Showing posts with label challenge quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenge quilt. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2011

Challenge Quilt...Completed!!!

     Our annual guild quilt show always has a themed challenge quilt for members only.  It is an event I try to participate in as it is usually more of a nontraditional activity. This year, the theme is to create a quilt of any size, any pattern using "recyclable" materials and a "chosen" fabric.  Anyone entering was given a fat quarter of a really not very pretty fabric with the instructions that any amount of it could be used, but it had to be obviously shown on the quilt!

      My quilt is paper pieced patterns and I used all recyclable fabrics.  The main fabric I used was from old ties that had been worn by my husband when he was a working man!  I had saved MANY of his ties for years....some very colorful...very wide (think '70s).  So after taking the ties apart...body and linings...I had quite a bit of fabric.  I also used scraps left over from previous sewings...bridemaids' dresses, mother of the bride dress, Halloween costumes, formals, etc.  It was really very fun to put it all together!

"Aurora Borealis"  36" X 48"

Close up with dangling beads

Close up showing tie fabric, velveteen fabric and satins

More ties, bridesmaids' dress fabric and mom of bride fabric and others.

More tie parts, beading and formal fabric.

Embroidery, more fabric for bridesmaid dresses.

More bridesmaid fabric, beading and embroidery.
      Then I did a lot of embellishing with thread...embroidering...and beading.  The fabric was very slickish so kind of hard to work with, but I like the results, albeit NOT traditional!

     My next project is a swap quilt.  I have a new badge on my blog, "Another Little Quilt Swap 6".  You can click on it and it will take you to a very interesting blog belonging to the host of the swap.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Hot! Hot! Hot!

"To see far is one thing; going there is another." Brancusi

I was reading an article in today's paper why we have been having such extreme weather patterns...we went from pretty cool and wet to really hot and dry with no gradual change in between.  And according to the experts, the culprits are those bad little winds...El Nino and La Nina.  Now the paper explained what they do to mess us up but my brain lost interest when it became technical!  It's like when in classes in college...I loved learning about the stories behind events, be historical or scientific, but when it came to the dates or the theorems etc. I shut down!  It was a good thing a lot of my tests were essay and I was pretty good at the ol' BS (and that doesn't stand for Bachelor of Science)!

My husband had a little surgery a week and a half ago...he is now back in the land of the living...went through a few rough days, but much better now.  He is not able to do as much yet as he would like but we are very lucky to have good help in the family as far as mowing and yard stuff.  Our granddaughter (the yard girl) and her dad came out Monday evening to mow and weed eat for us.  We really appreciate that especially the dad as he worked all day, then came out to do our yard for us.  I am sure there were many other things he would rather have been doing.....like his own yard, for one!

Our granddaughter...that baby who was just born a few years ago...is going to be sweet sixteen on Sunday..you think your own children grow up too fast, but that was nothing compared to the speedy aging  of grandchildren!!  She is taking driver's ed right now...and although I have great confidence in her abilities, the very thought of her out there on the road with all the crazies...I shudder to think!!!

My guild, Trinity Valley Quilters Guild, is having our annual quilt show in September.  Every year we have a specific challenge just for members.  I always try to do something for it....it is a fun thing..not too serious, usually.  This year the challenge is to make a quilt any size from 50 or more different fabrics.  That was no problem!!  So below is my top for the challenge...I have not quilted it yet.  It is a unique size...21" x 42" and no, I did not use scraps from the donation quilt which is making the rounds to other meetings, etc to sell tickets.   All these fabrics are from my own little stash!!  But I have a bit of a dilemmia...after finishing the top, I reread the criteria and discovered that one criteria is to take a traditional quilt block and create a quilt using the 50+ fabrics, interpreted in the maker's own fashion!  So it doesn't have to BE a traditional quilt, but must be based on a traditional block!!  In putting the cart before the horse...I have the top, but not a clue as to what traditional block I can say I used!!  HELP!!  Can anyone give me any ideas as to what block this might possibly be related to????

   I am changing my "view from my window" picture as the bluebonnets are all gone for this year, but we have been having spectacular crape myrtles.  And the Russian sage is really full this year too.