Guild Challenge - Quilters, Even and Odd

Every year our guild issues a challenge (usually a theme) to the members and the quilts are due at our annual picnic in June.  This year the challenge was "A Song in my Heart".  The challenge was to choose a song and represent it in a quilt.  In addition, members had to decide "Are you an Even or an Odd?".  We have a diverse group with both traditional and non-traditional quilters and some who dabble in a bit of both.  If you decided you were EVEN, then your quilt would be a traditional four sided quilt. If you decided you were an ODD, your submission could be anything other than your traditional four sided quilt or constructed with alternative type of materials.

The winner of the EVENS was Lynn Brown, a gal who is a fabulous quilter and married to a minister.  She chose a hymn and then proceeded to do a bible block quilt.  Her work is always fabulous.  She used Jinny Beyer fabric.  She is also a big fan of Kaffe Fassett. You should see what she does with that!!

The winner of our ODDS was Lesa Gemmell,our president of the ODDS!! Lesa never fails to surprise and take a challenge to the extreme.  Her song was "It's Raining Men" by the Weathergirls.  She deconstructed an umbrella and then put it back together. She is holding it by the handle. The back was flat with a hanger so you could put it on the wall like a canopy.  It also had a little music box so when you pressed the button the song played!

And in my little neck of the woods, Ava and I quilted our first quilt with a panto.  It took me 15 minutes before I could figure out where the laser light wire got plugged in but after that we were off to the races.  I had bought the DVD on pantos which was really helpful and gave me the basics for aligning everything. This is a Jelly Roll Race quilt which I made with the first Jelly Roll I ever bought.  This is an oldie! I got it at Houston Market round about when Jelly rolls were just becoming popular.  The panto is called Oak Leaves which goes along with the theme of the fabric. I am pretty pleased with it and as always learned a few things along the way to make the next one easier. Just need to trim and add the binding.

I am off to the Jersey Shore for the 4th of July so will be back in a couple of weeks. Hope your summer is off to a good start! 

Pics from Jacksonville

FYI!!! This is not a quilty post. I don't post family pics too often so thanks for your indulgence! 

Well, I am  back from my trip to Jacksonville.  It was great to get away to some nice warm weather, to visit with my sister, to get reacquainted with my great niece, Bella, and to  meet my great nephew, Cayden.

Bella knows me as Auntie Ann and I have sent her a couple of quilts. She was excited for my arrival as we had a "Girl's Day" planned.  She absolutely loves Jacksonville Zoo so after some lunch and some Toys R Us birthday shopping we headed to the zoo. FYI (Bella picked out a Mermaid Barbie which when you pull on her mermaid tail it comes off and turns into a surfboard which she can ride. Her hair turns pink when it gets wet and she had a tattoo on her belly!  Oh, Barbie, how far you have fallen!!!)

We had loads of fun riding the Merry-go-round and visiting with the bird the monkeys and the giraffes.
This pink elephant was a "must have" from the gift shop and she carted that thing around all day.  I love this pic of Bella and her nana!

Here she is at the end of the day! 

And here we are after her "power nap". She got her second wind pretty quiickly. I was pretty tuckered out after our big day!

Saturday was the Big Birthday Party. Bella turned 4 and this year was a cowgirl theme which included horses and a petting zoo.  Here's her little brother, Cayden, who just turned 8 weeks old. His mom had him dressed as a little buckaroo as well.

Bella has already been taking horseback riding lessons with my sister who is a horse lover. She looked right at home on this big horse.



Here is a picture of my sissy, Kathy!  We headed to Epcot after the birthday party for some BIG GIRL R&R. This was taken in "Japan" where we had awesome sushi for lunch.

Our time together went by tooo quickly.  I hope to get down there again really soon.

Back to quiltiness in my next post.  My next Ava adventure is going to be quilting with a panto and the laser. We'll see how that goes! LOL!

Cayden's first quilt

I am on a roll with Ava! She and I worked all day Memorial Day on Cayden's quilt. He was born April Fool's Day and I got to meet him this weekend in Jacksonville, FL. He's such a serious little old man! LOL! So very different from his sister who came out of the womb smiling.

 With each quilt I load, I am trying to use a new technique or skill. On Cayden's quilt, I used the ruler base for the first time and stitched in the ditch on all of the blocks and around the outer little border (which was harder than I thought it would be but I'm pretty happy with the result) and I worked on some free motion stuff in the blocks.  My brain was exhausted by the time I got to the border ( and I was running out of time) so I just did a swirly doodly meander ( that's the name of it, really!). Not as happy with that but it is done and it's for a baby.  I was brave and used red thread in the bobbin as well as the top because I didn't want the light thread to show through to the front if my tension was a little off and the backing I used was pieced from what I had, which was very light so of course, you can see EVERY mistake. I guess that stuff about a "busy" back is true.  BOY, there is a lot to think about with this long arm stuff!! ah, like what is the needle up/down button and what is the start/stop button and touching the right one at the right time!  a few of the goofs on this one is because I mixed them up.

Seww, here is a picture. It looks wavy but that's because it is draped over the poles of Ava.   

I also made these little bibs for Cayden.


And since I was attending Bella's 4th birthday party (It was a cowgirl party with ponies!!), I made her a Happy Birthday pillowcase and one with horses on it.  I will be sending her a pillowcase every month for a year.  She loves to get mail.

Will be back next week with pictures of the cutest kids in Jacksonville next week!  Have a quilty weekend!