this past weekend was the East Cobb Quilt Guild's Bi-Annual quilt show, Georgia Celebrates Quilts.
there's lots of pictures....let's see if blogger will play nice
i had three of my quilts in the show.
Foot Notes
i didn't realize i'd miss this one...i took it off the bed to enter into the show, and didn't have another big enuf to replace it...*oops*
Echoes Of Color
it's so big, it's nice to have a 'entire' picture.
*don't forget, the pictures will supersize when you click on them. click the back buttonon your browser to come back here*
and the 2011 blog BOM, Galaxy, from here (it's blurry on purpose). this is what the quilt will look like for those sewing along, minus the blur *grin*
nothing like a show drop off deadline to get a quilt done. i got the last stitch in the binding and label with seven minutes to go before the start of drop off. *whew* i've learned to not submit a quilt to a show unless it's completely done!
i had eight customer quilts in the show:
this is why my blog has been 'quilting quiet' for the majority of the year, i've been working on show quilts....
Karen's Bali wedding star...108 inches square
almost 30 hours of quilting in this puppy...
it was awarded an 'Honorable Mention' ribbon.
karen entered her other judy neimeyer quilt.
it, too, was awarded an honorable mention ribbon.
Amanda's quilt.
it took second place in the catergory.
Diane's quilt.
karen's quilt (it's the same quilt as amanda's, but amanda modifed the pattern some)
it won an honorable mention as well.
theresa's quilt
it took third in it's catergory. charolette's quilt.
jan's quilt.
it won second in it's catergory
teresa k's mariner's compass
alberta's quilt for her grandaughter
Suzanne'a applique. this is a small quilt, about 36 inches square. quite impressive hand applique...lots of little pieces.
tomorrow, i'll post my favorites!
some house keeping-
i released the squishies back into the wild for the block swap today. (if esther in canada and barbara in UK could send me an email, i'd appreciate it)
there were 17 participants, so you will have three repeated blocks- one of your own, and two from the lucky players that were in line next to you.
i play along with sophie over at the block lotto and august was my first time playing! the chosen block was an african violet month and i immediately knew how i'd quilt the blocks, so i made my nine and entered...and i won!!!
my violet patch is growing! i have started to get the blocks in the mail....today i got 3 from new zealand!
i'm thinking about a green prairie point border *shrug* i do know that i plan on hanging it in the guest room and renaming it the violet room :)
September's block was a pieced curved rail fence and these are my nine entries. *fingers crossed*
i also got two more 9inch wedding blocks today...when i get some more, i'll post a picture...i'm being lazy today
speaking of blocks- i plan on swapping the blocks for the swap this week. i'll post when i have released the squishies back into the wild...thanks for the patience...life is starting to calm down a bit...
two of my friends, Angela and Linda, got alot of my long arming friends together to make blocks to send to me for a quilt in celebration of my recent nuptials.
it was a nice surprise to open envelopes and find blocks. i was a little confused why i got three random blocks, then, i figured it out *smarter than the average bear* a couple phone calls and i found the culprits *grin*
i've asked both of them and they are okay with me extending the invitation to my blogland friends *clap*
if you want to participate, just send me an email (half_square (at) hotmail (dot) com) and i'll send you my snail mail address if you need it. the blocks need to finish at 9inches and you can make as many as you would like in any colors and design you find appropriate..the only thing i ask is that you don't sign your block, just attach or include a piece of paper with your info (name city state) with your block.
if you need some help finding a block, quilters cache has a lot of 9inch finished blocks here, just scroll down a little to the middle of the page...
thunkya thunkya verymuch
linda sent me some vegas fabric (with a velvet elvis card!) and angela sent me elvis fabric...i dug out my elvis fabric and was surprised how much i already had. plus VIP just released a new elvis theme collection (how's that for coincidence?) and i have bought yardage of it...this is goning to be one hunka hunka cool quilt... uhuhuhuh
ETA: #1. apparently everyone already knew about angela's 9inch block party.... #2. this post does NOT partain to vicky m's 12inch block 'secret squirrel' ... who knew it could be so confusing....*sorry*
i was mistaken in my girly post about the last time i wore a dress....it occurred to me the other day, the last time i wore a dress was my high school senior prom....
all the traditions were kept:
something borrowed- vegas
something blue- my shoes (i couldn't find suede ones *snicker*)
something new- the dress
we were married in a small vegas chapel by Elvis! it was awesome!!
Elvis walked me down the aisle singing "Love me tender"
we had elvis themed vows, and i got our Elvis tickled a couple of times cause i am an Elvis fan and could guess what song title was coming up in the vows:
i promise to never step.... on your blue suede shoes
i won't leave you...at heartbreak hotel...or any hotel
i won't...return you to sender
stuff like that...
isn't davis handsome???
this is one of my favorite pictures....we had the photographer laughing ....and the chauffeur...
the chauffer, Dave, gave us a nice compliment:
"I've been driving for wedding chapels for over 20 years and i see one out of every 30 couples that have the spark. you guys have that spark and will be together forever. you guys have got it all figured out."
our first kiss as husband and wife!
now we start on our hunka hunka ever after!!!
Elvis has left the building- thunkya thunkya verymuch
wednesday evening we were picked up at the hotel and taken to a ranch in the desert for a sunset horseback ride.
i love horses and instantly felt at home and in my element
i rode a beautiful palomino named Stardust and davis rode a big grey Percheron mix named Goliath.
we met a nice couple from birmingham england and their two young daughters. the father was very cheeky and the two girls were totally taken with me. the three of us were inseparable.
this was 'camp' we ate here after the ride.
very pretty...see our guide?
we saw alot of rabbits, but no snakes. we actually had a trail dog that ran ahead to keep the trail free of snakes... this is one of the girls on our ride....that's how she showed up to go riding. yes those are stilletto heels and a miniskirt...needless to say there was some giggling on the bus.
but i will say this- she got on the back of her horse and didn't complain once. she did ask me if she should change shoes. i told her she might want to....she ended up in flat gold lame gucci shoes.
our guides were a father/son team. after we ate, the father showed us some lasso tricks. the son showed us how to throw a lasso, and it's alot harder than it looks....
other than the wedding, this was my favorite bit of our trip.
speaking of wedding- that's tomorrow...right now we're keeping an eye on the TV. we have a strong rotation cloud (tornado) really close to us...two tornadoes were spotted on the ground and the sirens keep going off.....*scary*
we were only in vegas for four days and two of those were filled with wedding stuff, and out flight out thursday was early so we really only had bits and pieces of two days to do 'stuff' wednesday evening we did a horseback ride through the desert- that post is later...
this is Paris Paris across the street from the Bellagio.
this is my favorite postcard shot!
(i get to see the real Eiffel tower next year!!!)
everyone told us vegas was hot- and it was. BUT the humidity was barely 10%. so it is a much more tolerable heat. we are used to 100 degree heat WITH 60% plus humidity...BIG difference! in vegas, standing in the shade is actually cooler...oh- there's no bugs!! no mosquitoes, gnats, flies NOTHING! you don't have to take a bath in Off to not get eat-n-up! that was nice!
we did walk a bit of the strip. we found a guy that runs a exotic reptile rescue and had this guy with him. this is norbert. he is a 5 year old black tongue monitor. his native home is central Africa. they can live to be 25 years old and weight in at 50 pounds.
i got excited when i was told i could actually hold him for pictures! a lady walking by thought it was fake, so norbert flicked his tail to show he was real and i thought she was going faint...
if you rubbed his head between his eyes, he would go to sleep...davis said i had to leave him there and i couldn't have one when we got back home *crap* norbert was cool.
we were walking through the casino and stopped to watch the action at a roulette table. a gentleman looked at me and smiled and i wished him luck...he won and gave me $2.50...gamblers are so superstitious
we went down to freemont street and found two 'showgirls' freemont street is considered downtown vegas. it was worth the trip. lots of street performers and artists...
one thing we learned is that vegas has really good (inexpensive) public transportation. for $7 you get an all access pass for 24hours to ride any of the transit. There's a double deck er bus called the Deuce that services only the strip stopping at every casino.
there's also a bus that services all the outlet malls...and then the regular buses.
it paid for us to look at all the stops and schedules online once we learnt this trick...much cheaper than taxis! when we go back (anniversary) we will rent a car tho, as none of the quilt shops are on any of the routes...
Freemont is where the skywalk is (called the Freemont Str Experience). it was awesome. they have recently added a zipline and had i not just eaten, i would of done it...you can barely see two zipliners in the picture.
when we go back i want to do the repel off the Stratosphere.
we stopped at a restaurant to eat at freemont str and davis ordered a double cheese hamburger. needless to say, we were both surprised at what came out on the plate...it is TWO grilled cheese sandwiches with the hamburger between!
it was 6 inches tall! davis eventually took off two slices of bread from each grilled cheese to eat it.
i played it safe and got bacon and eggs...the hash browns were delicious...i didn't get pictures cause *nom nom* it gone
tomorrow- our sunset horseback ride through the desert...
i'm breaking the vegas trip into 4 parts and you have to wait for til the end for the wedding pictures...i know, i know- i'm a stinker....i didn't take a whole lot of pictures....it was my honeymoon after all....priorities *grin*
we flew in and davis arranged for a limo to take us to the hotel...my very first time ever inside a limo!!!
we stayed at the luxurious Belliago. i told the lady that did my nails in the salon that it was like living inside a tiara. everything is lush and sparkly.
this hotel is amazing! i'm designing a 'formal' wedding applique quilt inspired by all the designs of the beautiful tile floors!! i was in total inspiration overload the first 12 hours.
the attention to detail is spectacular. i mentioned (to anyone that would lsten) that we were there to get married on tuesday, and i called down to the front desk for something on tuesday morning and i heard, "yes, ms. baker how can we help you" OMG i felt like royalty. after the wedding on wednesday we called down for a maintenance request (stopped up sink) and the front desk answered, "hello mrs davis. how can we help you?" OMGG the front desk was the first to refer to my married name!!! i *squeed* around the room and davis was all "what?"
the one thing that caught my attention were all the flowers!! roses every where...i'm not talking about one or two either... no.... dozens everywhere. and every surface is marble...the floors, columns, desk tops, the planters....marble everywhere...
this arrangement 'sits' on the check-in desk. i estimated at least 12 dozen in there. there was a big fountain planter behind the front desk that was easily 5 times this big (you can barely see the corner on the left) crammed full of roses.
there were 4 of these strategically placed along the front desk and on each side of the concierge desk. see the phone for scale?
with the time difference we were up early one morning and walked down to the lobby and there was an army of staff changing out the flowers....
davis and i both noticed how friendly the staff was. everyone greeted us and we were always asked if we needed anything or if there was anything they could do for us. even the housekeepers. alot of posh hotels don't allow the 'underlings' to interfer with the guests. it was a nice personal touch and made me feel rich classy....
these sit on the table in the middle of the waiting area
another awesome thing was the installations of Chihuly! i saw his installations here in ALT at the botanical gardens and recognized them immediately.
this is the ceiling in the check-in/ waiting area. each flower is about 2-3 feet wide and the whole installation is easily 100 feet long! there were more sculptures in the bars along the casino, but photos aren't allowed in the casinos... don't want to get anyone in trouble
the Belliago is famous for it's fountain dance in front of the hotel. you might remember the last scene of Oceans 11 (george clooney/ brad pitt's remake)- that's the Bellagio. water shoots 100s of feet into the air...it's amazing! you can always tell when a show is getting ready to start- the balcony fills with people jockeying for the perfect picture spot.
the video stops before the end of the show, someone stepped into my view finder blocking the show ... you get used to that...the 'explosions' are the air jets propelling the water. there's tons of videos of the fountains on YouTube...turn down your sound down a bit before clicking to play....
couple of shots of the bellagio:
at night (one of my postcard shots)
the Belliago is HUGE. most of the casino/hotels take up an entire city block (then some). when we went down the hall to our room, it looked like there was a mirror on the end reflecting back. that's how far away the perspective point of the end of the hall was. trippy...
the main front door canopy
the 'little' fountains and the indoor gardens inside.
these were chorographed to music. (not a good thing to watch when you need to go potty)
another area of the indoor garden
doesn't that tree have a tim burton feel? we were told they change the gardens to reflect themes and seasons...the green house on the left housed exotic parrots
there were painted parasols in every dome
another cool thing i liked- they have express elevators. we were on the 12th floor and had a bay of elevators just for floors 12 thru 24. so from the casino floor up to our floor was a 5 second ride... great for when you needed to potty after watching the little fountains
we had a view of the pool from our room. a fountain/strip view was a bit out of our budget.
so that's where we stayed...i'll share what we learned about vegas later. you know, the stuff we'll know for the next time...
charolette's quilt.
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