It is hard to see what is in this picture because the subject is black and does not photograph well. This is a picture of Joey. Last weekend after the quilt show, the quilts that I brought home were put on the bench in the entrance and guess who found them! Joey has learned that quilts present the softest spot to sleep. When I read Finn’s latest post about Ebby, I smiled because I could totally relate!

Joey came to live with us as an older kitten. He had already been on his own, running wild on a farm when we adopted him at six months of age. It took a considerable amount of time to get him to come out from behind the couch. Joey still doesn’t do visitors well. He usually disappears when someone new comes over. The only people he doesn’t run away from are my parents. If my dad puts his hand over the side of the chair Joey will come under his hand to get his back rubbed.

When I am at home, Joey is my constant companion. He follows me from room to room and if I sit at the computer, he is on my lap. He does not like to be cuddled, but he does like to lay on my lap–on his terms only.

My mother felt that I should have a cat perch for my studio window for Joey. I purchased the perch, mounted it and introduced it to Joey. He was not impressed at first. I had to lift him onto it several times over several days before he finally would get up there on his own. Now if I am working in the studio, Joey is on his perch. This is a picture of him from a few days ago.

This post is dedicated to my quilting buddy–Joey.

This has been a busy weekend! The activity has definitely been quilt related, but I haven’t been quilting.

Saturday was our quilt guild’s first “hung” quilt show. We have had two quilt shows in the past – 2 and 4 years ago respectively, but they were a version of “show and tell”. A hung show is definitely a lot more work, but well worth the results.

We had 142 quilts entered. It is surprising that we never asked our members for any quilts in particular, we never jurried the quilts into the show, and yet we received 142 very different and distinct quilts–all wonderful quality!

We received several favorable comments during the show from visitors.

Along with the quilts that were displayed, we had a vendor’s mall: 3 quilt shops, 1 yarn shop, and several of our members had tables including a bear maker. We sold tickets on a raffle quilt – proceeds support purchasing supplies for our We Care program. We had several door prizes–your door prize ticket was included in your admission to the show. We also sold tickets on draws that were made each hour for lovely gift baskets that were chock full of fabric, patterns, kits, coupons for oil changes, travel mugs, Jim Shore ornaments, etc. Some of our members and the local chapter of the Applique Society provided ongoing demonstrations. We also had a tea room where you could purchase sandwiches, crackers and cheese, and sweets to have with your coffee and tea.

The last count I heard was over 350 visitors for the day (not including our own guild members)!

I was involved in the set up of the show on Friday afternoon / evening and was working at the show all day Saturday including take down of the quilts and frames and clean up at the end of the day. I was exhausted today and would have enjoyed sleeping in. This morning I should have been able to sleep an extra hour because of the time change but no one informed Joey of the arrangement so he was up as usual–at 5:30 am! If Joey is up, I soon have to get up because when he is hungry he doesn’t leave me alone until I have fed him!

Enjoy the last of the pictures from the show and join me in congratulating the PieceMakers for a very successful show!

And even more quilts………..

These are some of the larger quilts from yesterday’s quilt show.

These are some of the smaller quilts that were hung on the lattice work down the side of the hall.

Our guild has a very active We Care committee that inspires the membership to make many quilts for donation to local Women’s shelters, hospitals, seniors’ homes, and victims’ service agencies. This was a display of some of the quilts that have been make over the last year for our We Care program.

These are some of the We Care quilts that were bundled and ready for presentation to some of our benefactors later in the show. They look like presents ready to be unwrapped by their new owners.