Quilt Show Ribbons

I was on the ribbon committee for my local quilt guild, Illini Country Stitchers, which means we crafted over 3 dozen ribbons to award at our early October non-juried quilt show. I like this work, and my committee of three did a great job. Below are the ribbons completed. I did Yellow, or third place, and the Purple, or Best in Show. The small ones measure 3" square, and the purple I think is 5" square. That purple one is a 9x9 Trip Around the World. The one awarded also had a tag at the bottom identifying the show and award, as do the little ones. These are some of the extras we did for the tied categories. A record number of 7 ties!

So I had to post this just to show what took up a few Saturdays this fall, and several evenings of late. Unfortunately, I didn't win one this year, and the ties took up the extra ones we did for posterity. I think there is the spare purple, and one red one left over. Maybe I'll whip up a yellow and blue one just for the fun of it. I like having duplicates and am thinking of doing a display of past ribbons for a future guild show.

Chlling

Literally. It felt like fall around here all weekend to me, even though it warmed up a bit. So I reacted by overindulging in things I like to do, instead of should do.

I made time to add more to the t-shirt quilt. Here it is with the top two-thirds pieced, and a few blocks in the lower portion begun.

I still wasn't loving that bright block in the center. I came up with the following adaptation, but it still isn't final. It does seem to tone down the brightness:

 Then Amanda and I spent some serious time with one of her college application essay. She labored over every sentence, phrase, and word. I like it. Now to get that application sent off. Only one more application to do, and that one needs two essays. One she will get by reworking what she has. Only 8 more days!

The balance of my free time was spent buried in a good novel by Stephen King. It's been a while since I gave myself permission to stay up late, ignore all but the essential tasks, and tune out the world. My only gripe is I am only half done with the book. I'm itching to get back to it. Oh, but work calls.

Stealing time to sew

I had a rare Thursday opportunity to sew. I often feel like I'm stealing time when I escape to the basement workspace and make progress. It's gotten cold in the midwest this week, and the basement isn't very warm, but I felt the call to sew instead of read. Amanda still found me and I did some consulting with her on a Spanish homework assignment. No, Spanish is not one of my talents, but it was nice to discuss essay ideas with her while I pondered each t-shirt and how to best add the colors and borders. So I didn't work very fast, but got more of the t-shirts done. Another chunk is how I think of it. The chunk isn't added to the bigger piece yet. I have some discrepancy in vertical measurements I need to correct. I'm really watching the width and length as I combine pieces to avoid the problem I had with my first t-shirt quilt. That was very hard to get squared up at the corners.

So here is where I have it so far:

Those bright colors on the yellow background may need to be replaced. They really jump out at you. I'll wait to see how the last panel to its right shapes up. This is just how my piecing method works. I don't preplan how to finish each block, but work block by block. I wait to see how it plays with it's neighbors. No precutting all the borders and putting all the pieces up on the wall before sewing. I'd never get the measurements right. For my t-shirt quilts, this way works best. As usual, I am feeling constrained by the number of fabrics I pulled for the borders. Twelve doesn't seem to be enough, and I've gone back to the stash for more.

I like how it's shaping up. This quilt makes me smile.

T-shirt progress

Once I had all those t-shirts from Rosemary's stash on the design wall, all I could think about were the other quilts I'd rather be looking at up there. And the only way that was going to happen was if the t-shirt top got done. No I didn't get it done. But I made a very good start.

I started off by adding the stabilizer behind about 6 pieces that were from high school so weren't done in the past when Rosemary and Amanda would have t-shirt stabilizing days with me. Saturday afternoonI had the first chunk pieced together.

 By later afternoon Sunday I had the second chunk pieced.

 

 By dinner on Sunday those two chunks were one.

I'll hit it again this weekend. I'll move to the right, and hopefully the top two-thirds of the quilt will be together. Maybe more? I can only hope.

What! Another t-shirt quilt?

Yes, over the years my daughters collected t-shirts. Ever since they came home from the hospital. Rosemary is due to have her collection turned into a college graduation present, so I have until next May to piece and quilt hers. I know there have been at least two occasions where the girls joined me to iron stabilizer onto the backs of their shirts, and am I glad that was done to so many. I still have to add some to a few high school, cross country and orchestra shirts, but that will be a breeze. For now, I have the prepared shirt pieces up on the design wall and I have about ten fabrics picked out from the stash to use for block borders. I'm going to use the layout and piecing techniques I have used for my Dad's and the two Tom's t's quilts. We've really liked the crazy quilt feel to them. So far this is what it looks like:

Rosemary checked it out this weekend and she had me pull three off the layout that she thinks will be better off in Amanda's set of t's. I still have the high school ones to add. She enjoyed pointing out to Shawn (her boyfriend) her favorites. That's the point of this exercise of love. Bringing back the good memories. I'll add updates as I dig into the block construction and it starts to take shape. I really need to make fast progress on this one, because I think Amanda may want hers next year for her high school graduation commemoration.