Quilts and Fabric and Hamlet

I've been trying to do this blog post for a week now.  Life has gotten in the way.  But I think I'm finally getting it done!

I have a rather random collection of things for this post.  I hope you'll bear with me.

First of all is my big news:

"Best of Division" ribbon

I won the top ribbon at the local county fair!  I was totally shocked!!  Also very happy!  I had a goofy grin on my face all day after I found out.  Those of you who are my friends on Facebook have already learned about this, but I thought everybody else might want to know too.

This is the quilt that won, my "Mod 9-Patch: Comma Musings" that I've shown on the blog before.  

We had a rather small turnout this year in the quilts category as the fair turned out to be a little of a last-minute thing.  Our fair has been having problems for the last few years (the county no longer wants to run it), but a new group of local people have taken it over and we have high hopes for next year.

A couple of weeks ago I won a giveaway over on Stephanie's blog kwiltzbystephanie.  Last week my goodies arrived in the mail.  I won some fat quarters of text fabrics!  A big, big thank you, Stephanie!  I love them!

Some of these fat quarters are a very generous size (larger that a FQ).  And I have never seen these prints before either.  Fun, fun, FUN!

My DH recently made a business trip to Taiwan, and I asked him to bring me some traditional Taiwanese fabrics, if he could find some.  I was envisioning something like Japanese indigos.  Here is what he brought me:

He's made a number of trips to Taiwan and knows where "The Cotton Store" is in the fabric district.  So he headed there.  These fabrics were bought in another store that he was sent to, as The Cotton Store doesn't carry the traditional fabrics.  The sales clerk told him these were traditional, and when I did a Google search, this type of design is what came up.  DH says all the women wear dresses made of similar fabrics.  I think these are really fun!  I don't know what I'll be making with them, but I'm looking forward to working with them.  I got a meter of each.

Check out this selvage!  I can barely remember my history well enough to remember that Taiwan used to be called Formosa.  Wait, does that mean I'm showing my age??  *grin*

We had a sad happening here a couple of weeks ago.  My DS's sweet old kitty Hamlet had to be put to sleep.  He was about 15 years old, and was suffering greatly from diabetes and liver failure.  

Hamlet

Here is one of the last pictures of Hamlet, taken in our back yard about 2 weeks before his death.  I think my son got a beautiful picture of him.  Hamlet was the best kitty ever!  He had the sweetest temperament of any cat I've ever met,  and was just so calm and loving. Hamlet got along with everyone, whether they were people, cats, dogs, pet rats or even livestock. He taught my kitty Shade how to be a good housecat when we rescued Shade from the backyard, plus he helped raise another kitten later.  Hamlet was with my son throughout the 7 houses and 3 states that they lived in, and as long as he could be near my son, he was happy.  He will be sorely missed.

Hopefully my next post will not be such a long wait for you.  I've already got it planned . . . hopefully the execution will happen soon.  In the meantime, I hope you're having a great summer (or whatever season you're in), and getting to do some sewing.  Happy quilting!