2011 Quilt Show

{Please feel free to click on any picture in this post to enlarge and see the details of the quilts!!!}
Our JHS Quilt/Craft/Demo Show was last Saturday. It was one day only this year, so we helped set up on Friday evening, and took everything down on Saturday evening.
There were a record number of quilts displayed this year, 197, with 52 of them made by our featured quilter, Doris Popejoy. It was a joy for me to interview her for the paper, and Beth wrote up a very nice article about her. She has made around 100 quilts, and inspired her daughters and granddaughter to quilt also! Her daughters had beautiful quilts in the show too. This is Doris standing by her 80th birthday quilt (on the left). Her friends in the quilting club made the blocks and she put them together. The fabrics used in this quilt are all 1930s reproduction fabrics.

The following are the front row of Doris's quilts. Her quilts were on three rows. I loved all of them.




This one is one of my favorites of hers.

More of her beautiful quilts.

We had to get creative to fit all the quilts in this year. We added a couple more complete rows, but also strung a second line for Doris's smaller wall hangings.

This one was made by Doris's daughter, Laura Morrison, and she won the Arias Floral Business Choice. This was paper pieced, and after quilting, many tiny "gems" were added.

Patricia Lamfers won 1st place in the viewer's choice with her "Colorado Gold" quilt. It was also chosen as Hays Market Business Choice. The machine embroidery is truly wonderful!

Daisy Bolter made "Irish Sam in the Fields" and won 2nd place in the viewer's choice. I told her my quilt was honored to hang beside her winning quilt. (You can see my quilt at the right edge of the picture.) The quilting on this one was so special and I loved the mint green and browns.

This closer view shows the quilting better.

This is called "Down on the Farm" and was the 3rd place viewer's choice. It was made by Minerva Lee. The details on it are very amazing!

"Staci's Lighthouses" by Patricia Lamfers was ACE Hardware's Business Choice.

These are some others that our family loved. I voted for this tulip quilt. I loved the colors.

The flowers were so pretty in this one.

Our very favorites are our own, even though they are not fancy or intricate. They are ours! Nine Patch Plaid, which I gave Jason for graduation.

Five Stripes which graces Rowen's and my bed.

My girls "manned" the bake sale table from 9-11 and 3-5. They are old hands at it. This year was my first time to work the bake sale.

We have hundreds more pictures, but won't post them all here! There was also a gym full of vendors selling their crafts, and a hallway full of crafters demonstrating their skills. It was a fun and successful day.

News about Janet

Last Thursday, I had a check up with the oncologist and signed up for the clinical drug trial. Dr. Stroh thinks I have done extremely well. I know it is all the Lord's help and answers to many people's prayers.

Yesterday I had my chemo port removed. It was in the office of my surgeon. I didn't get to watch, because the blue sterile drape covered my head! It didn't really hurt, just pressure part of the time, and "bee sting" feelings for the stitching back up. I made the mistake of saying "yes" to the doctor's thoughtful suggestion of a waterproof bandage, so that I could have a shower last night. Too late I realized it was the clear bandage I have developed an allergy to throughout the course of this year's procedures! By evening, I was quite red where the sterile drape (with the hole for the procedure) had been adhered for the 15 minutes and where the clear bandage was. Immediately after the shower, I removed the bandage and put a large bandaid on. Normal bandaids don't affect me like the fancy hospital ones do. Vitamin E cream helped a lot with the burning of the allergic reaction. The skin is missing in one spot, but the redness is less today.

I have 6 steri strips on top of the stitches. The steri strips will fall off by themselves in the next week or so. The stitches are supposed to dissolve. A resident shadowing my surgeon did all the sewing.

I am so grateful to have the port out. It was a wonderful thing to have in my body as long as I needed it. I am glad to not need it anymore!

Next week I will see the plastic surgeon one last time and the following day, I will have a fasting blood sugar test, a chest xray, and get to fill out a questionnaire to start the clinical trial of Metformin (or a placebo, if that is the group I fall into). The tamoxifen, (anti-estrogen drug), has been ordered and has not yet arrived, but I'll be taking it daily.

The excellent news today is that I believe I can taste foods accurately now! It is wonderful when food tastes like it is supposed to taste, rather than the taste of a tin can. I am very thankful for that.

Though I still have bruising on three of my fingernails, only one fingernail is loose more than half way down. I think I will only lose that one, if it comes off.

My hair is growing already! Some are just emerging, but there are some up to 3/4 inch long and every length in between. So far, no curls... I have very sparse eyebrows.

I am feeling stronger this week. The weakness of arms and legs was my biggest complaint since the final chemo. Something about "cumulative effect," I suppose.

God has blessed me so much by getting me through the cancer journey. I want to use the time He gives me to be a blessing to others, to give Him praise and honor, and to accomplish what He has planned for the rest of my life. Thank you each one for the prayers you have prayed for me.