Wednesday already?

Not too many posts from me lately - I've been travelling around the USA for the past 3 months and am heading home to New Zealand tomorrow. I was hoping to have a 'quilty-er' visit, but for some reason DH and DD are not so interested in quilty activities.

My mother is a quilter, so I brought along projects to work on, thinking I would do some needle-turn applique while on the road and some piecing while at my parents place. While packing up my bags today I realized how little I've done in the 3 months. We have had a wonderful trip, so I shouldn't sound disappointed.

Cotton Robin round robin: I worked on 3 other quilts and mine came home while I was in the US. It's amazing how many great ideas I saw on all of the quilts in the round robin.







Block Lotto April: I won in April - what a fantastic surprise. I ended up with 48 blocks; 24 of them I've pieced together. I'm still trying to decide on a border. The other 24 Ill put together into another single-sized quilt using a different setting.





Block Lotto May: I made 5 of these free-form stars.










Block Lotto June: I managed 3 of these modified schoolhouse blocks. I used the paper-pieced patter which I thought would be easier than the normal piecing method - the number of pieces to cut did not appeal to me.





Block Lotto July: Nine silly string blocks went together super fast.








Besides some quilting, I did manage to visit a few quilt shops. I was surprised that they did not seem so much better or bigger than the ones I have access to at home - maybe I'm luckier than I think. The prices are much better in the US, but the current exchange rate really helps because my NZ dollars are worth much more than on previous visits.

I caught a few quilt exhibits:

• National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY: A great variety of quilts on display. I especially enjoyed the basket challange that included modern interpretations of the basket motif and antique quilts as well.
• Abby Alrich Rokefeller Folk Museum in Williamsburg, VA: Beautiful collection of red & green Baltimore album quilts from the 19th century and early 20th century.
• Quilters Unlimited annual show in Chantilly, VA: A large show with a diverse display of quilts and vendors.