FAB Challenge

I have been quilting lately. However, I have been working on a secret project and I can't share much in the way of pictures.

The project I have been working on is a challenge - amongst the FABs. We have all been given a piece of the challenge fabric, this bright yellow/orange fabric. We have been challenged to produce a quilt using this fabric with the theme of "summer". Once our projects are complete, we will be exchanging our projects with another FAB in our group. Since the project is a secret, I can't show you much. However, I can show you one of the "go with" fabrics that I used in this project. Here is just a sliver of that fabric.

Once my project has been received by Pat and we have our "reveal", I will show a photo of the completed project.

PieceMakers Quilt Show - Part 1

Yesterday was our guild's bi-annual quilt show. The theme for our show and our show challenge was Quilts From the Heart.

We had a total of 12 guild members who participated in the challenge. (To see a closeup shot of the challenge fabric and the rules of the challenge, please see my January 28th post.

The winner of the challenge is the colourful scrappy heart quilt in the lower left hand corner of this shot.

This is my challenge piece.

All of the guild members who volunteered to work on various aspects of the quilt show were entered into a draw. The lucky winner won this huge basket of quilting "stuff". .....I was the lucky winner!

This basket was heavy! The basket was jammed with fabric, magazines, patterns, hard cover books, quilt templates, basting spray and thread.

A big thank you to Sharon L. who put this wonderful basket of goodies together!

My Patterns Finally Arrived

I ordered two patterns from my local quilt shop on May 3. The shop called Thursday to say that they were finally in. Whoo hoo! (That is Pamspeak for Yahoo!!!)

The two patterns were, "All About Me" from Atkinson Designs and "Charm Party Tote" from Quiltsillustrated.

This picture is not my quilt, it is from the cover of the "All About Me" pattern. I plan to use my collection of Halloween fabrics to make this quilt.

This is a picture of the tote from the cover of the "Charm Party Tote" pattern. I have 4 Moda charm packs--two from their "A Little Romance" line and two from their "Sonnet" line.

The "A Little Romance Line" is the softest purple/pink/green collection of fabrics. I started on that tote last night. I am determined to stay as close as possible to the directions on this first tote that I am making. I know the next time I make this pattern I will be making some modifications. The pattern lists fifteen 1/2" buttons in the supplies required, but if it weren't for the picture of the finished product, you would have no idea there were buttons on this tote. No where in the pattern directions does it mention when these buttons are supposed to be applied or where. I am applying buttons before putting the lining in the bag so I can hide my threads from the back of the buttons. Also, the pattern designer claims their motto is, "No wimpy bags!". This bag is anything but wimpy if you make it according to the directions in the pattern--there is fusible fleece applied to the front and back of the bag, fusible fleece applied to the lining, fusible fleece applied to the inside and outside pockets. This bag will definitely be able to stand by itself when I a m done with it. Also, there is no closure on this bag. I am thinking of applying one of those magnetic purse closures to the bag this time. I am looking at other purse / bag patterns to see if there is a way that I can apply a zipper if I make this pattern again in the future.

Today, I am taking a break from working on customer quilts. I have been working on the WFC--that is Wacky FAB Challenge. I can't show pictures as this is totally secret. It is a secret for the person that I am exchanging with and for everyone else. On the agreed upon date (or sooner if everyone is finished ahead of time), all FABs will log online at the same time and open our exchanges. This should be fun. There has been a lot of teasing and hinting going on--but no one is revealing what they are making.

Quilt Finishes While Computer is Down

I have been disconnected from the computer world for the past week. My computer crashed on May 4 while I was on line talking to a friend on line. Thanks to my daughter sharing her laptop with me throughout the week, I was able to keep limited contact with my on-line friends. Thanks to the computer talents of my son, my computer is now back up and running and I have rejoined the blogging world and I am back "connected" to all of you.

While I did not have my computer, I did manage to make good use of my time and finished off some quilts.
This is my dryer sheet diamond quilt. This quilt was completed to the flimsy stage on May 27, 2007 and was long arm machine quilted using the Baptist Fan template on January 6, 2008.

This is my Hibiscus Convergence quilt. We made this quilt on a FAB Saturday in March. Although it is hard to see in this picture, this quilt was long arm machine quilted with the clam sheet template.

This quilt is the product of a couple of challenges and a FAB Saturday. LindaJ's quilting group challenged themselves to use the feature fabric in this quilt, the merrkittys in a quilt. Pam challenged the FABs to use the yellow star fabric in a quilt using the 9 Patch Pizzazz pattern. The FABs are donating their finished 9PP quilts to Pam's M2M project. Tada...presenting IIWII (It Is What It Is), my Merkitty 9 Patch for Mexico quilt! Now don't say that three times in a row! LOL

9 Patch Pizzazz Progress

These are all my 9 Patch Pizzazz pieces cut and ready to go. The FABs have been having lengthy discussions about block layouts. I am prepared to go with the layout in the book and have cut the following:

From my focus fabric - Merkitties - two 12 1/2" squares, four 6 1/2" squares, one 2 1/2" strip.

From my wave fabric (I believe the author of the book calls this one your companion fabric) - I only had 1/2 yard piece of the merkitties and so I am using the wave fabric to substitute for merkitties. I should have had one yard of merkitties if I was going to follow the pattern exactly - cut one horizontal rectangle 6 1/2" x 12 1/2" and two 2 1/2" strips

From the yellow challenge fabric - I cut three 2 1/2" strips, one vertical rectangle 12 1/2" x 6 1/2", four 6 1/2" squares

From the green and pink fabrics - I cut three 2 1/2" strips of each colour

I managed to finish putting together the top (less the borders) by 1:00 pm (that's starting at 8:00 am). I only managed to make one mistake -- I reversed two of the nine patch blocks. I am not going to change it--as Pam says, IIWII (it is what it is). I made another quick switch and unless you really knew what this pattern layout was supposed to look like, you would never notice my mistake. It is now part of the charm of this quilt.

I am not sure whether I am going to go with the border treatment in the book or if I am going to make up my own border design. sometimes these things have to age a bit and you have to consider options before making a decision.

This was a great way to spend the morning--quilting with Internet friends!

9-Patch Pizzazz FABs Weekend

This is the quilt pattern book that the FABs are going to use this weekend during our Quilt-In. We won't be making the quilt on the cover of the book (this one is on point). The quilt that we are going to make is called, Lily Pond. Each of us is going to make our own version of Lily Pond or some version very close to this depending on what we come up with on our design walls when we lay the blocks out.

These are my fabrics. The merkitty fabric at the top came from LindaJ. I believe it was LindaJ's quilt group, the Belles, that were making quilts for one of the charities they support as a challenge project. LindaJ supplied me with some of the challenge fabric so I could play along. I never got to making my quilt, so I am going to use this fabric this weekend. The yellow fabric with the blue stars and white dots on the far right was supplied by Pam. Pam sent all of the FABs a piece of this fabric to use in our quilts this weekend. By coincidence, this fabric matches my merkitties, so I am able to use both challenge fabrics -- from different challenges -- in my quilt. Once our quilts are finished, we will be donating them to Pam's M2M project.

There are a few rules for this weekend that we agreed to already:

- It is ok to cut out your quilt pieces and it is ok to sew the strips for the 9 patches...but you may not cut the strips into sets.

- Sewing will start at 8 a.m Saturday. You can choose between central time and pacific time...since we are in 2 time zones

We have sewn together as a group. We use e-mail, digital cameras, and IM to let one another know what we are up to, where we are in the pattern, to answer each other's questions, and to cheer each other on to the finish line.

A couple members of the group are "keeners" and have already drafted their quilts using their quilt software. My quilt layout is still in my head and will not likely get drafted in a formal way. I plan on cutting out the pieces and using a design wall to decide on final placement.

2008 Quilt Show Challenge

This is a picture of the fabric for our quilt guild's 2008 Quilt Show Challenge. The name of our show (to be held in September 2008) is: "Quilts From the Heart".

The "rules" of the challenge are simple.

1. Purchase your kit for $2.00. (The low cost of the challenge fabric is thanks to the Liquidation World fabric sale!) The fabric is a strip 8" wide by WOF. Basically, the organizer bought what fabric was left on the bolt and divided the piece by 24 (total number of kits). You don't need to use all of the fabric, but we are to use enough that it is clearly visible (a 1" square would not suffice).

2. Your quilt must include at least one heart motif.

3. The outside perimeter of your work should be no smaller than 72" and no bigger than 168".

4. Your work must have a hanging sleeve.

5. You must include a label on the back of the quilt, and then cover the label with a piece of fabric to ensure anonymity.

6. Quilts are to be submitted at the September meeting in an unmarked bag.

7. Winners will be determined at the quilt show by Viewer's Choice.

8. Have fun!

This sounds like my kind of challenge--especially, rule #8!

Customer Quilts

My quilting life has been busy lately. Not only was I working on the wedding quilts for my niece, but I have been trying to keep up to the customer quilts. The first quilt I have to show you is a colour wash sort of quilt--completed by a newer quilter. I think she was so brave to work on all those white triangles on this quilt!

This is a closeup showing the wave quilting pattern which echoed the lateral movement of the quilt. The fabrics were gorgeous!

I received 7 table runners to quilt for another customer. I finished 6 and had to wait for backing for the 7th. It is interesting to see all the table runners together--same pattern, different fabrics. They all have their own unique personality. This customer is ahead on her Christmas projects--she plans to give these all away as gifts during the festive season.

There was one more customer quilt. I promised I would not show pictures of it until after our quilt guild meeting as it is part of the summer black and white challenge. Our first guild meeting of the year is the third wednesday of this month. I will post pictures of the quilt after that night's show and tell.

Quilt Guild Block Exchange - The Elements: Earth

Our Quilt Guild has a new challenge--a block exchange. The theme of the block exchange is, "The Elements~Earth, Air, Fire, and Water".

We were given this fabric as our inspiration.

This fabric is a small (only about 6" square) piece of batik. The fabric is intended as our inspiration only and is not intended for use in the blocks.

We got together in groups of four. We were to make four 6 inch blocks each month for four months. The first month we were to make four blocks with the theme of, "Earth". We exchanged the blocks with the other three members of our group last Wednesday at our guild meeting and went home with four different blocks that centered around the theme of, "Earth"~our own block plus a block from each of the other three members of our group.

One of my group members was unable to make it to the meeting so we have not finished exchanging blocks in my group. I will show you a picture of the other three blocks I received once we have completed the exchange. For now, I can show you my block.

I used the colours of the inspiration fabric to decide on the colour of my block and drew from the name of my block to satisfy the "Earth" element. My block is a paper pieced block called, Worlds Without End and is from Quilter's Cache.

Once we are finished, we will have 16 blocks~all different~that we are to put together into a top and bring back to the last guild meeting of the year for show and tell. This is challenging, but fun all the same!