T-shirt quilt and Camp

Fall is starting to roll in here, and with it beautiful sunsets like the one above. I do like fall, it's such a lovely time of year in Iowa. If only winter didn't follow on its heels!

At our new farm (Ryan is trying to split his time still in order to get some fence built, etc.), the weeds are having a party. They are probably taller than I am and are a mess. Our new farm needs us, but it looks like we're spending another winter of uncertainty where we are as the real estate market winds down. 

I've been getting a little quilting and sewing done, I finished a t-shirt quilt made out of my college engineering t-shirts (it's a gear in a gear. See it?). 

Here's a close up of some quilting:

And I entered it in the state fair. No ribbons, which made me a little sad. It apparently came down to the judges not liking my quilting. They gave the blue, red, and honorable mention ribbons all to quilters who used an all-over quilting pattern, some of them computerized. I'm trying to remind myself that there isn't much of a prize in the fair and not to put too much stock in it. However, I'm also remembering that precision in my free motion quilting does need to be tightened up.

With that in mind, I'm still plugging away at a quilt I intend to enter in shows. I've finished the center, it is supposed to look like sky over a lake. First I had the lake oriented so that it was light at the top and dark at the bottom, like this:

The longer I looked at that, the less I thought it looked like a lake and a sky. I know it depends on the light, and the depth of the lake, and a million different factors as to whether it is light "in the distance" or dark, but I decided it didn't do what I wanted it to do. So I flipped it around and it now looks like this:

I like the line this makes between the lake and sky and think it was the right decision. Now I'm working on borders, which are kind of a night scene version of the center. I'm thinking about the quilting on it now, which originally was going to be inspired by MC Escher's "Three Worlds", but now I'm rethinking. Maybe a big sun on the horizon? hmmm. Taking suggestions.

My last little project was for my MBA Capstone team (our final project before we get the degree), which as I think I've mentioned is doing consulting work for the Friends of the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. As such, I created custom fabric with some symbols of the prairie (monarch butterfly, aster, bison, dickcissel) and "TRR" which is our private name for ourselves, "Team Ramrod". I made some bowties for the guys and some flower pins for the girls. Is this whole thing incredibly geeky? Yes. Is it the geekiest thing I've ever done? Probably not (as people who know me and longtime blog readers will know). 

I think they're awesome and I love them. 

On the family side of things, kids continue to grow. I took my daughter to my childhood camp for the first time (http://www.clearwatercamp.org/) for family camp. It was just her and me for 5 days (including an 11 hour car ride up and back) and it was totally awesome. She did great with the long car ride and completely fell in love with camp. 

The weather was lovely, and she and I had a great time sleeping in a cabin, swimming in the lake, and doing generally camp-related things. It might have been one of the best vacations I've ever had.

Within minutes of getting there she was ready to get wet. Her favorite activity, to my surprise, was actually fishing! She caught two fish. She didn't want to hurt the worm, but got over it quickly. It was catch and release, so we didn't eat this guy, but you can see how excited she is.

I'm looking forward to going back next year, I'm not sure who among our family will go, but I know H and I will be there with bells on.

I'm noticing that most of the pictures I post of Little Z are of him reading a book, holding a book, or being read to. Well, that is certainly my little scholar's favorite activity.

Although sometimes he apparently stops to talk on the phone.

Well, it's late and tomorrow is Monday, so good night all!