PUYALLUP FAIR 2024

 Darrell and I went to Puyallup to the Washington State Fair.  We haven't attended in years, so it was about time.  And, I had entered three quilts into the show and I had to go see them.

"Cincinnati"

"Amity: Baroque" I stood behind a lady and listedned to her talk about what she liked about this quilt.  That was fun.  D and I voted for this one for People's Choice.  Good luck #93!

"Tractor Beam" .  My Voltron type quilt.

Then we went walking about for a few hours.  We had scones right away.  They are smaller and sweeter than I remember from when I was much younger.

We saw the baby piglets, only a few days old.

And we had to see the Draft Horses.

We also walked through the grange to see the Giant Pumpkins and the displays.  We hurried through the retail vendors building and were accosted by several of them.  And we perused the goats.

It was something different and great fun.  But, since it was going to be a very hot day and we left at noon.  

FACING ON TRACTOR BEAM

 My poor Tractor Beam quilt has been languishing for almost a year.  I got it quilted, then folded it up and it's been waiting to be finished.  I got it out and trimmed it and cut some facing from the leftover backing and sewed it on yesterday.  I took it into the house and handsewed it down onto the backing yesterday evening, but didn't finish.

I continued working on it in between setting up the longarm to quilt on the Snake quilt today.  It needs to be done before Friday morning because I'm taking it to Puyallup to be in the Fair - along with a few other quilts.

I got it all sewn down by 4pm then took the lint brush to it and got the dog hair and stray threads off of it.  I think it is ready!  

And, I got the second row of the Snake quilt quilted.  A good day.

QUILTING PROBLEMS

 I setup a pantograph and started Erik quilting on Tractor Beam.

Then it was one thing after another.  First of all, Erik really hates quilting right-to-left, so he shredded the thread every chance he got.   I even changed from Aurifil to Wonderfil thread because it's 3-ply and a little thicker.  That reduced the number of shreddings a bit, but didn't eliminate them.

Then the sew-head went black, the lights went out and it stopped. That scared the heck out of me!   So on a walk-around I discovered the plug on the back had worked its way out.  I plugged it in, restarted, and got him working again.  Phew.

THEN, the darn hopping foot, #74 with a plastic cup, broke!  Good grief, I guess I'm lucky the needle didn't run over it and jam up the machine.

I gave up for the day, and went to join the Brave Patch Finish it Friday get-together.

I made this week's Art East Quilting Mini block, #35, The Thread.

EDITED VOLTRON!

 The more I thought about it, the less I liked my solution from yesterday regarding the Voltron! project.  

I liked the idea of the darker section being on the bottom, but lazily turning it upside down disturbed the composition I had worked so hard on.

So, a solution would be to take the dark top section and move it to the bottom.  That involved un-sewing.  I feel like I did as much un-sewing on this project as I did sewing.  So, what's a little more?

I think the solution worked really well and I'm much happier with the way it looks now.

And, I have found a name for it.  It will be called Tractor Beam from now on.  I started thinking about backing for it and pulled some teal fabrics from my stash. But, I'm too drained to work on that today.

Then, as a palette cleanser, I made another improv block with the Playcation 2022:

VOLTRON! IS A TOP

 I completed the last big triangles in the bottom corners.  And had everything sewn into big chunks that were ready to sew all together.

It is now a top.  Once I got it done, I felt the top was the darkest part, the heaviest part, making the composition seem top-heavy.  So, I flipped it upside down.  It looks better.  But, I may change something, like taking the dark top off and sewing it onto the part that used to be the bottom.

Well, I'm all done and here is the pile of scraps and leftovers.  omg, it never ends.

STILL WORKING ON VOLTRON!

 I'm still spending the greatest part of my days working on my Voltron! project.

It's still a puzzle.  I'm still editing as I go.  I've had to make more strip sets, too.

I've sewed some of the bigger pieces together and moved it up on the design wall, so that I can work on the bottom to make it a bit longer.

But, it's coming along.

TINY POINT

 I was enarmored with this tiny little pink triangle today as I worked on Voltron!

MORE ON VOLTRON!

 I'm continuing to work on my Voltron! project (it still needs another name).

I've fixed those too big green pieces by adding some yellow strips.

It's better now - they fit in much nicer this way.

EDITING VOLTRON!

 I'm editing as I sew these parts and pieces together.  Sometimes I need to trim, sometimes I need to add something, to make things fit together.