And the winners are...

 

That's right! The judging is finished, and I got an authentic ribbon in this year's NWA Q.U.I.L.T. Guild's bi-annual quilt show. Hurray!!!

 

 

This ribbon (well, maybe not this specific ribbon), but it or one of its identical third place siblings is coming to live at my house, compliments of the baby quilt below.

 

Yes, that's right. This is Baby Lucy's quilt. Lucy was born on March 5, but has been struggling along without her baby quilt from her great-aunt (yes, that's me!) so that I could enter the quilt in the show. The show is in two weeks, so I should be able to send the quilt on to her soon.

 

I've tried to take a couple of closeup photos of the quilting that Mom put on this quilt. The judge must have liked looking for the little butterflies...

and dragonflies that Mom added for interest. I know that I've had fun looking for them. They're really hard to photograph, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they're cute. Great job, Mom. It's nice to have a judge recognise and appreciate your efforts.

 And now for Mom's triumph... she took SECOND place...

with her bunny rabbit baby quilt. I do not have a close-up of this quilt, just this photo that Mom sent in with her registration.

Congratulations, Mom!!! Neither of us is accustomed to winning ribbons -  we just like to show off our quilts. But it is nice to have someone professional like them once in a while. And by the way, this judge is with NQA and trains NQA judges.

So, what am I working on now?

Well, I should be binding one of those six or so finished quilts whose stares are boring holes into the back of my head every time I walk into the sewing room... or working on one of my 30+ UFOs that I swore I'd get done this year (does crossing my fingers behind my back when making this oath negate my responsibility to keep it? *Grin*)... or organizing my sewing room... or vacuuming... or cleaning the toilets... or...

But I'm not doing any of those. As I mentioned in a post a few days ago (March 22), I have delved into the realm of kits (thank you Sager Creek Quilts). Since I bought this kit in 2008, I've been very successful at out-of-sight, out-of-mind. But I've run out of hiding places for it, so I've had to start dealing with it.

I completed the first block last week, and this week I added several more completions. Here's last week's contribution.

And here are this week's. Callie, would you please help me with my reveals?

 Oh my. Where's your head, Callie?


Oh! There you are. Thank you, my furry sweet. Very nice pose.

This gold and green with a touch of red is probably my favorite block so far. I love the cream setting. It keeps the whole block nice and light looking.

With this next block, I went a little heavy with the strong colors. While the pattern and the fabrics are provided, I get to chose my combinations. I rather wish I had chosen differently. Thank you, Callie. The next one please?

Ah, yes. a Jacob's Ladder with a twist. I'm sure this block has a name of it's own - does anyone know it? Anyway, I like the way this block turned out. It has strong visual appeal in the center with an interesting, but not too distracting, floral pattern to draw the eye outward.

 



Here are the first four blocks side-by-side. They will have sashing and corner-stones when I set them. They look rather lonely without my lovely assistant to showcase them for me, but she got bored and wandered off in the direction of the heater. Go figure. 

And a late comer to the party - this interwoven star pattern. It was supposed to have single color outlining the stars, but I've always wanted to try the dual color version of this pattern. It was challenging to try to convert the colors in my brain while laying out this pattern since I had to determine the correct layout before ironing the half-square triangles. The seam allowances had to be ironed in the correct direction to keep everything nesting the way it should. Since the pattern showed the rectangles as all one color, keeping everything straight was a bit challenging that late at night. I should never try to adapt a pattern when I'm up sewing past my bedtime. : )

Since we're having thunderstorms today, I might not be able to do any sewing until they have moved through. I don't want my lovely Janome 6600 blown up by lightning! If I can't machine sew, I guess I'll just have to tackle that growing pile of binding before it topples on me from behind. ; )

Anything to keep from having to load the dishwasher... sweep and mop the kitchen floor... do the laundry...

Later,

Debbi