More Race Photos

Two more photos from the race.

 

First the Collaborative Quilt that Syd won, which we all worked on over a period of time and which Diane quilted.

 

Our First Collaborative Quilt

 

 

Second Jan and her scissors holster which was made by Margie, our long distance, honorary member.

 

 I also added a labels gadget to our side bar. When you are posting (and I know you are all going to be posting and adding photos) you can add a label to your post; then when you want to find all the posts with one label you can click on it on the side bar and they will all come up. All you have to do before you click to publish your post is click on "labels" on the right side bar and type in the name of the label. When you start to type, a list of the labels that are already there will pop up. To avoid confusion click on one of them if it is appropriate instead of typing something similar, which would result in another category.

And it was a race

What a great race, as expected!  Kathy mentioned that the addition of Laura, Judy and Syd may have had a calming effect on the room.  It is certainly possible because, although we were all very enthusiastic, there wasn’t as much nervous tension as last year.  It could just be that we’d all gotten over that “winning” thing after we witnessed what happened to Lynn last year.  J

We didn’t do derailers this year, but all were aware of our referee Jan’s watchful eye.  We all made a lovely quilt top so that is a bonus.  Several racers brought numerous and generous prizes which were all appreciated.  I appreciated the thoughtful and evil input from the esteemed prize committee.  Diva Dianne graciously and beautifully finished our improve quilt and it was offered as a raffle prize.  I was glad that Syd won, especially after I saw her relief that it was not another pile of UFO ingredients.  I was excited to receive one of three food jelly rolls donated by Kathy.  They are one of a kind and not available in any store.  First place winner Judy (plus me as hostess) received hand-painted topiary margarita glasses provided by our honorary Diva Margie.  Custom, commissioned artwork … wow … can we top this?!?!  Here's a shot of Judy in her 2013 Jelly Roll crown, admiring her topiary glass.  Many thanks to Margie!

 

Of course, "The" topiary needed to change hands.  It made sense that it go to someone who had not yet experienced its splendor.  Ruth was a prime target … I mean recipient.  Fran was happy to turn it over and I believe this photo shows her satisfaction and relief.

 

After prizes, we had a delicious lunch.  Comfort food to the max.  Dianne and Judy did their usual and wonderful cleanup effort.  I love the fact that my house looks the same or better at 3:05 as it did at 10:00 a.m. 

Ruth had the great idea to ask Mike to take a group photo since everyone was present for the race (we talked about our Florida satellite and missed them).  What a great picture of an exceptional group of friends.  Without all of you and your enthusiasm, there wouldn’t be events like these.  Thanks to all for showing up each month to laugh, complain, and quilt (talking about quilting also counts). 

 

 

Mike, Brady and I all went down for a nap soon after everyone left.  Brady belted out a few songs then fell asleep in his doorway with his blankie and stuffed animal.  It would have been a great photo but I didn’t want to risk waking him.  All three of us really enjoy Diva Saturdays.

 

 

Race Day

It was a GF3 day, Good Friends, Good Fun and Good Food.

I am sure there are some other photos yet to be posted but here is my collage of most of the finished quilts ( this was after lunch when no one wanted to stand up alone and have their quilt top photographed). The rest of the collage is most members admiring their prizes, I missed Syd and Kathy with their prizes. Syd received a quilting book. Syd has more quilting books than all the local libraries combined but i am sure she has room for one more. I think Kathy received some leftovers; I never saw her open her prize..

The second and third photos from the left in bottom row are Lynn, first place winner last year, and Judy, first place winner this year, wearing their crowns.
I don't suppose I will ever get a crown as I came in dead last this year and next to the last last year. However I did get a special trophy, The Topiary. It has been passed around from unsuspecting person to unsuspecting person for a number of  years. I should let someone else tell the story about it as I was not there at the beginning. Though I had heard about it many times, I only saw it for the first time last year.

Race 2013

The Big race is over for another year. A new victor crowned. A topiary passed along.
Best part, we were all there. Second best, we all have a completed quilt top. Third best, lunch.
Someone else will post pictures.
I hope that everyone reading this has as fine a group of friends.

In My Spare Time

January is a surprisingly busy month for us.  It’s all the more reason I should be making lists and checking them twice.  Instead, I have found myself drawn to mindless piecing.  Months ago I had cut a few 2” squares from some traditional scraps. I started making these into four patches over the weekend.  After spending most of my December sewing time on crafts and machine quilting, it was great to be back to piecing.  Pretty quickly, I ran out of precut squares and I decided to dig into the oversized shoebox that I use to store my traditional scraps.  I thought I could kill two birds with one stone since Linda asked for scrappy HSTs for this month’s Friendship assignment. 

 

I spent several hours digging through the box and cutting a few sizes that I will use in the future.  I cut bigger pieces to go into a Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt since I love that pattern and I’m sure I’ll make another one.  For anything that was a decent width, I cut 2” strips since most of the scrap patterns I am drawn to will use that size.  After many hours, things started to get tedious and I began to question why I shouldn’t just throw the whole box in the trash and move on.  As I’ve sorted and cut them, I’ve realized that the scraps in that box came from nearly every project I’ve made since I started sewing in 1992. There were pieces from my first (hand pieced and hand quilted) quilt, It’s OK exercises, wedding quilts, scraps from ESF Mississippi fabric bundles, Color from the Heart, quilts for people I’m no longer related to, Syd and Kathy classes, HFM, Mary Ellen Hopkins fabric swaps, that “awesome” bargello vest, scraps from my embarrassingly bad first-timers applique for the QSC round robin (sorry about that Jan!), NEORQC getaway projects, baby quilts for kids who have since grown into adulthood, the mariner’s compass and double wedding ring quilts were way beyond my skill level when I made them … the list goes on and on.  You can see some of the results and the debris here. 

I am not sure how many four patches I’ll need but, for now, I am thinking I will make this pattern from all of these scraps.  Someday, it will be my sewing memory quilt.

And Now There Are Four

Two more great granny square blocks were finished for the Diva's black, white, and one color challenge.  I redid the square on the lower left since the original just did not look right with the rest of them.  I changed out the center red square so that it was different from the one on the lower right and also changed out the black so it didn't read as solid.

The size is just about right for the spot I have in mind so I'm stopping here but I'm thinking a pieced border would work.

I'll ponder this while I sew many strips together for the great jelly roll race coming up.

Happy New Year!

(p.s.  I did it Ruth!)