The Run Around

Yesterday was a day of laundry and of running around. Nevertheless, I was able to make my way back to the sewing machine for the first time since May 31st. Yes, as a matter of fact, I was feeling a little faint. Sewing starved, I was.

The sewing part of the day knocked off one more of the ten paper-pieced flowers I'm making for the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt. Five down, five to go.

Each one takes about an hour to complete. I'm hoping to finish these off today, but that's probably unlikely.

While stitching on my third Gingerbread Square block, I noticed I had neglected to color in one of the candy canes. That gave me an excuse to unhoop it and finish it off. It seems no matter how careful I am with the coloring on this, I still manage to leave something out. As long as I had it unhooped, I took a picture. You can see that only the tiniest part of the upper right corner is stitched. We were so busy in Whistler, I spent almost no time on it at all.

Now it's hooped up again and ready for the next portion.

Aside from that, I did nine loads of wash yesterday, including four loads of fabric. Of course the fabric loads were small since they were sorted by color. I still need to iron all of it, but it's just plain good to have all the washing done. Next up...turning all that fabric into quilts. 

Also, I went into town and made a couple of stops, including picking up Big Bertha from her annual spa treatment. I thought she might have a little problem with skipped stitches. As it turned out there was a "burr on the hook". I'm always glad when there's actually something wrong with the machine and not something wrong with the operator.

Last night was my guild meeting and the big reveal of our challenge quilts. I paid my dues for my 2nd full year as a member last night, and I'm just beginning to realize what a talented group of quilters I'm associating with. There were many different interpretations of the theme, which was to be a range of neutrals, one color, and one zinger. This first quilt set the bar pretty high.

This quilter took a more traditional approach.

This quilter started with this small panel as her challenge entry.

Then she proceeded to show us how she'd carried her curling "zinger" fabric through two more panels. She said she plans to hang the three panels above her bed. Nice idea.

This quilter went into quite a bit of detail with her flower basket quilt.

It's a clever way to use up your stash of rickrack.

This was our second place winner, Stephanie. Her quilt was really pretty and her quilting was beautiful. She used hot fix crystals as her zinger.

This was our third place winner, whose quilt was inspired by the Northern Lights...held sideways in this picture.

There we go. That's better.

This quilter described her quilt as a wonky medallion.

This quilter combined a photograph from the Caribbean with a photograph of a friend's sailboat to come up with her little quilt.

Annmarie's quilt was inspired by our friends the Stellar jays and a zinger of a cardinal.

Here's the quilt back.

Ann was our first place winner. This was my personal favorite, inspired by a photograph of her grandson.

This woven quilt was inspired by the theme for our guild's October quilt show theme.

This quilt was inspired by the quilter's granddaughter who was "super girl" for a week after receiving a super girl cape.

And this quilt was inspired by Bella's trip to Yellowstone National Park following the devastating fires back in the late 80's. She described the devastation and the hope in the little green shoots she saw while there.

There were 25 quilts in all. If the #26 on that quilt above confuses you, know that it's because #9 was skipped. Our challenge coordinators skipped #9 because it was difficult to tell the difference between a six and a nine in the voting. Clever, huh?

Here are our winners!

Also revealed last night were a crowd of quilts made for charity in an event with Karla Alexander.

Since I got all the nuts and bolts put together yesterday in my quest to get back to a routine, I get to spend the day sewing today. Also, I need to pick up Week #5 of my CSA share. There is some watering to do, and I need to feed my hungry birds. And with that in mind, I think I'll get to it.