October 2010, UP and the Durand Quilt Show

How can it be October already?  What happened to September?  I missed it somehow.  I went up north with Rh and P last weekend, went back up north to spend a couple days with Chris during the week and here it is October.  Last weekend....I worked on the crazy quilt square, photos will come soon, but my camera takes terrible pics with incandescent light so I'll figure those out tomorrow.  But all day Sat, I learned how to knit.  It was easier with them there since they both knew how and could help.  I made this fine dishcloth, really pathetic...no really pathetic.  It seems that I unknowingly went from 40 stitches to 51 stitches and then P got me back to 40, but in the meantime, I have this ruffle in my dishcloth.  Oh well, but I think I can knit and purl now.  I also worked on applique a bit, but mainly I learned how to knit...or so I thought, until I got up north to see Chris and walked into her house with her room mate's knitting sitting on the floor.  SHE IS MAKING A SWEATER!  Not just any sweater, but a gorgeous Norwegian sweater.  Now she is Norwegian, and she has clearly been knitting for a while, however she assured me that this was her first sweater.  I didn't take a picture, but I sure wanted to.  She has been doing socks for a few years...  There were perfectly consistent yarn floats to get the little white dots into the black background and a black and white triangular pattern around the bottom of the sweater... Absolutely gorgeous.  So, I ran out the next day and bought knitting needles and dishcloth yarn for Chris.  She must learn how to knit, and then, as M said, they can knit and watch tv together.  Good grief.  I don't think I will ever get good enough at knitting to do anything but watch where the yarn is...and my fingers are...and where the needles are.... 

The trees have turned to reds, yellows, and oranges in the Keweenaw.  These pics are for K, and your pretty colored leaves are on their way south.   The pic on the right is from Nara Nature Park across from the Pilgrim River Steakhouse.  I stopped there and walked for a bit along the trail, picking up leaves and admiring the trees.  The one on the left is from the MTU parking lot overlooking Portage Lake.  Chris and I drove up to Copper Harbor too, but it was cloudy and raining, so the leaves weren't great.  Some of the trees had already dropped in the wind.  But we stopped for a bit along the Lake Superior beach and watched the waves crash in over the rocks, it was so beautiful.  We also stopped at a restaurant in Calumet on the way back and had thimbleberry margaritas.  Only in the UP...

I went to the Durand Quilt Show today and these were some of my favorites. 

This one is applique of course.  Very pretty and lots of work. 

This one was phenomenal.  Someone has made 2,288 2" log cabins and turned them into this 83x96" quilt.  She did it all by hand.  This lady had lots of scraps of fabric and loads of time.  If you look closely, you can see the little 2" block on the paper.  Incredible. This was definitely my choice for the viewer's choice award.   The reason that quilters never throw away a scrap of fabric... 

 I liked this log cabin too.  It's hard to see in the photo, but she called this one Cabin Songs and it has an appliqued border of trees and coyotes howling in the corners.  Her colors were wonderful, bright, and perfect for a cabin in the woods. 

 This is a pattern from a book called French Braid.  I took this photo because Rh just bought this book and loves this style of quilt.  You can't tell from the photo, but the maker quilted this with a silver metallic thread and it just shines. 

Another applique, one of Mary Warner Stone's patterns.  This one was appliqued with a button hole stitch done by machine, rather than hand, but the colors were great. 

 Another applique, done by hand, I think.  She used batiks and it was bright and cheerful.  I loved her border and she had appliqued the veins on the leaves, which I had never seen done before. 

I took this photo because this is the same basic pattern as Don's apple quilt, and I was really surprised at how different the quilts were, even using the same pattern.  She used batiks and Don's quilt has the red and gold apple fabrics with the freehand lettering in the border.  This one was nice, but I do like Don's quilt better.  Personal bias...