The applique and other techniques were wonderful. The design was wonderful. I really liked the quilt. In fact it should have been Best of Show.