Water = Life UPDATED

 Dear Readers,

It has been a while since I have participated in a quilt challenge.  In January Possum Town Quilters issued a challenge to create a 20 x 20 inch quilt with the theme water in your world.  You were given two blue pieces of fabric and they had to make up 20% of the quilt.  I chose to make mine to look like a national park poster as that was one of my favorite trips with my daughter.    I paper pieced the letters and curved piece the water.  I pieced the water and the sand and sky together then fusible appliqué to add in the mountains and the trees and waterfall.  

I used two layers of batting, one 80-20 and one wool to make the quilting show more giving the sky and water more movement.  

It was fun to do a challenge quilt - it has been a while since I have done one.  Used left over binding from the national park quilt I did for Sue and Bill.  These will be going to Pigeon Forge for their show this June.

Sew on,

Terry

So while I was at Quiltville Inn for a retreat, Judy told me our quilts had won first place in the Mountain Quiltfest Ultimate Guild Challenge.  That means a ribbon and $100 for the guild to help fund future challenged and entries.

Here are some photos of our quilts and the names of the makers.

The whole group.  I know it is hard to see so here are the groups.

Brenda Crownover, Gwen Sisson and Judy Stokes

Sandie Nix and Watana Cantrell

Julia Graber, Tonya Stewart and CC Coggins

Terry Turnage and Kimberly Smith

The Picnic Quilt

Dear Readers,

One of the summer challenges of the Mississippi Quilt Association was to finish a UFO.  I, like many quilters, have many UFO's.  I was looking through some of them and found this one based on a block called the Massachusetts block.  If you like the block, click here to see the instructions.  This UFO stemmed from a program that we did one year at Possum Town Quilters in Columbus, MS.  These had sat around for at least 7 or 8 years.  They were gifted to me the year before I moved over here to Winona.   The program was you could pick a block and ask every one that would like to to make you one in your chosen colors and pattern.  I chose to ask for one in creams or whites with 30's fabric or mock 30's fabrics.

One of the nice thing about this design web site, is that they have figured out all the sizes for you for common sized blocks.  I asked the guild members for the 12 inch finished size.  Like all group sewing  projects, some did not work out, as the colors were so light that the block disappeared or they came out too small.  A few were too big, but I trimmed them down and lost some points, but went with it anyway.  I made about 4 or 5 more blocks to fill out the collection and then put them together.  One of the things I love about this block is it is an asymmetrical block.  That means there are lots of different arrangements.  I chose to do a barn raising style setting.  The other exciting thing about this quilt is it is the first one I did on my new long arm.

It isn't great, but I am excited.  Here in Winona, I have been hanging my quilts on my fence to photograph.  Well, I was never happy about photographing quilting large quilts, as they would hang into the garden!  This quilt is 84 x 84, so it is definitely taller than my fence.  About that time Fred's was closing and I saw a curtain rod for 80% off and I bought it and put the curtain supports up on my porch.  When I was at the Innova dealer near Nashville, I noticed that they had quilts hung from pipes with bulldog clips zip tied to the pipe.  I was talking to them about it and they suggested keeping them a little loose so they could slide up and down the pipe.  So here is what is looks like at the top.

I know it would not do for a show quilt, but, most of my quilts are not show quilts.  I want the recipient to use and enjoy the quilts.

Sew long,

Terry

Rocky Mountain Dreams

Dear Readers,

Hey all I know it so I missed posting last week, but I wanted to get a post in this week for sure. I finally finished the Rocky Mountain dreams quilt. 

You may remember I was working on it around Thanksgiving time.  I picked blues to represent the sky, browns, reds and greens to represent the colors of the mountains.  The pattern is Scrappy Mountain Magestries by Bonnie K. Hunter.  Click here for a link to her pattern.  I finished machine quilting, bound, and labeled. I used some of the walking foot techniques I learned in my Craftsy class from Jacquie Gering. Click here to read about that class.  Since I named the quilt Rocky Mountain Dreams I decided to quilt it like a topographical map.  

Yesterday my guild, The Possum Town Quilters, had a sit-n-sew day. We were very productive.  We got the middle of two quilts done.  They should have something on the blog about it soon. Click one link at the right to read about it.  It was a really nice day and lots of fun to work on joint projects with a big group. 

Then I got a pedicure and had dinner with two other friends. 

Get out and make something.  It makes you feel good. 

Sew long. 

Terry

Mini Quilts and a Craftsy Class

Dear Readers,

Our guild, Possum Town Quilters, is going to host the Mississippi Quilting Association next year and we are considering different fund raisers.  One is to have a silent auction of mini quilts that people can hang as art pieces or use on a table.  I also signed up to take a machine quilting with your walking foot class from Craftsy.com taught by Jacquie Gering.  So I decided to combine the goals of making something for the guild, trying the techniques that Jacquie was teaching, and learning to use my new Juki.

So last week I made a mini tumbler quilt and I took my scraps from the quilt I made for my son and sewed them together to make 3 other mini quilts.

So I put the Juki back out and started micro quilting this morning.  About an hour and half in it started making a noise then locked up.  So I have a trip to Meridian in my future.  Ugh.  They got on the phone with me and we tried for about a half hour to get it going but determined that it was not something I could fix.  I hope it is an easy fix.

So frustrated.  So I put it aside and got the Bernina back out and finished it up and trimmed it.  I still need to bind and name it, but I did the micro quilting.  Not sure it was the best choice for this project but I needed to practice it.  It makes a quilt really stiff so it is only a technique I would want to use on a wall hanging.  I used a variegated thread for the quilting. The colors in it go from brown to cream although it looks white in the photo.

If you have any suggestions for a name let me know.  I will probably bind in red or blue.  

Have a great weekend!!  

Terry