Farmpark Quilt Show, Kirkland, OH

In early March, my sister-in-law Michelle and I went to Metroparks Farmpark Quilt Show in Kirkland.  It was a nice 40 minute ride straight north.  This show was perfect, lots of quilts, but not too many.  Here is a LINK to the show.  They had some amazing picture quilts made by Cynthia England.

My favorite quilt was made by a local family in Garrettsville for an 80th birthday.  I used to live close to Garrettsville and went to their family mill many times for chicken feed.  We always called Garrettsville, Mayberry - one main street and everyone knows who you are.

My best buy at the show was a used quilt rack.  I'll send a picture later.  Speaking of best buys, our quilter's garage sale is this Saturday and can't wait to see what treasures we find.  My best friend Barbie will be coming up from Port Washington for the sale.

I wasn't sure if I could display quilt pictures from shows on my blog, but read the rules and it said as long as I included the quilt information and what show it was displayed at, then it was legal.  I hope you enjoy seeing this unique quilt.

More Flowers and Attic Windows

You must be saying, "Enough flowers already"!  Still I couldn't resist because they filled out so much more in the sunshine and a bee is busy gathering pollen - to bee or not to bee.  Can you find the bee above?  I think it's a honey bee and that is exciting because they have been scarce around here and I rarely see one, but to see one in March is a sign and wonder.  I hope a good sign.


"To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few." ~ Emily Dickinson

Michelle made an attic window quilt using a jungle theme for another baby shower.  She found a satin binding in her stash. The weather was so nice, we hung it over the deck railing for display.  Very cute!  By the way, if you click on the picture it enlarges and you can see the pattern better.

For some unknown reason, I decided to make a scrappy windmill quilt . . . someday.  At the Farm Park Quilt Show in Geauga County, I invested in a new template.  Here is my first little 4 inch windmill square.  As you can tell, the first piece did not quite match up.   Lots of little pieces to cut, like the I-Spy quilt.  You would think I would learn not to do this to myself.

First Spring Flowers

At this time of year the yard is stark and bare, plain ugly; but look – the crocuses are blooming!  Each year I run and get the camera to record the delicate blooms as if they are the first baby steps of spring.  They are hidden in the back yard behind the garage and out of sight.  The pictures are a way to keep them longer.   The flower beds are full of leaves, but I don’t want to disturb the blooms.  The old leaves add a rustic backdrop to the purple petals.  I remember a photographer once said that you had to use the camera to “isolate” the beauty.  I won’t look at the yard now, just the small, brave flowers.

 “Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.”  ~ Gian Carlo Menotti

“Earth laughs in flowers.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

How about these colors for a quilt?  Charcoal gray, dark green, plum purple and some golden yellow for a zinger.