My local quilting sisters and I just saw each other’s secret projects at our annual guild challenge. The photo above is a closeup of Alice’s entry. She won a ribbon with this beauty in which she combined our rules with a project in a Craftsy class online. The online class was free motion machine quilting with Judi Madsen.
Earlier I wrote about my resulting entry here. I didn’t write about all the ideas I had but abandoned along the way. As guild members shared their entries, many reported starting and abandoning, or adapting, or rethinking their process. All reported learning something, and having fun in the process.
Here are photos and snippets of stories of all 16 quilt entries at our meeting this year.
Ethel teasingly dubbed herself the complainer, said she called Queen Tess 65 times. She doesn’t like square quilts, doesn’t like the fan block, and doesn’t like yellow. But Ethel is not a quitter, she’s a quilter, and her resulting piece is one of my favorites (the blue in the center is to dye for).
Janet exercised her EQ design features by resizing a fan block to make a manageable project. Kelly’s Sunbonnet Sue quilt contained numerous fans. A sun, a cooling fan, and some blades of grass were also blades of a fan.
Linda combined this guild’s challenge with a project she was entering in a Windows and Doors exhibit at the Ashe Arts Center in West Jefferson, NC. Working from a photo she had taken in Nimes, France, Linda pieced the doorway panel. She added asymmetrical borders to bring the project to the 36” requirement for our guild, including pieced fans as butterfly wings and some yellow flowers blooming on the vine.
Angie expressed some frustration, but stuck with her traditional block to make a 36” square for now. She shared plans for further embellishment to add some zing to her entry. (Tess often reminds us that the rules do not say the challenge has to be finished to enter.)
Mary had other priorities, so stuck with a simple design, but got it finished in time for the challenge, and now has a functional table topper with pleasing fabrics.
Sharon made, not one, but two quilts. One was made with fabric she bought in Japan while visiting her son and his family. The other, Ocho, RibBonz, and Shadow–3 FANtastic Cats, was inspired by several quilts on Pinterest. She has two cats name Ocho and RibBonz.. Since she needed three fans, she had to make three cats, and Shadow is the name she gave to her imaginary cat. She was asked to explain about one cat’s tail. He’s scared, she said.
Susan looked for an easy pattern, crediting me with inspiring her to look for fun techniques. I’m known to remind quilters that, “it’s supposed to be FUN.” I love her ferris wheel blocks and would like to try this myself.
Deann hand pieces and hand quilts everything. Her work is always amazing, but she shared that her biggest challenge was the curved part. Wanda’s entry was her first foray into our challenge world.
Marie machine pieced and hand quilted a beauty including linen and cotton fabrics. Her title was Did you mean these fans? An M&M’s button on the label depicted her reference to the popular tv commercial. Dewey confessed that this commercial was his inspiration, too. His quilt exists only in his mind as he’s been busy building a new quilting studio.
Carol explored paper foundation piecing and got enough practice on her piece that she is now an expert.
Susi’s first place winner, Fantastic Frolicking Felines, brought smiles to all of us. Look how much fun these dancing cats are having. I think Dewey had fun, too, quilting this beauty. He added the thread-painted musical notes as he quilted the entry for Susi on his longarm machine. Susi adapted a pattern from Amy Bradley for this crowd pleaser.
Before leaving for the day, Sharon shared more stories about her cats and their names. Her quilt was visually appealing, but as with most quilts, the story gives it more life. Here are details you will remember:
“We adopted the two identical black kittens from our grandchildren’s other grandmother’s cat’s litter. The grandchildren were squealing excitedly when we brought them to the house and one kitten escaped by running up a tall tree. The more we called or tried climbing higher to get the kitten, the higher it went. After some time, it fell asleep about 40-60 feet up, then tumbled down through the branches to the ground. To identify them, we put a couple of ribbons on the untraumatized cat so we could closely watch the one who had obviously used up “one of the cat’s nine lives.” Not knowing if they were males or females, we named the uninjured kitty ‘Ribbons’ and the one with 8 lives remaining became ‘Ocho’. When we found out that they were both boy cats, we changed the spelling of Ribbons to a more masculine name ‘RibBonz’! We don’t have a third cat, but I thought a third cat needed to be on my quilt since three fans were required for the challenge. The surprised arched-back third cat became Shadow because our outdoor cats love to stalk chipmunks, lizards, moles, etc. from the shadow of bushes and other hiding places.”
