It's A Material Thing .....

Time for the annual Desert Lily Quilters Show in Yuma and lucky for us, it's always after our rally when we are here.  While Dan did man-type things, Patty and I trucked off early to catch all the bargains.

There's a rule at the quilt show ... you NEVER EVER touch a quilt without gloves on, which they give you at the door, so there's no excuse.  Touch a quilt barehanded and you're on the chain gang!!

There are lots of amazing things here, most of which I wouldn't even think about attempting.  This one with cowboy boots and baling wire was right up my alley.

Most all of these works of art were so intricate, it's hard to believe how many hours were involved. 

Some kind of made me dizzy, but many inspired me to work a little harder and be more exacting in my stitching.

It's not just the women who were here by the way.  Almost every single booth had men involved, many of them actually doing the quilting of the project after it was sewn.   This beautiful piece really caught my eye.

By now I'm pretty loaded down with fabric and patterns.  Almost everything is on sale and you can find things not readily available anywhere else.  This Harley T-Shirt quilt was VERY popular.  They sell a 10" piece of plastic, perfect for laying over the design and cutting it out, then you just iron it on backing so it won't stretch out of shape.  Sew them together and you have a quilt!!  Wouldn't you know, I just hauled all my old diving T-shirts off to the Goodwill.

Here's a Blue Ribbon winner ... each poppy and strand were sewn on before it was quilted into a beautiful piece of art.  It's pretty amazing what these ladies (and men) can do!!

In one of the side rooms were all sizes of small quilt wall hangings.  Many were embellished with beads, chains and all things shiny!!  

It was a great way to spend the morning, but by now my fingers are being cut to the bone by the heavy plastic bag full of goodies I'm carrying.  One last stop at the Rusty Crow to watch a rag rug making demonstration and we were hooked!!  This isn't rug hooking, but rug sewing, using up all your leftover material.

The book, including the tool, was $16.95.  Let me save you some money.  The book is very hard to understand and tells you to work backwards.  I went to their website where they have a video which shows it MUCH better ...  Rustycrowquiltshop.com   I'm sure you can find something similar to use for a tool ... maybe your husband can make one.  It's narrow at one end, wider at the other, and the wide end has a 3/8" hold to thread the 2" wide fabric through.  It will be a great way to use up all my big scraps ... 6 yards worth to be exact.

Since I wasn't able to find all of the material I needed for two of my projects, Patty and I will probably head back to the fabric store today while running errands.  We hope to catch up with Ray and Cindy Warner, whom we met on the Oregon Coast a couple years ago.  They have purchased a winter home here in Yuma, not to mention Cindy sews quilt tops and Ray quilts them!!  We can't wait to see Cindy's works of art!!

The word of the day wasn't material however, it was PROPANE!!  Surprise!!  I sat home and waited most of the afternoon, just in case he decided to show up ... AND HE DID!!  Yay for WARM!!  I now have a full tank worth a fortune, since the price is about 75 cents a gallon higher than Flying J.  I don't mind though ... I'll be warm and toasty again!!