Challenges

Our guild Cobblestone Quilters will be celebrating its 25th anniversary at our October meeting. I agreed to head up a challenge for the anniversary. The guild's logo is a basket



and after some discussion with fellow guild members I decided to use the basket as the theme of the challenge. I didn't want the members to have to make an exact replica of the basket, but just to use the basket as a starting point for their designs. It looks like we're not going to have very many quilts, so I decided to make 2. Here is one of my entries.





When the TTT gang was in Pigeon Forge earlier this year I purchased some fabric with shirtless construction workers on it. I threatened then that I was going to use the fabric in my challenge quilt, but I didn't act on it then. Last week after finishing my first entry I decided I needed to make the joke quilt I'd said I would do. Hopefully this won't offend anyone at guild!

Around the house

I've said before that I feel like each blog post should have a photo and when I don't have photos of recent work to share I tend not to post at all. My friend Del dropped me a note recently and said I could post photos from around my house if I don't have anything fiber related to post. So...per Del's suggestion here are a couple of photos. (Click photos for larger view)

Shortly after we moved here Jerry built a deck addition with a pergola/gazebo type structure at the far end.




The intent was to grow a climbing vine there. We started with a trumpet vine that had a pretty pink/red bloom. It didn't survive the winter. Last year we found a climbing vine with a blue bloom. (I don't remember what the plant is called) It climbed the pergola fine but didn't fill in very well. We thought it died off this past winter but it came back to life this spring. It filled in wonderfully this year and just started blooming in the past couple of weeks.






Here's a view of the golf course from under the pergola.

Journal quilts

I've been absent from blogging for a while. I always feel like I should post a photo with every post and since I don't have anything new I haven't been posting.

Instead of new work, I'll post photos of a couple of Journal Quilts I made several years ago. While Karey Bresenhan wasn't the creator of Journal Quilts (little works made the same size as a sheet of notebook paper) she was the force behind them becoming so popular. For several years members of the QuiltArt email list were invited to submit a series of Journal Quilts for display at the International Quilt Festival held in Houston every fall. I made several journals one year but never submitted them for exhibit at the show.

This first one utilized Sue Benner's fused quilt technique.



This second one was the first of what I'd planned as a series of bridge quilts - depicting bridges in places where I'd lived. In case it's not obvious, this is the Golden Gate.



I actually did make a couple more bridge quilts, including "Amazing Grace" a rendition of the now dismantled Cooper River Bridges here in Charleston, SC. A photo of that quilt is in my blog header.

I never did make the quilt of the Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River, or any of the bridges in New York (I lived closest to the Throgs Neck Bridge and would Have probably done that one.) Maybe those are for future works.

It's broken

A couple of weeks ago I fell when I missed a curb cut in a parking lot. (I talked about it here)

On Tuesday I went to the doctor because my foot was still bothering me. He sent me for an x-ray "just in case" although he thought it was probably just a ligament injury. It wasn't. Turns out I have a fracture in the foot. I was referred to a podiatrist and finally saw him this morning. (why do referrals take so long??) The podiatrist said that if I happened to be an NFL player he would use a screw to put the bone right, but since I'm not I can just wear a boot cast for the next 6 - 8 weeks.

Jerry has been wearing a cast just like it for the past 3 months because of a torn Achilles tendon and I've been giving him a hard time about it all this time. Guess payback is hell. Luckily Jerry is now wearing his boot part time so we can trade cars. My car is a stick shift and there is no way either of us could drive it with the boot. Jerry's is an automatic so I'll just have to figure out how to use my left foot on the gas & the brake!

Aren't we cute?

Strip party

The TTT gang (Trailer Trash Tuesday) has been accumulating strips of fabric for some time in anticipation of making sting/strip quilts. We decided we'd meet on Saturday and Sunday this weekend at the clubhouse to make our quilts.

The construction method for strip/string quilts involves sewing the stings onto a foundation -usually muslin. It's a great quilt method for using up scraps.

Betsy wasn't sure how she'd like just using random strips to make a quilt block so she controlled her quilt a bit by making each block in the same color family. She also was concerned about putting blocks together without seams matching. Using this rail fence setting solved that issue. (all photos clickable for a larger view)



Maureen used a beautiful autumn color palette. She didn't fish into the string stash much. Instead she brought a lot of her own cut strips in order to achieve the look she wanted.



Frances found a book with a quilt she really liked and used that photo as her guideline. Once the blocks are joined together she will add rick-rack along the seam lines. It will make a wonderful baby quilt.



Virginia was our sewing star this weekend. She actually finished the top completely! I believe her initial plan was to make dark and light blocks, but after getting several dark blocks made she decided she really liked them and continued with the darks. It is a very rich looking quilt.



Somehow I missed getting photos of Joanne's and Jolene's quilts. I'm hoping that Karen will have some photos on her blog (here) Since I don't have quilt photos, here are photos of the actual makers.

Here's Joanne...



And here's Jolene (with Virginia in the background)




Karen and I both saw a quilt pattern in the current issue of Quilter's Home and independently we each decided to use that for our quilt. Instead of sewing strips to completely cover the foundation, the strips are sewn along the sides and the top. It was Karen's idea to use black and white squares as the foundation and bright colors as the strips. Here's Karen's.


After spending day one sewing my black&white/bright blocks, I got to thinking that I might want to try using a bright as my foundation and use black & white strips. I cut some brights at home that night and on Sunday made three big blocks that way. I then combined the two types of blocks together in this quilt. I think I would have liked using the bright foundation with b&w strips for the entire quilt, but I decided to just leave it like this. I think I'll call it tic-tack-toe.


As usual we had a ball. We all work so well together!