Today I'm starting on a new quilt. It's for a church raffle, and needs to be finished by September 13. Here are my fabrics: The bottom 6 are from a fat quarter packet my mom gave me for Christmas one year. I added the top fabric and white background fabric. I'm going to be doing a triangle quilt like this one I made a few (aack, five!) years ago.
Oh my, don't the boys look little? Connor hasn't even been born yet!
We went to the Wisconsin State Fair on Sunday, to see a band, eat lots of junk, and check out my stuff. This year I entered 4 items, and did pretty good! I watched clothing judging, so already knew how the garments did, but was curious to see how my jam placed (if at all). I had a really good feeling about my jam this year...
I was delighted to find out it placed FIRST! :) I don't know if I had a bad week or something, but finding out my jam placed first just made my day. Heck, I woke up yesterday morning still smiling about it.
I was also delighted to see that this dress got a Judge's Favorite ribbon. I hope I get to keep the fancy ribbon. I think the judge liked the inner foundation and the underlining. Honestly, the judges don't really make much commentary on my stuff the few times I've watched judging.
I'll pick everything up on the 17th, after the fair closes. Five years ago I had to send my mom to get my stuff because a certain baby decided to be born 10 days early and I was stuck in the hospital. Yep, can you believe Connor will be FIVE on Saturday?!?!
On July 17, we found a caterpillar on our milkweed. We decided to take it in and feed it. About 10 minutes later, Calvin found a second caterpillar, so we had two to take care of. We put them in half-gallon canning jars.
They ate, and ate, and ate (they poop a lot too!). We kept feeding them milkweed and cleaning out the jars. On July 21, one of the caterpillars started to form a chrysalis. They hang in this "J" shape for a while.
The next day, we had a chrysalis! We eventually moved them to an aquarium I got from a friend.
On Saturday afternoon (August 1), I took this picture. Isn't it cool? You can see the butterfly forming.
Overnight, the chrysalis turned black. I was told that this meant the butterflies would be emerging within a few hours. So we kept watch.
We missed seeing the first butterfly actually come out of the chrysalis, but saw it soon afterwards. The butterfly's body is so fat and the wings are so little!
A few minutes later, you can see that the wings are already 'growing'. We then decided to camp in front of the aquarium so that we wouldn't miss the birth of the second butterfly. :) About 30 minutes later, it emerged!
I know the video is a bit dark, shaky and blurry, but it's still cool to see.
After a few hours, it was time to let the butterflies go. We let them go in the back yard.
One of the butterflies took its time flying off, so Calvin got to hold it for a bit.
Beautiful!
We found another caterpillar down at the beach last night, so the cycle starts again!
The bottom 6 are from a fat quarter packet my mom gave me for Christmas one year. I added the top fabric and white background fabric. I'm going to be doing a triangle quilt like this one I made a few (aack, five!) years ago. 
I was delighted to find out it placed FIRST! :) I don't know if I had a bad week or something, but finding out my jam placed first just made my day. Heck, I woke up yesterday morning still smiling about it. 
Caleb's egyptian costume placed first as well. The judge liked that all my corners were nice and square, plus mentioned that quilting all that lamé is hard.
I was also delighted to see that this dress got a Judge's Favorite ribbon. I hope I get to keep the fancy ribbon. I think the judge liked the inner foundation and the underlining. Honestly, the judges don't really make much commentary on my stuff the few times I've watched judging.
My HP Cosmo dress placed second. 
On July 17, we found a caterpillar on our milkweed. We decided to take it in and feed it. About 10 minutes later, Calvin found a second caterpillar, so we had two to take care of. We put them in half-gallon canning jars.
They ate, and ate, and ate (they poop a lot too!). We kept feeding them milkweed and cleaning out the jars. On July 21, one of the caterpillars started to form a chrysalis. They hang in this "J" shape for a while.
The next day, we had a chrysalis! We eventually moved them to an aquarium I got from a friend.
On Saturday afternoon (August 1), I took this picture. Isn't it cool? You can see the butterfly forming.
Overnight, the chrysalis turned black. I was told that this meant the butterflies would be emerging within a few hours. So we kept watch.
We missed seeing the first butterfly actually come out of the chrysalis, but saw it soon afterwards. The butterfly's body is so fat and the wings are so little!
A few minutes later, you can see that the wings are already 'growing'. We then decided to camp in front of the aquarium so that we wouldn't miss the birth of the second butterfly. :) About 30 minutes later, it emerged!
After a few hours, it was time to let the butterflies go. We let them go in the back yard.
One of the butterflies took its time flying off, so Calvin got to hold it for a bit.
Beautiful!