Fiber Explore Napikn Challenge

The Challenge for August at my Fiber Exploration Group was to use the cocktail napkin as inspiration via color, theme, material or something else to create a piece of art for themselves.

Here is the inspiration napkin! 

Here is my journal covers from the post two days ago. 

Click here to see the entire post about my journals.

This was from Suzi, she used 5 inch squares and added some hand stitches.  She is queen of the hand stitches!  Each one has an inspiration on the back.

This was from Barbara.  She used the shaving cream prints we had done in a workshop earlier this year.  She used paint and inks, stamps and screens.  

Bebe used a kaleidoscope program to create this mandala circle.   And also went with a stamping and painting on a background that was painted lutradur fused on to a bright green felt.

Yvonne is working on a block of the month pattern from a Paducah Quilt Show group.  Different artists create a block each month, the cat was the current block.  She took that cat to the sea shore!

She also found this amazing clown circus fabric in a Vintage Store in IL last week!  

Suzi also showed her Because Of Her piece dedicated to her brother an his late wife.  This is the farm her brother recently purchased.  While he was thinking about buying it, Suzi sent him a photo of their father in front of his barn on a tractor just like this.  

She hand dyed and created each piece of fabric.  He will certainly love this.

Finish A Long at she can quilt

OK Suzette...…..it is on!

I put together a list of the quilts that are hanging out in my dining room (AKA the long arm room).

For the first quarter I am challenging myself to complete at least 6 of these.


Q1
  x                     1.  Concordia
   x                    2.  Foxes
  x                     3.  Modern Color Project
                         4.  River City Challenge Quilt
  x                     5.  Houses (green and orange)
                         6.  Traditional Scrap Quilt
  x                     7.  Black Scrap Squares
                         8.  Cheddar Shadows
                         9.  Chickens
                       10  Kaleidoscope
                       11.  Mystery Quilt
                       12.  Fireworks
                       13.  Purple Mountains
                       14.  Christmas
   x                  15.  Asterisk
                       16.  Taking Names
                        17.  Houses - Modern Block Robin with NELA Guild


That's the plan, man.  That's the list, sis.  We shall see, Lee.

Don't get the blues, Swooze!  LOL

Below are some of the photos, I don't have all of them in this computer.  More later.

30 Day Performance Challenge, Swim Class and A Quilting Challenge

Thursday is the culmination of the 30 Day Performance Challenge at the Southern Oaks Athletic Club.  This is a neighborhood workout/swim/tennis/leisure club where we are members with along with some friends and family.  To promo a new piece of equipment that does a sonograph of your body in a pre/post comparison of fat/muscle body make up.  Really interesting. 

You go in, get scanned.  Get really bummed out.  Work like a dog in classes for a month with a personal trainer.  Get scanned again.  And compare.  The winner gets bragging rights and a free month and some other stuff.

I told the trainer today when I left, no matter what happened at the test on Thursday,  there is nobody who has worked harder or gotten further than I have in this month.  I am in a class with two of the facility owners, three class instructors, a twenty something, a thirty something and a forty something. 


Yep.  Nobody's worked harder.  I am definitely stronger, thinner, more muscular and leaner. 

Sawyer and I started swim classes on Monday.  He is a natural and I got to show off how great I looked in my new swim suit.  They took promo photos to use for the brochures for the Baby Buoy Swim School. 

Sawyer floated on his back and on his front and kicked and loved the water.   He reluctantly wore some swim fins. Ate the floating ducks with relish.

I love the photo of him with the rings.  He is definitely headed for the Olympics!  I think I will save this photo and show it to the world when he stands on the podium accepting that gold medal while the American National Anthem plays proudly in the stadium!

The new quilting challenge for Remember Me Guild is to make a two color quilt with either the Kona Color of the the Year Tiger Lily or the Pantone Color of the Year Ultra Violet.  Trouble is, I can't find any place that has any amount of either one.  And the Purple one is scarce as hen's teeth.

Any ideas where I can get some? 

I know what I want to do.

The Fight or Die Challenge

Yep, fight or die.

Keep reading, it is not a QUILT challenge!  LOL.

When asked what I wanted for Christmas I kept saying I wanted a Ring Doorbell.  Don't know why, just felt the need for speed in my doorbell technology, I guess.  Frank kept zoning out and ignoring me every single time I answered Christmas questions in that way.

At some point I knew I was NOT going to get a Ring Doorbell.  So when QVC had a great deal on one, I ordered it. 





It sat in the unopened box for a few weeks.  It is not jumping on the door frame  by itself!  So I began making discrete inquiries.

Frank said there was no way he wanted to deal with electricity  to put it up.

After I watched his son for two days while they partied, I asked Andrew to put it up as he lay on my sofa drinking my Dr. Pepper.  He made vague agreement sounds, but never moved to look at it......even though at one point I laid it on his chest.







I queried Frank once again.  Nope, he says, not dealing with electricity. So I walked down the street and asked Jay if he would do it.  He had no problem picking up some extra bucks.  Meanwhile, Frank asked Hunter to put it in, and he agreed to do it on Saturday next.  I was just waiting for Jay to have some free time.

So today Frank says to me, there is no way you could put in this doorbell.  Hey, ladies, Fight Or Die Challenge if I ever see one.

So today while he was at the Sleep Doc.....guess what?  I put up the Ring Doorbell.  I have video, I have inside door chimes, I have motion detectors, I can see it on my phone from anywhere I am in the world......well, when I am not home anyway.  So exactly what was it I can't do, sweetheart?

Yep.......I fought........Frank died.......and I guess I have no Christmas present, right?

Ooh ooh ooh...................but I do have my next bird colors!

So...How Many Quilts Did YOU Finish?

Whew!  I hosted an In-Service Training on Heartworm Protocol for several key people at CAAWS on Monday.  It included lunch. Doing the training was not really a big deal, the big deal was spending the weekend cleaning up, de-cluttering, putting away, vacuuming, dusting and mopping every thing in the house getting ready!

I also had to be at the Allergist with Frank at 8:30 AM that morning.  I had finally talked him into going to get a scratch panel so we can see about getting his congestion under control  He feels that is part of what is keeping him from sleeping.

And I had a Modern Quilt meeting that night.  Talk about traffic......I  left home at 5:15 PM; early enough to get to LSU in good time for the 6 PM meeting.  I was 10 minutes late!

The Modern Guild puts out a block each month and guilds are challenged to do something with them.  Our guild decided it would issue a challenge to use at least 6 of the blocks in a quilt.  Three people finished, one completely finished and two made it to the top stage.

Good thing we didn't vote, I would not be able to decide on one.  They were all amazing!

I showed the 100 Meter Swim and they LOVED the ladies swimming on the backing! I brought three vintage sheets to Kelly and she traded me a solid red fat quarter for them.



Today, I finished the quilting on the Patriotic Raffle quilt.  After I took the picture, I looked at it.  It was serendipity that the flag was in the window!  I ordered a replacement flag two weeks ago.  The previous flag had been partially submerged in flood water.




I finished the binding on two quilts.



First - Batik Reflections



And second - Cows!

Hmmmm........for some reason I am only making long skinny quilts at the moment.






And today is only Tuesday!

What a gorgeous sunset, huh?

Stinkin' Cute Challenge Quilt

Oye!  Dios Mio!  Don't you just hate sitting through meetings where people just have no idea how meetings should be run.  And remember my rant about the money going to charity?  Fully 3/4 of the meeting was dedicated to either the Giving Quilt (a guild formed strictly to funnel quilts to charity) and people trying to convince our guild to give our money to Parker House (who used the money we gave them last year to take 8 kids to Disney World.)  Geez.

The meeting should have been focused on the Challenge and the members who made quilts to put in the challenge. 

I think the priority of the guild has changed.  And not for the better. 

But let me tell you about the GREAT QUILTS.


There were 25 quilts hanging in the challenge.  The Challenge was to use a single block in any way that created a secondary challenge.

I am telling you, my quilt is stinkin'  cute.  Just plain stinkin' cute.  I got 3rd place.  I would have voted for the one that won First Place (had mind not been so stinkin' cute!)




I am calling it At The Zoo!  Like Simon and Garfunkle's hit off the same name.







Here are the rest of the quilts  There are some beauties in there.  Each quilt has blue tape outlining the single block that creates the pattern.  See if you can see them all. 

And which one would you have voted for?

You can see mine  in the background there.

The grey and white one took first place!

This one won 2nd place