State Fair, Take 4

Here are some quilt designs that caught my eye. The brightly colored one has three-dimensional shapes included. The black/white/yellow one was done by a friend, Nancy Horan. The other one is just a section of a beautiful quilt.

State Fair, Take 3

Before chowing down on my yearly corn dog and pineapple whip, I soaked up the art work and quilt exhibits, my favorite part of the fair beside the animals. These photos show some of the work that intrigued me because of the unusual use of space or the colors used. Note the very close-up one of the woman wearing glasses is a collage. Look carefully and you'll see fabrics included in the work.

State Fair, Take 2

And the winner of the Ugly Lamp Contest!

The best state fair in the country

The Kentucky State Fair ranks right up there as the best alongside Thanksgiving! As soon as we parked and stepped inside the West Wing, the overpowering aroma of frying country ham assaulted us. The table was crowded, people waiting for a sample. We bypassed that to go around to the sorghum table where samples of fresh, hot biscuit drizzled with sorghum/molasses (What IS the difference anyway?) were handed out. Of course I had one. We also bought some sorghum suckers for Rob and Cassie and they are on their way to New Jersey right now.

Just down from those two tables, I watched a bit as baby chicks were hatching, stumbling their way into life.

This one may sound strange but I like the smell of the cattle barn. Workers diligently keep the mess scooped up so all you get is the warm smell of the cattle mixed with hay. MMMMM. This year we only walked through the cattle barn and skipped all the other animals. We headed toward Freddy the Farmer and designated it as a meeting site, just like probably everybody else who attends the fair. I took off on my own while Jerry stayed in that area.

On my way to the fine arts and crafts displays, I stopped a while and listened to a large group from the Louisville Dulcimer Society playing...dulcimers...but also banjos, harmonicas, tub bass, and other instruments. The Society is just a group of older people who enjoy playing; they're not professionals but were having fun and were fun to listen to.

The commercial exhibit section of the fair presents a whole myriad of items, everything from Swifter-type cleaners, jewelry, fresh fudge, hot tubs, outdoor buildings, T-shirts with unmentionable sayings, and hand-made purses. The strangest I saw this year was a whole section devoted to caskets. Yep, you could purchase your very own casket right there at the fair!!

I got an overdose of UGLY when viewing the "Ugly Lamp Contest" sponsored by Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Some of the more obnoxious ones are shown.

Pre-Kentucky State Fair

Excitement is in the air...the State Fair is gearing up to open later this week! I spent all day yesterday checking in artwork, reassuring folks who'd never entered before, correcting labels, making sure the work got placed in the right class, seeing a couple of old friends (Al and Michael Gorman, Kathy and Jim French). It's amazing how quickly a LOAD of work is done to prepare for opening day; there were crews all over the place getting exhibits ready, lining up metal dividers and curtains to separate exhibits, pitching tents to house military displays, beer halls, music performers, among others. Does Louisville host the best state fair in the country?

Yeah, I see that I misspelled Invasion.

Invastion of THE TWINS!

What a weekend! Saturday evening we met Amanda, Shawn, and the twins at Vietnam Kitchen where those two little girls gobbled down sizzling rice soup and turnip cakes. Also, between those two and me, we drank about 3 pots of tea. Mistake! That meant spin cycle energy the rest of the night.

Iroquois Amphitheater had a free showing of Hotel For Dogs so off we went: Jerry, Amanda, Libby, Ellie, and me. Amanda, thank goodness, brought insect repellent. Pre-show, a guy asked trivia questions and whoever in the audience got the correct answer received a bag of free popcorn. One of the twins was called on, got the answer, and was ecstatic she'd WON FREE POPCORN!! The movie was cute -- what I saw of it. I spent much of the evening standing in line for the popcorn and standing outside the restroom door waiting...the tea took its effect on the girls.

After the movie, Amanda came over and the four of us played Monopoly in the kitchen while Jerry tried to watch TV in the next room. To speed things up, I traded some of my property to Amanda to make hers stronger. Libby and Ellie came muttering, "Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it..." then screamed like they were tortured when I made the exchange. We finally just stopped around 1:30-2:00 and the game wasn't even finished. It was exactly 2:22 when I dropped into bed, exhausted.

Since we'd sprayed the twins with repellent, they had to bathe before getting into bed. Neither wanted to shower; both wanted to use the tub. So, they argued about who was going first, who got the tub. Then I suggested the one in the shower use my shower cap since they didn't want to wash their hair. SHOWER CAP??? You have a shower cap?? Suddenly, the BOTH wanted to shower instead of taking a bath. So, I dug around and found another cap and they both very willingly took a shower then. It's funny how such a small thing can make such a big difference.

When we drove them back to Bardstown, we went to Neal's church for a wonderful fish fry dinner. Home that evening sure was quiet; I missed them.

Sibling Lunch

The second Saturday of each month is the Hay sibling lunch day. Since I've been in the family nearly as long as the younger ones, I'm a sibling, too! Here are Betty and Jackie in the back, Murph and Sandy in the front enjoying dessert at Widow's Walk. (Jerry's sister and our brother-in-law)

Nancy, Susan, and Zuela.

Left image is one of the squares on a quilt Dawn is making. On the right are my oldest buddies, Nancy and Susan. We've been friends over 50 years!

Busy days

Saturday, we drove to the Amish farm in Indiana where we usually stop on our way to French Lick. Wilma, the young wife, is going to do the quilting on a quilt top that Grandma pieced together; I would guess it's maybe 80 or 90 years old. To keep her from having to use their money to buy supplies, we took her enough to buy the batting, backing, thread, and anything else she'll need. The road leading up to their house and barns crosses a small stream of water. As I started to drive across, Jerry pointed and said, "Look there!" I was glad he did because I hadn't seen their two boys, around 4 and 5 years old, sitting on the bridge, stacks of rocks piled up next to them. I stopped and asked if they were throwing them into the water and they nodded yes. Of course they had also nodded when I asked if they were fishing. The children don't speak English so they're agreeable about any question you ask them. (It's great their mother and father feels safe enough to let them roam away from the house like that.) A few minutes later, a teen-aged Amish boy gave the two little ones a ride back home in a horse drawn cart! They got another ride when I pulled them around in a red wagon, all three piled in at once.

Yesterday was the unusual, never-before flash flood. It rained over 6 inches in about an hour. With no place for the water to go, it made its own place -- into the basements of many houses, including the main public library and University of Louisville. No estimates have been announced about how much it will cost but it's going to be a doozy. In less than one year, Louisville has experienced:
1. a hurricane last fall (a hurricane in the center of the United States?? YES!)
2. destructive ice storm after which it took months and months to clean up all the broken tree limbs and other debris
3. the flash flood. Weather conditions oddly combined so that the rain storm stalled over Louisville and dropped all the water on our city, water that should have been spread across the state.
This has been a rough year for Louisville.

Today, Nancy, Susan, and I went to Nancy's next door neighbor, Dawn's, house for a demonstration of her embroidery sewing machine. It's amazing. She uses her computer to figure out a design, sends the design to the computer in the machine, selects colors of threads to use, loads the threads, then gives the "go ahead" signal to the machine, then sits back and just watches it do the work. She had set it up to do 4 initials, one for each of the 3 of us and the other for Carole, Nancy's sister who couldn't make it today. While the machine was doing its work, we ate a delicious lunch Dawn had prepared then sat at the table and discussed health care, pregnant daughters-in-law, the car show, Socialism ...the most intense being Obama's proposed health care plan. The machine (or program) messed up but Dawn said she'd do them correctly later and send them to us. She had also done dish towels with embroidered designs, one for each of us!! Generous lady.