Unfortunately, you can't see the alligator hiding behind the gold ribbon - and I'm very proud of him. I used Texture Magic to make him - stitched the Texture Magic onto the back of green fabric, steamed it to make it shrink, then traced, cut him out and appliqued him to the background. I'm quite proud of the panda bear, too as the black on him was completely thread painting.
These won me two third place ribbons...
The top one is Grace's Garden and one of my best quilting jobs... the bottom one is the Poinsettia wall hanging that I did for last summer's guild challenge. I had to use the colors black & red; it had to be a certain size ( which I can't remember at this moment) and use multiple techniques, which I did - like about 8, I think (info is written on quilt's label). The background was sun bleached to get that brown & black design; I appliqued the stem and 'flower', used faux piping on the binding, thin metal (copper) on the green leaves and the center red 'petal' was sewn separately and a wire was satin stitched to it before poking it into a hole in the center of the 'flower'. I also used Texture Magic for the center ( it doesn't show even when you see it in person) and then added black beads for stamen.
This is the only one that I didn't receive a ribbon for - and I was surprised/disappointed; I thought for sure it would win something. The quilting was better than average ( for me) and it's so stinkin' cute. Of course, wouldn't you know that my quilting friend, Colette, ( who loaned me the pattern) entered the one that she made ( and won 1st place). We entered them in different categories, so I still could have won a ribbon...not sure why I didn't.
Ok, now to show you the one that I was working so madly on in hopes of entering it into the fair
( instead of the farm animal one shown above).
I absolutely love it!!! but didn't enter it because when I got it on the long arm ( Mo'e) and started stitching around all the pieces with black thread, Mo'e jumped over onto the colored piece here and there. I had some issues finishing it up ( like running out of backing fabric because I'd turned the leader bar too many times - again) and had to 'fudge' it at the bottom by binding the three other sides, then making a 3 1/2" binding ( I usually make 2 1/2') so that it would cover where the backing ended but the top didn't. THEN I noticed that I put the label on the wrong end - not really a big deal. Because of the binding issue, I used the traditional method of sewing the binding to the front and then hand sewing it on the back... I don't usually do this because I like doing it all by machine so much better ( and it's a lot quicker).
Today, I finished quilting a charity quilt for one of the other guild members... not a great job because Mo'e didn't want to do circles ( I think it's the extension table getting in the way) and they were coming out squarish. I decided to just do swirls until the last two rows and then did circles again and this time they came out pretty good... I don't know what his (Mo'es) issue was.
Almost forgot... July 9th was the guild picnic and we revealed our challenge quilts. Usually, Ruth gives us a challenge for the picnic, but since she said she wasn't going to this year.. I gave the challenge... a finished quilt no larger than 36"x48" and the theme was 'common phrase'. Only seven of us entered, but that's ok -- we had fun.
Well, I just tried downloading the pics of the entries from our FB group, but it wouldn't happen. Darn! So, here is my entry.... can you guess what the common phrase was that I picked? :)
I wasn't born yesterday
The next challenge due is the Brown Bag challenge in which we chose a bag (closed so we couldn't see inside until after we picked) that contained 5 fabrics. We could either choose a bag marked A ( which meant we could only add one more fabric to what was already in the bag) or B ( we could add as many fabrics as we wanted to). We're not supposed to know who's bag we picked - and I have no idea whose I have, but I do know who picked mine because I just happened to see her pick it up when we were choosing bags. I chose A and kind of wish that I had gone for B instead, but it will work, I'm sure.
I've picked out a couple of patterns that I thought might work with the fabrics ( I'll take a pic of the fabrics later so that you can see)... still not 100% sure that I'll go with one of them - might find something else that will appeal more to me. They aren't due until Oct so I have time.
Next up on Mo'e I think will be a quilt that I'll be giving to my youngest daughter for Christmas this year. I just need to piece the backing before I get it on the frame. It's a Editya Sitar pattern (Mountain Majestic, I think)... scrap quilt made with Editya's version of Thangles. I also have at least two or three Missouri Star Quilt Company patterns that I want to get started on... AND I have the quilt to make for my son for Christmas, too. So much to do, so little energy :(. which is why I put my foot down on doing the Row by Row this year... there are several rows that I'd LOVE to do, but I haven't even finished last year's so it's a NO! this year.... maybe I can do it next year.
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