Craft Book Challenge

I saw this challenge tonight and it REALLY spoke to me. 

See, I have a few craft books...

on knitting and crochet

the first 40+ issues of Inspiration magazine

on quilting and embroidery

and on painting and drawing

You get the picture.  lol  I LOVE craft books!  So what better challenge than to actually try to MAKE something from them?  What a concept!  You can make stuff from them?  Wow!  Who knew?  What an ingenious concept; I'll have to try that.  ;)  I'll keep you posted.  Anyone care to join me?

August Project Day - Applique

We had a Blanketeer Project Day on Friday. The plan was to learn to applique and collaborate on a Sunbonnet Sue quilt.  I was supposed to be the teacher - lol.  I spent all my time preparing the kits and very little time learning how to applique.  Fortunately, Sheila's Mom, Bea, showed up.  She's an expert in applique and was very gracious about helping everyone out (especially me!)

Rachel missed the morning session, but Sheila soon brought her up to speed.  I had planned to demonstrate three applique techniques: freezer paper, needle turn and reverse applique.  But everyone took off doing freezer paper and never looked back.  I think Bea and I were the only ones doing needle turn.  Whatever works.  At least I got to explain about reverse applique and show them the one Dear Jane block I did with it.

Dorthy grumbled about how awful her block was (it really wasn't that bad at all).  She wants me to bring her more muslin tomorrow so she can completely redo it.  Sigh.  SO self-critical!

Jonquele seems well-pleased with her little Sue, as well she should be; it's adorable! 

Lu Ann did this darling Sue.  Everyone loved the lace on the hat.

Lu Ann is Mary's friend, whom we haven't seen in ages.  It was lovely to have her join us again. 

Mary did this seated Sue, which turned out to be totally adorable!  All the Sues have print dresses in Aunt Grace fabrics, with coordinating solids, and a bit of the print on their hats.  I think it's going to make a terrific group quilt!

As usual, a fun time was had by all, and thanks go to Sheila again for getting us the hall.

The Artist's Way - new blog forming

Martha over at Quilt Contemplation must have been reading my mind when she decided she was going to restart the Artist's Way workbook this fall.  Martha suggested forming a members only blog for anyone interested in supporting each other while we work through the twelve week creative process.  I've decided to join her.  I've worked the Artist's Way before and it really helped energize my creative spirit, though you can see it was pretty hard on the first book! 

It became clear as I was (not) working on "Ethan's Quilt" that I had a problem.  If I hadn't committed to getting it in the guild quilt show I'm not sure it would ever have gotten finished.  I had these great ideas but I was really blocked from putting them into action.  It was so frustrating to see it hanging there for months, while I worked like a beaver on any other project that wouldn't require any creativity or risk at all.  Then I was so stressed to get the quilt done that the process wasn't any fun at all.  This is not the way I want to achieve my goals!

Anybody thinking of joining us on this journey should leave a comment here or on Martha's blog.  We'll be starting next month.  Any questions?

My First Quilt Show Entry (and August finish)

Ethan's quilt got done just in time to enter it in the FW Quilt Guild's annual show.  It didn't win a prize, but it was very nice to see it hanging in the show.

Golf and alligators is not an obvious choice for a baby's room, but I gave it my best shot.  My buddy Joe wanted Ethan to be called "Ross Vegas" since he was conceived on a  family trip to Vegas, but he was outvoted, so I named the alligator Ross Vegas instead. 

Anyone familiar with the Masters at Augusta knows that the 11th, 12th and 13th holes make up "Amen Corner".  I decided to incorporate these three holes in the border of Ethan's quilt.

My buddies who golf immediately recognized "Hogan's Bridge" by the 12th green.

Here's Ross playing the 12th.  Sadly, he triple bogeyed 12 and decided to eat the 13th pinny instead of playing the hole.  I quilted the broken 13th pinny on the right side below the larger alligator, and showed the larger Ross Vegas eating his club.

Here's a close-up of Ross still happily playing the 11th hole.  I embroidered "RV" onto his hat so he wouldn't feel nameless - lol.

Joe LOVES Ethan's quilt and is VERY partisan about it.  I ran into him at the show last Friday and he kept going on and on about how my quilt was robbed and deserved to win a ribbon.  He kept asking every lady that walked by if they were in charge because he wanted to register a complaint.  He acted like a complete lunatic and kept me in stitches the whole time, threatening to gather up other ribbons and adorn Ethan's quilt with all of them.  It was only with great difficulty that I restrained him.  lol  It doesn't help that he's a gigantic 6'3" man, fortunately no one seemed too alarmed about it since I was laughing so hard.  What a maniac!

Joe's family especially liked that I incorporated Ethan, his cousin Mayson, his Dad Steven, and Joe on the leader board.  The first four scores are this year's top four winning scores.  Joe's score is the worst actual score ever recorded in a Master's tournament. (Charles Kunkle 1954, before they instituted a cut.)  Joe was pleased with his score, since he doesn't normally shoot in the low 80's.  :o