Fiesta BOM – Block 2

I’ve taken up this BOM by Fatcatpatterns again and if I hurry it might just not end up as an UFO.  The problem was that I finished block 2 according to schedule but the moment I pinned it to my design wall next to block 1, the two blocks just didn’t work for me.  The second block was way too dark.  Now redoing any block was never my idea of fun so for months these blocks were pinned as is on the wall.

Finally I got to fix block 2 but there was no way I would redo the whole block, I simply cut appliqué shapes in new colours and ironed these over the incorrectly coloured shapes and my block changed to this.

Even though block 2 is still much darker it somehow now feels better when placed next to the first block.

August PFAFF Block Lotto blocks

Our local PFAFF dealer hosts a quarterly Block Lotto to raise funds for our planned National Quilt Festival in 2013.  They give the instructions to make a single block; we make the block and pay a small fee for every block entered.  At the quarterly guild meeting a lucky winner is drawn from all the entries and the funds go towards the festival funds.

Last term we had to hand appliqué a Sunbonnet Sue and sadly to say I did not win the 33 block entries, so I am trying my luck again.

This term we simply had to join skew purple and pink strips framed on 2 sides with tan fabric to make a 10½” square block and I managed to finish mine today even though the deadline is only 17 August.  Well at least no-one can say I am not organized!!

Cutting kits for our planned National Festival in 2013

Hooray, I have something to write about on my blog again.  I've been so swamped with writing our guild's blog, teaching courses and working on projects that I don't want to or may not share now that I hardly had anything to write about.

These kits, I suppose, are somewhat of a surprise too, so I am not going to give much more detail apart from the fact that it kept me busy most of this rainy Sunday.  Good excuse not to get out of my PJ's.

We each only had to cut 6 kits each but with me being part of more than one group in our guild, I had to step up to the plate and deliver.  So tomorrow I'm off to do some ribbon shopping and then my cutting will be done and I can hand my kits to the respective group leader.

Invitations to quarterly guild meeting

Our provincial guild  consists of roughly 17 smaller groups from all over our province and once every three months all of us get together for our quarterly guild meeting.  In between these, the smaller groups gather as many or few times as they wish at different locations.

Card back (closed)

The smaller groups are divided into pairs and the two selected groups should then work together to host a quarterly meeting.  For the August 2011 meeting the Saturday group   I belong to is one of the host groups and it is then our job to rent the venue, decorate the hall, make the snacks, make gifts to hand at our the door, serve tea and clean up afterwards.  However before that we had to make invitation to give to all the group leaders of each group and this is where I was involved.

Card front (closed)

I saw this neat pattern for a greeting card but trying to be clever I wanted to make it with quilting fabric never thinking that it might not be as easy as it looked.  Luckily our local PFAFF dealer is part of this group too.  So teamwork it was, I gave the fabric and cut the patterns, she sewed all together and did the dreaded satin stitching and then back to me to do the iron-on printing on the inside.

Card back (open)

Card inside

Eliminating all the swear words that went into this process I think it came out really good and seeing that all the

 group leaders received their invitations on Monday, 18 April, I think it is save to post these pictures to my blog.

I’ve been working on so many ‘secret’ projects lately that I couldn’t really do any blog posts until the due dates of these projects.  Apart from about 3 more such secretive projects (that I can recall now) I think I’m done and should be able to get back to regular blog postings.

Deadlines just don’t do it

Friend and quilt buddy Karin and I decided to enter the challenge for our National Quilt Festival .  Not that we think we’re all that good but after 10-years of quilting we figured we earned the right to a decent crit by a panel of judges. We had an artist in our midst (my blonde’s boyfriend) so finding the designs were the easy part.  However then the snail got onto the razor blade; plenty of slime secretion (us talking about our challenges) but little forward movement. 

Suddenly the two of us found ourselves stuck.  We used to quilt day and night, are known for our impulsive all night quilting sessions and we didn’t and couldn’t do a thing the moment the challenge became our priority

.

We knew we had to do something about this and SOON too as our quilts should be couriered in about two weeks time, so we retreated to familiarity and planned yet another all night quilt session.  We decided to ‘invite’ the two men for the earlier part of the night to start us off with a decent barbeque before we got stuck through the night.

Here Karin shows how a quilter should await dinner while the men ‘cook’.

Unfortunately while waiting for the food, I first made us lovely cocktails and soon afterwards helped the men finish a good bottle (okay two) of red wine.  Needless to say we got friendlier but more tired and when the men wanted to go to bed at 11pm we seriously doubted our abilities to continue.

Karin took this photo of me and the flat hair...... I had a Brazilian blow wave and for the next 12 weeks I should not have a curl, frizz or kink in my head.  I am not too chuffed with having my head all flat and even Karin’s comment that I’d get used to it, didn’t help much as even with me getting used to it, doesn’t change the fact that it will still be way too flat to my liking. 

At exactly 23:30 the first needle pierced through fabric and we seriously started sewing until 6 am the next morning.  We actually moved forward - hooray!!

I got done with the final quilting of my quilt the next day and now just need to do the binding and final finishes and word from Karin says she too is making good progress but here she can be seen seriously unpicking.

We might just make it!!