Guild Challenge

Hey all,

It is almost Christmas!!  I am excited because today my son arrives and tomorrow my daughter arrives.  We are so excited.  Have a good bit on the 'to do' list, but wanted to write this post so I would be up to date on what I have been working on.

I have finished the Black and White plus one guild challenge from Mountain Quiltfest.  The challenge is to create a quilt with a perimeter less than 160 inches that is comprised of only black and white fabrics and one other fabric, I think I remember that the other fabric had to read as a solid.

Matt and Taylor's baby quilt 60 x 60

I really liked the quilt that I did for Matt and Taylor's baby and had enough of that fabric to make another, only revised to be smaller.  Their quilt was about 60 inches square and this quilt needed to be
a max of 40 on each side.  So I revised how I made the stars, shrunk the sashing and border....I was also not in love with the center square on Matt and Taylor's quilt.  So I was talking to Will, my son, on the phone and asked what he thought.  We were tossing ideas back and forth and he said something about a setting sun, and that made me think of the moon over a mountain block.

Shadows of Kilimanjaro 37 x 37

I took a free motion quilting class on craftsy.com by Leah Day, so I decided to do various quilting designs in each of the orange blocks.  I was thinking, pick ones that are organic looking, that would remind people of nature.

I did bamboo on this one.

A vine with long fronds.

 A lotus looking pod.

 Pebbles.

 Flowing water.

Flowers.

Curly vines.

 I also quilted each of the animal blocks and the mountain and the sun.  I decided not to quilt the white areas, so I just need to put on a label and a hanging sleeve.

I hope each of you has an amazing Christmas and remembers that we celebrate this season because Christ died on the cross for our sins and this gift that God gave us is the ultimate gift of salvation and it is worth celebrating the birth of the Christ child.

Merry Christmas.

Terry

Mountain Fest Quilt Show Challenge

Hey all,

At the last minute, I decided to do this challenge.  I bought the fabric last Spring Break, on my way home from seeing Sue & Bill Harmon with a swing by to see my brother's family Ed, Katrina, and Jackson.  After visiting them, I detoured to Pigeon Forge to the Mountain Fest Quilt Show on the way home.   While there, I decided to buy the challenge fabric as I had been so impressed with the entries from our guild members last year.   I hated it.  And I didn't really like the theme, war between the states.  When are we going to let that go?? OK Southerners, I know we fought with honor, but we were on the wrong side.  All people should be free.  And yes, I know that we in the South like to say it was not over slavery, but state's rights, but the right they went to war for was the right to own other people.   Wrong.

So I set the challenge fabrics aside, and every once in while, I would pull it out look at it, google quilts from the civil war era and then put it back away.  Never could come up with a good idea.  I wanted to put Jacob's ladder blocks down the center, with red down the middle to represent the blood spilled,  but didn't know what else to do.  Last guild meeting when Judy and CC brought their quilts, I was motivated to try again.

Part of the challenge is that it is supposed to be made up of 30% challenge fabrics.  And when you read the rules in detail, it says you may need to add fabric in order to make this requirement.  Oops...did not read that till too late!  Also, you have to use 3 out of 4 of the challenge fabrics.  Well I was originally going to eliminate the striped grey/beige as it was super ugly.  Now I realize I will have to include it, in order to make the 30% rule, since I have no more of the other fabrics.   So every block and border I created, I stopped and figured out how many square inches were challenge and how many not challenge.

Bogie and BeCall inspecting my work.

Without the inspectors!!

So here is my top, it has some problems, so do I finish?  I probably will, but not sure if I will put it in the show.  One problem is that I cut the split rail fence block I was making too small I wrote down  cut 5, finish 4.5, then cut I it at 4.5!!! Why??  I don't know.  So I put red down the center, so now from a distance it looks like a swastika!  Why didn't I notice that when it was on my design wall??  Another problem, the muslin is much lighter weight than the other quilt fabric and seems to ripple and pull.  Should have done like my friend Sandi says and starch, starch, starch!!  What a bunch of whining this morning....

On a happier note, look what arrived in the mail this week...

Thanks Bonnie!!  That was quick work after being gone for so long!!