Country Fest 2022

During my blogging break, the farmer and I drove to Pennsylvania to visit the grandchildren and their parents. The children are growing so fast!

On the last day of our visit, we attended Country Fest. Every year I donate at least 1 quilt top, sometimes more, to be hand quilted then auctioned in the quilt auction. This year three of my quilts were sold.

Here is a link to quilts sold in this year's auction. I took pictures of my quilts since they're quilted now and I've link to the last post about these quilts.

The first quilt to show you is Stars Around the Garden.  She sold for $1700. The name is listed incorrectly in the sale catalog. I put my own twist on this quilt so she finishes at a larger size than the original pattern. Stars is 93" by 106".

I had suggested using diamonds for the background of this applique, which was a good choice. Of course they stitched in the ditch around the applique.

When no one was looking, I snuck under the rope and took a close up picture of the backside of the quilt. The feather swag is the outside border, the cross hatching the checkerboard border and then the narrow border around the pieced stars. I didn't crawl in far enough to get the backside of the stars or applique.

Here's a link to the Stars Around the Garden pattern. 

Antique Stars variation was another of my quilts and sold for $900. I love how this quilt looks! Antique Stars variation measures 91" by 99".

I had sent the stencils along with the quilt top for this feather cable design. I thought it would be perfect for the outside border. I would have liked to have had a wider outside black border but I ran out of fabric and didn't want to go buy more. The black I had been using was many years old and I knew there was no way I'd find the same fabric. Besides, I'm trying to use the fabric I have on hand, not buy more!

I was disappointed in the quilting on the corners of this star. The small star was a good idea but just didn't fill the space like it should have. I guess I should have sent a stencil to use in the corners but it never occurred to me they would use such a tiny design. 

And a closeup of the Ohio Stars.

I called the quilt Antique Stars but it's based on the Ancient Stars pattern by Sue Garman. I originally had planned to make the whole quilt but ran out of steam piecing all those Ohio Star blocks.

The final quilt was Puss in the Corner and she sold for $875. I didn't get a full picture of this quilt, there was a comforter hanging on the bottom half of the rack. This quilt measures 90" by 103.5".

I wasn't sure how this quilt would sell, not everyone likes red. I was afraid this would be the quilt that no one would want but I was wrong.

Here's a close up of the quilting on the back.

And a closeup of quilting on the side.

Puss in the corner is a traditional pattern and very simple to make. You can make your blocks whatever size you want to make them.

Nancy J. Yoder quilted all 3 of my quilt tops.

We didn't stay for the entire auction, we left after my quilts were sold then headed for Holmes County, Ohio to spend the night at my sister Karen's home. 

The bedroom we slept in had this lovely grandmother's flower garden on the bed. When I asked her where it came from, she told me the pieces were in a box deep in the closet of mom's sewing room. She found it while we were cleaning out mom's stuff after she died.

She didn't know if mother cut the pieces or if it was a kit or where it came from. This quilt isn't the type of handwork our mother normally made. Karen had another quilter finish the piecing and the hand quilting. Isn't this a beautiful quilt!

After a delicious breakfast, we headed for home. The mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and southeastern Ohio are very picturesque. We looked in amazement at the fields in those mountains and wondered how farmers were able to drive a tractor in those steeps fields!

Soon we were in the flatlands of north central Ohio and headed straight west on US 30 towards Fort Wayne. Even though we had several hundred miles and many hours to travel, we felt at home amongst all the corn and soybeans fields. Mountains are beautiful, the flatlands are home.

I checked the mileage after we arrived home, 1300 miles! Our own bed sure felt good that night.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts