Journal: Going to the Nebraska State Fair

Here’s a very bedraggled red-spotted purple butterfly.  It must’ve had a hard summer!

Tuesday afternoon, I submitted the New York Beauty quilt for acceptance in three AQS shows:  Daytona Beach, Lancaster Downtown, and Paducah.  I will receive notification of whether or not it is accepted Dec. 6, Jan 17, and Feb. 21, respectively.  The Daytona Beach show runs from February 26-29, 2020; the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, show is from March 25-38, 2020; and the show at Paducah, Kentucky, will be April 22-25, 2020.

I’m debating whether to also submit the Americana Eagle quilt, and maybe even the Sunbonnet Sue quilt.  Price of submission is $25 per quilt for members, $40 per quilt for nonmembers.  So... I spent $35 to become a member for two years.

That evening, I finished the last row before the border of the Bear Paw quilt, and then quit to make supper.  Larry wasn’t home yet, but it was getting late, and I was too hungry to wait.  He got home just in time; his food wasn’t even cold yet. 

We had chicken chili poured over mashed potatoes, with macaroni and cheese as a side dish, and apple juice to drink.  Dessert was apple pie hot from the oven, with maple ice cream melting atop it.

Wednesday, I quilted the final border of the Bear Paw quilt, and then it was time for church.  After returning home and having a late supper, I trimmed and removed the quilt from the frame, then sewed together the binding and attached it to the quilt.

I finished it very early Thursday morning – 4:45 a.m., to be exact. 

The quilt measures 94" x 94".  The only thing left to do was to make a label for it.  But first, I needed some sleep.

That afternoon, I waited ’til the sun was at the right angle, and then took pictures of the quilt outside.  I pressed the neighbors’ old-fashioned gate into use as a prop.  More pictures here.

Next, the label.  I wrote down what I wanted it to say, remembering to count the characters in each line, as my embroidery machine will only accept 18 letters and/or spaces per line, which seriously limits my creative writing skills.

Soon it was sloooooowly stitching out.  I realized as soon as the design finalized and saved, before stitching, when it gets a minuscule fraction larger on the little black-and-white (no, actually, it’s greenish-gray and darker greenish gray) screen, that two lines were missing the final letters, because I didn’t shrink the design enough.  I usually can’t tell it ahead of time – and it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r to save/finalize the design and get prepared to stitch.  So... I kept watch on the machine as it was stitching, and skipped those lines with the missing letters.  When the stitchout was complete, I rewrote those lines, and, with a bit of finagling, fitted them in where they belonged.  ((mumble mumble gripe complain grouse fuss))

To add to the frustration, the lovely embroidery thread I got cheap, cheap on eBay a couple of years ago, in nice plastic thread cases, is old.  The white spools have turned yellow. 

Fact:  Old thread breaks easily.

I tell myself after each time I rethread the machine, This is still way faster than doing it by hand.  This is still way faster than doing it by hand.

But there’s another problem:  Halfway through the stitchout, the screen goes mostly blank, and I can no longer see which lines are incomplete, and I can’t remember, and I didn’t mark them, because it’s been long enough since I used my embroidery module that I forgot it does this.

Sigghhhhhhhhhh...

Maybe I would get it done in time to take it to Kenny that night... maybe... maybe...

Finally the embroidery was complete, and I hastened to iron the edges under and sew it to the back of the quilt.

Larry got home from work, and we ate a quick supper of turkey pot pie before taking the quilt to his brother.

Kenny loved his quilt.  His whole family was there, including the married children and grandchildren.  He has 7 children and 10 grandchildren – that is, that particular night, he did!  By the very next day, he had 11 grandchildren. 

That night, I was looking at pictures of quilts some friends had posted on Facebook.  I commented under one of them, “Cute pattern, and what delightful quilting!” and got this notice from Facebook:  “This comment goes against our Community Standards on spam.”

I clicked on the notice and got this:  à

Well, that’s aggravating.  I protested the issue, and a few hours later someone at Facebook evidently decided I was neither spamming nor pretending to be someone else, and sent my message through.  🙄

A couple of friends have been sharing pictures of deer and fawns they’ve been seeing in their yard.  We would enjoy seeing deer in our yard.  There are plenty nearby, but rarely do they come onto our property, even though I put out a smorgasbord for them.  But they stay some distance out in the cornfields and ignore my lovely hostas.  Corn must be more enticing than hostas!

There was a time, early one morning, when from the open bathroom window I spotted a doe and tiny fawn in the back yard.  I dashed back into the bedroom to awaken Larry. 

“Come and look, quick!” I whispered loudly, whilst simultaneously grabbing my camera.

He scrambled out of bed and came rushing in ----- and stepped kersploosh right on the edge of the cat’s water dish, tipping it up and sloshing a big ol’ splash of ice-cold water up his leg.  He, being Larry, yelped loudly.  The doe and fawn shot straight out of their doldrums and landed three counties over in one leap.  I hadn’t even had time to lift the camera to my eye.

Friday, I started working on a table topper, using a pattern in an e-book Lydia gave me, enlarging it and adding some flourishes of my own.

Late that night, I went into the laundry room to fill the cats’ food bowl – and a bat came flapping out, aimed right at my head as usual.  I hunched over and ran for Larry, as is my custom.  The bat laughed and chortled.  Larry collected the tennis racket and went bat hunting.  The bat, evidently feeling threatened, swooped up into an unfinished part of the wall and vanished from sight, giggling evilly.

Larry waited a few minutes, then headed back to bed – and saw the bat go whizzing through the kitchen, out of the corner of his eye.  That time, he got it.  We are killing rather than releasing now, as way too many bats are getting in our house lately.  I don’t mind them, diving about the night skies doing their business of snatching mosquitoes out of the air; but ooooeee, I hate them with a passion, in my house!

Saturday, Nebraska played its first football game of the season against Southern Alabama.  We won 35-21.

That evening, I finished the Farmer’s Market hexagon table topper.  I put a fabric origami star in the center.

I considered giving it to a young couple who were getting married Sunday night, but decided to instead give them a clock, save the table topper for the fair next year, and then give it to someone afterwards. I’ve given away many things I’d have liked to have entered in the fair... and I’ve ‘borrowed back’ things I’ve given to my family, so I can enter them in the fair.  The way to avoid that is to start saving up things for the fair, and give people something else in the meantime. 😉

A quilting friend wrote to tell me that if my New York Beauty quilt should happen to win Best of Show at Paducah (improbable, I think; too many quilters who are more skilled than me), they will put it into their museum (the largest quilt museum in the world), and I won’t get it back again.

Now, I thought it was highly unlikely that they’d do such a thing against any quiltmaker’s wishes.  So I called the museum in Paducah and asked.

I was right; they do offer a fairly large sum of money (someone thinks it’s $20,000) to the winner of the show, for the honor of displaying their quilt in their museum.  But it’s always entirely up to the maker whether or not the quilt is ‘donated’ to the museum.  (How can they call it a ‘donation’, when they pay $20,000 for it?!)

I doubt if I would accept that money, even if I should be fortunate enough to be offered it.  That quilt is for Jeremy and Lydia, and I don’t want to remake it.  (But I seriously doubt I would win.  Besides, the quilt must get accepted, first!)

Another quilting friend joined the conversation:  “Wow.  For $20k, I would remake it!”

“Well... ” I said, “I suppose it all depends on how hungry I am the day they offer.  I spent 639.5 hours making that quilt.  Eeeek.  I don’t wanna remake it.  Besides, it has a label on the back that says it’s for Jeremy and Lydia.  I’ll just pray that I don’t win! haha!”

“Girl, that's technically $31/hour,” announced my friend.  “More than Amazon pays!”

I was reading this byplay to Larry, and then I told the lady, “Larry is agreeing with you.”

“He’s a smart man!” she informed me. 

Anyway, it’s a moot point, unless it actually happens.  And I doubt it will.

This morning we got up early and went to the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island.  Some of the big grass parking lots have been unusable because of the large quantities of rain they’ve been having for the last month, but we got there soon enough to find parking in a lot within walking distance, so we didn’t have to leave the Jeep some distance away and rely on a shuttle to ferry us hither and yon.

We looked at the antique tractors... new tractors and combines... explored a modular home that was more spacious inside than one could’ve ever imagined, judging from the exterior... worked our way through the animals barns (pigs, cows, goats, sheep – one ewe had teeny, tiny, brand-spankin'-new twins, alpacas, bunnies, chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks... and then we found a shady place to sit and drink our Frappuccinos (brought from home) while they were still almost cold.

It was a hot and windy day, with temperatures in the mid 90s.  But at least it wasn’t raining!

Refreshed, we continued on into the Pinnacle Expo building, where were housed all the quilts.  I shot the first quilt photo at 12:12 p.m. and the last one at 1:11 p.m.  There were around 475 quilts on display.  Hmmm... that means I took an average of about 8 pictures per minute.  It took a little longer than it might’ve, because somebody spotted Larry taking my picture in front of my New York Beauty quilt with its Best of Show, Best of Division, and Best of County ribbons, came rushing to ask me about it and to exclaim over it.  Some of the white-glove quilt show workers then noticed the commotion and came hurrying over to greet me, and to inform passersby who I was.  A lady who doesn’t quilt, but spends many summers in Alaska and is friends with members of a quilt guild up there, asked her husband to take pictures of us together, so she could show her friends that she met the maker of the Best of Show quilt in faraway Nebraska.

I’m famous!  😄

Next, we headed toward Fonner Park Concourse, where the Textile Arts were displayed, along with photos and floral arrangements and suchlike.  At the back of the building were model airplanes, boats, and working model trains with miniature villages.  On the way to the Concourse, we found an antique car show.

By the time we were done there, it was 2:30, and we were getting hungry.  So we shared a hot, hot funnel cake with cream cheese drizzled all over the top, and cooled ourselves down with frozen strawberry smoothies.  Mmmmm, mmm.

Next, we went to the Nebraska Game & Parks building to look at the aquarium, and for Larry to take a little stint in the archery room.  He only has to take one shot , and the people who are standing beside the shooters telling them exactly how to do it back off and just let him, since he clearly knows what he is doing and is an excellent shot.

Working our way back towards the parking lot where we’d left the Jeep, we went by the arenas where children were having camel rides, pony rides, and feeding the goats.  When we got to the gate, the man tending it asked if we’d seen the Percherons.  We hadn’t.  He, seeming to think that our lives were coming to an end for the lack of Percheron sighting, offered to take us on his golf cart to the barn where they were housed, so we could see them.  We accepted the offer, and away we went.

Those humongous glossy black horses were already back in their stalls, but we walked through the barn, looking at them and rubbing their large, soft noses.

We left the fairgrounds at a quarter after four, explored the old downtown area for a few minutes, and then went to Applebee’s for supper, making use of the gift card our neighbor man gave us for caring for his animals.  As we climbed out of the Jeep in Applebee’s parking lot, we heard the nearby calls of Canada geese.  Looking around, we discovered a flock of eleven low-flying geese heading straight toward us.

“Cover your head!” cried Larry – but I was instead grabbing my camera.

The camera seemed to put them off, for they immediately swooped up and over us, momentarily losing their V formation as I brought the camera up to my face.

Larry had a grilled chicken salad with almonds and strawberries, and I had a loaded sirloin steak fajita that would have been totally scrumptious, IF they had not left all the gristle in the steak.  😝  

Thirty minutes or so after we’d launched into those gigantic plates full of food, they were still heaped.  Steadfast and valiant, we munched on.  The waitress came along, looked at us, looked at our plates, grinned, and asked, “Will you be wanting boxes to take the leftovers with you?”

We would, and we did.  There is enough in our refrigerator for tomorrow evening’s meal.

We got back to the fairgrounds a little after 7 to pick up all the items I’d entered – five in Textile Arts, and two in Quilts.

On our way home, we topped off the tank with E85 in Central City, since there are no stations that sell it in Columbus, and the Jeep runs infinitely better with it.  Then we went to Dairy Queen for dessert.  Larry got a Royal New York Cheesecake Blizzard; I ordered a Summer Berry Cheesecake Blizzard.

The part of the Monroe Cutoff roadway that got washed out from the floods in March has been cobbled back together with dirt and gravel so that it’s at least passable.  We like to take it when we are coming home from Grand Island, as it saves us about 12 minutes, since we don’t have to go through town.

Driving that road at night in the summertime is not entirely pleasant, as there are frogs galore hopping across the road, and one cannot help but hit one now and then.  And sometimes they hit us, jumping at exactly the right instant to smack kerblooey into the side of the Jeep. 😝😲😖😳🤪😵🥴🐸 

I asked Larry, “Why are they all going from the right side of the road to left?” and he answered knowledgeably, “Because they’re all young men, and they’re going west.”  🤣

We had a very nice time today – and I have the sunburn to prove it.  Nothing major; just a small spot on the back of my neck I must’ve missed when applying sunblock lotion, and funny-looking spots immediately above both ankles where the sun was able to hit below my denim skirt as I was walking.

Time out; I need to distract sweet ol’ blundering, purring Tiger so Larry can escape into the bathroom for his nightly ablutions (Larry is too much of a milquetoast to even gently push the kitty back out into the hallway).

Now I shall go through my photos.  I took enough pictures that it’s going to take a good long while to edit, label, and upload them.

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,