Quilts, Rugs and animals at the fair

The Mariposa County Fair in Mariposa CA is held on Labor Day weekend. MM and I decided to check it out.

The good thing about small fairs is that they aren't very crowded.

 

4H is very active in this community. This boy was getting ready to take his goose for a walk.

 



 

These two won 1st and second place for their technique in showing their goats. The girl won first place.

 

Here are a few of the quilts, because of the way they were displayed it was hard to get good pictures.

 

 

I think this one would make a good rug pattern:

 

 

Appropriate pattern for a mountain town:

 

 

A crazy quilt won best of show:

 

 

It was a king size quilt

 

 

Here come the rugs.

 

This one is about 3'x5'

 

 

Another rug artist version. This one was 4'x6'

 

 

A mat to cover a wooden foot rest.

 

 

Flowers seemed to be the theme this year. This one is about 4'x3'

 

Roses 4'x3'

 

 

Final rug, the only braided rug in the show.



 

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see rugs at the fair. I can't wait until October to see if any are entered in the Fresno Fair. It's a much bigger fair so I'm hopeful.

 

On our way home we stopped at the Mariposa Coffee Company:

 



 

 



 



They roast coffee and it smelled wonderful. I bought some burlap bags to repurpose, but no coffee this time.

What a fun day we had.

Til next time, Ronda



 

Red Sun

I woke up this morning to a red sun behind a curtain of smoke, it was an eerie sight. The smoke is from the "Rim" fire on the northern edge of Yosemite (Yes this is the fire that has been on the news for over a week now). The wind direction changed yesterday bringing the smoke into our area. I feel bad for tourists going into Yosemite this weekend, the smoke is blanketing the area hiding all the beautiful views. Firefighters are starting to get an handle on it but it will probably be a couple of more weeks before it's completely out.

Mariposa, a small town about 30 miles north of us, was suppose to have clean air so we decided to go over for the day. The Mariposa County Fair is going on so we thought we check it out. We got to Mariposa in time for a parade.

Crowd lining up before the parade.

 

Best seats in town:

 

 

Here comes the parade: (notice the bright blue skies).

 

 



Grand Marshalls:

 

Love the flag bearer

 

 

Have to have a marching band

 



 

Rodeo Queen

 

A boat???

 

 

Now this is a float

 

 

Local football team (only in small towns)

 

 

Here come the cars

 

A painted pony

 

 

My favorite parade sidekick 

 

 

This trolley is a long way from San Francisco. It ended the parade.

 

 

 

We enjoyed the parade. It was fun hearing family and friends cheer for their "people" in the parade.

 

I felt bad people trying to drive down highway 49, it goes right through the middle of town so they had to wait for about an hour, until the parade was finished.

 

In my next post I'll share pictures from the fair: quilts, rugs and a few animals.

 

Til next time. Ronda

 

Road Trip part 2

After leaving Golfsmith we headed to Manteca, CA where we were spending the night. I booked the hotel that was in the same lot as Bass Pro Shops thinking that we would go there the next morning. Wrong. After a nap it was off to shop some more.

If you get a chance to visit a Bass Pro store stop and go in. Even if you're not an outdoors person it is quite an experience. At this store you enter though the middle of a giant sequoia. 

The store is huge, the picture below shows half of the bottom floor. Fishing, hunting, camping, boating, clothing, cabin décor, anything to do with the outdoors is in this store.

You might even run into some of your friends.

MM found a camo shirt and was checking out ammo.

I didn't find anything this visit but did see some cute shirts and sweaters for fall.

We were tired when we got home but we had a good time on our road trip.

Til next time, Ronda

Road Trip part 1

MM has been wanting to go to the Golfsmith store in Pleasanton, CA so we took a roadtrip. Why would anyone drive 3 hours to go to a golf store you ask, because it is a superstore. As the pictures will show below you can find anything that has to do with golf in this store, even lessons and club fitting. Wish they had a superstore for quilters.

Impressive from the outside.

 

Clubs are displayed on 3/4's of the back wall. They even have a good selection of ladies clubs. Sorry about the small picture but I had to back way up to get most of the area in.

 

 

Golf clothes took up the center part of the store, this is just a small area. 

 

 

Shoes anyone? I love that they are now marketing "hybrid" golf shoes that you can wear on and off the course. They look a lot like fancy tennis shoes to me.



 

 

Pull carts and golf bags.

 

 

Accessories: balls, gloves, hats, ect, ect, ect.

 

 



There is even an indoor driving range where you can test clubs to your hearts delight.

 



 

I bought a sleeve of golf balls I've been wanting to try and a new glove.

 

 MM got to choose one thing for his birthday (coming up in September). Would it be new shoes? a new club? No he decided on a range finder. It looks like a watch and fits on his wrist, gives him yardage to the hole when he's on the course.

 

When we got home yesterday he drove up to our local course and tried it out. He didn't play he just walked the first two holes and said it worked great.

 

After a couple of hours in the store we were starving so we went to On The Border for lunch.

 



 

Then it was on to.....

 

Tune in next time to see where we go next. Ronda

 

 

 

Busy day at Wool Poppies

Today was our August Wool Poppies meeting and it was action packed. We had to:

       -choose categories for the rugs we're displaying at the November Art Hop show .
       -put together our Chapters raffle basket for the Bi-Annual in Long Beach CA.
       -color plan our raffle rug for 2014, so we can start hooking it.
       -plan our beginners class that we'll be holding in late October
       -schedule members to demonstrate at our local fair, as well as the Civil War Re-enactment.

We all left tired but we accomplished a lot.

Rug planning:

       Wool is selected and sorted into lights, darks and medium.

 

Placing the darks:

 

Snippets pinned to the squares, almost done planning. I can't wait to see what it turns out like. Each "Poppy" will get the rug for 2 weeks to hook a portion. I get it the first week of November so a lot of it will be done. 

 

Here are pictures of some of the rugs that will be displayed at the Art show:

 

This one is by Gail Becker and is about 24" wide and 18" high.

 

 

This one is about 4' by 2'

 

 

 

This rug is by Karla and measures 4'x3'

 

 

Another one by Karla:

 



 

I'm not sure which Poppy hooked this one, it is 4'x5' and will be hung on the wall. Don't you want to vacation in this cabin?

 

 

This colorful rug is 4'x4'.

 

 

Another geometric, 4'x3'

 



 

More of Gail's rugs:

 

This one is 3'x6'

 

 

 

At the Oasis 2'x3'

 

Turtles 1'x4'

Bouquet of flowers 2'x3'



 

This one is fun, it is done in a 10' cut (wide cut of wool strips)

 



 

 

And last but not least Karla's Sleigh Ride, 4'x3'. It almost looks 3 dimensional.

 



 



There are some talented Artists in the Poppies.

 

While I was in town I bought yarn to finish my purse and leaf mat. Hopefully I'll finish them soon.

 

I'm one pooped Poppy so til next time, Ronda

 

P.S. Yes Keith some of these rugs are used on the floor.