Here is the couch carcass in it’s current state:

And The Husband showing off his handiwork in our Bonus Room:

So what do you think about swapping out one of the charity quilts (replacing it with a quilt I would make from blocks I already have) so that I can keep it?  Does that break the spirit of the challenge?  Leave me a comment to tell me what you think!

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This quilt was made as part of my 2011 charity challenge. I had a set of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters and some leftover jelly roll strips and this is what came out of it. I love the bright happy colors and I hope it cheers a child who needs it!

You can find the tutorial for the top here.

The challenge was to complete 5 child-sized quilts to be donated to a woman in my guild who was collecting them for a local charity. This is the second quilt – I have since finished the top of the third and am working on the top of the fourth. I am holding off on quilting them because I’m hoping to soon be buying an extension arm for my machine.  That should make quilting them much easier.  A girl can dream, right?

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Unfortunately I did not get to see my own quilts undergo her scrutiny. I entered two quilts – the Pinwheels Aplenty quilt and also a challenge quilt I made for my other guild some time ago.  (Sorry, I couldn’t find a picture of it.)  They both ended up in the same category and I had to leave to meet the school bus right as my category was coming out for judging. Sigh.  I’d say I wasted a vacation day except that her comments were useful reminders of the basics.

I did however get to see the quilt above judged. It was a round robin that I participated in, and I added the appliqued outer corners before handing it off to someone who created a pieced border. I was quite proud of how my addition to the quilt turned out because it was the first time I’d done so much applique. The quilt did not win a ribbon – darn! That was my best shot at being able to say I’d participated in an award-winning quilt this time. Oh well.  Such is life.  I didn’t make either of the quilts I entered with a show in mind and I know they have many of the flaws that the judge was not impressed with. I submitted them because I feel it is important for the guild members to participate and they were the quilts I had that were both finished and present.

Another great thing about going to the judging – I’m fired up to complete some quilts that have been languishing unfinished while I work on the charity challenge.  I’m working on the top of the third quilt – it is taking rapid shape!  Hopefully I’ll have an update and some pics of it for you soon .

Have you ever put a quilt in a show? What was your experience?

Scary, right?  I am really fascinated and surprised by the construction.  It is a lot of work, I’ll tell you that.  But if I can get it to turn out halfway decent I might have found an additional hobby.  I’ve already found myself eyeballing various furnishings as I drive by garage sales or on the side of the road.  Yipes!

The pinwheel quilt - complete!

So I finished it!  Actually I finished it three or four weeks ago.  I’ve been slow in getting pictures posted.  I have the tutorial mostly written up as well but I haven’t found the time yet to finish.  This quilt actually turned out very frugal for me – I spent less than $25 on new supplies and everything else used was left over from other projects.  Woot!  You can’t beat that.  It is Kaffe Fasset fabric and I love the colors.

Here are a few more pics:

We also just got back from the beach.  Here is The Husband and me living it up in the Outer Banks:

The children were there too, of course.  We had a blast…even when The Husband got the camera wet in the ocean.  Oops.  And when I lost the replacement camera.  Double oops.  But all ended well – the card from the first camera survived and we later found the new camera in the sand near a hamburger stand we went to.  Whew!

Our sad little couch

Another view of the sad little couch

Our dog Krypto likes to sit on that back cushion and that is why it looks so terrible.  You can see the springs and everything!  So unsightly.  And a new couch is not in the budget.  So I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to dismantle it so that I can reupholster the couch with lovely new denim fabric from fabric.com.

Of course I’ve been working on the charity quilts, too.  Update on that another time, though.  (Hopefully in a podcast!)  So.  Wish me luck!!!  I’m almost done dismantling and I’ve already recovered the bottom cushions.  They turned out pretty good so I’ve got my fingers crossed that it will turn out half as good as this cool couch from Pottery Barn:

Get this: I chose the denim and bought it *before* I saw this super-awesome couch in their catalog.  I have a similar brain wave to someone at PB!  I love PB!  Wooot!

I have to admit that the devastation in Japan is just so horrible that I cannot bring myself to be up to date on it.  But I want to help.  The deadline to contribute to QN’s call is April 30th – the same as my charity quilt deadline.  So I am doubling my effort – I will make two quilts (of the same design) and give one to my guild friend and send one to QN.  I hope you will join in and send a contribution to Japan if you are able.  To lose so much and all of the death – my heart just breaks. 

In other news…I started quilting the Husband’s Exhibitionists quilt.  Unfortunately I’ve had to do some ripping.  Sigh.  I should know by now that shortcuts are a bad idea!!

So what do you plan to do?  Leave me a comment and let me know!  I hope to be working on quilting The Husband’s quilt – the one made from the kiddo’s artwork.  It will get finished…eventually!!

I made it from leftover tea-dyed fabric, a charm square, and leftover 2-1/2 inch strips (those are on the back and in the binding.)  It is self-quilted – i.e, the seams that attach the strips together on the back doubles as the quilting that appears on the front.  Cool!

And here is an action shot:

And no, I did not make the sauce.  It is sauce from a jar that I doctored.  Ya, I’m a bad Italian

So anyway.  Here are the details about the quilt…I did meander quilting in the center.  Originally the center was going to be a pieced background from fat quarters but I didn’t like how that looked and I only had white muslin.  So I tea-dyed it, and darned if it didn’t turn out exactly how I pictured it!  Of course the border is made up of nine patches and I did diagonal quilting across each square.  I love how that ends up looking sort of like an argyle sock.

 You can see in the picture below that the owl’s wings are not sewn down.  I wanted them to be floppy.  And here he is playing peek-a-boo:

Where’s owl?  There he is!  I did kind of a furry quilting around the owls eyes and left some of the fabric unquilted to wrinkle in the wash.  I’m not sure I made the best choice there but I still like how it turned out.

The binding turned out great.  I love doing the ladder-stitch.  It is so easy and does such a great job!

Here is the back.  I did some random piecing of fat quarters and scraps to create it.  I’ve never pieced a back like this before and I’m really amazed at how much I like the effect.  I always thought it was too much work but now I am really glad I tried it.  You can see the different texture of the meander quilting in the blue area of the quilt back there.  BTW, that blue is the reason I bought the fabric collection.  I totally love that shade of blue.  In middle school I had this billowy blue cotton skirt in that shade and I wore it constantly.  It had strategic slits in the side so that when I went down the stairs it puddled behind me like a train.  People were always stepping on it.  It was so awesome.  I wish I still had it!

Michelle, I hope your grandbaby is born happy and healthy and that he or she loves their little quilt!  Thank you to everyone who put a bid in on the auction.  I am blown away by the generosity of people sometimes. 

Oh, and if you want one of your own you can always leave me a comment on episode #30 to win a kit to make one yourself.  I think I will draw the winner for that this weekend, so stay tuned!