Jelly Roll Race 2015

Brady said this morning that race day is the best day of the year--second only to Christmas.  I have to agree.  I love everything about this event. Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm, donated prizes, and all of the laughs.

 

Jan delegated some of the referee duties to Brady--and gave him a whistle (thanks so much FG Jan--sarcasm!).  She told him not to start until I sat down so here is a picture taken with everyone waiting to start because I am not sitting down yet.

 

 

Our first place winner was Lynn!  We started at 11:11 and Lynn finished at 12:00. The last of the sewing wrapped up at 12:49 but there was a lot of other stuff going on during that time.  We had two dance breaks and some snacks and margaritas--all without stopping the clock.  Boy have things changed in that regard since the first race.

Mike had places to be today so Brady helped with the group shot.

 

Judy made St. Patrick's Day themed cookies.

Lynn brought Peeps-kabobs.

 

Several machines were acting up today--intermittently.  We had our first ever racer who started on one machine and finished on another (Kathy switched to Lynn's machine part way through).  There was a lot of talk to doing some intentional musical chairs next time.  That would be exciting.

 

I took so many photos today that I decided to break them up into multiple posts.  I was afraid to leave any out and that Ruth and Laura wouldn't feel like they were here with us. 

 

Next month, we will swap the art quilts.  Bring one if you want to receive one.  We will also continue to work on our braid challenge pieces.

The prizes!

With this group, you never know what to wish for.  To win or not to win.  After winning our very first jelly roll race and getting the topiary, Lynn had the courage or audacity to win again today.  She said emphatically that all she wanted was a crown.  Jan had made her a crown but, of course, there was more--including a box that was very heavy on one end.  Lucky for Lynn, it was box with a brick and a new package of batting.  She also got one of Kathy's world famous food jelly rolls.  The prize committee was good to the winner this year.  Thanks to Jan for all of the lovely tote bags.

 

Susie made party favors for all--including these adorable panels.

 

 

Susie came in second and was thrilled that Jan regifted Lynn's abandoned heritage medallion near-top plus a box of leftovers to help get her through to the end. She looks pretty happy in this photo, but there was more ... you can see in the background on the left side of this photo, the cow print box is lurking.

After a long sleep, the topiary came out of hiding and Susie was the lucky winner.

 

Dianne got quite a few gems too, no kidding!  She received this lovely nativity panel which she is threatening to stack and whack.

 

She also got a Lorelei church lady panel.

 

And a one of a kind vintage 3" strip jelly roll from Syd's stash at the Amish getaway she was too ill to attend.  What do they say about being absent when prizes are in our midst?  There was a black fabric strip with gold stars ... and cabbages. It will be lovely, no doubt.

 

Fran got a lovely knit from Kathy.

 

Mary Ann received a flamingo panel (not shown) and a wine multi-tool which became the subject of many raunchy jokes.  You had to be there.  This was another curveball from the prize committee.  Trying to keep everyone on their toes!

Syd got an odd assortment of gifties.

 

Judy also got a knit from Kathy.  Looks like she's trying to make off with Dianne's panel.

 

Jan got a very appropriate Queen of Everything mug.

 

I received a very special vintage prize from Margie and Kathy from their trip to help with their aunt's belongings.  I had to take this shot of everyone anxiously waiting for me to open it.

And here it is ....  this shirt is in mint condition.  Just look at that gold sparkle!

There were some extra special prizes for Laura--just because.  Laura and Ruth will have to wait until the next time we see them to get their loot.

Runway show

Here's a post to show the completed tops plus today's show and tell.

 

In first place, we have Lynn's top which was made from a Caryl Breyer Fallert jelly roll.  Talk about luminosity--wow!

 

 

Here's Jan's top, made from a dots jelly roll Kathy gave her.  Love the geese!

 

Here's Susie's top.  It was made from a very cute set of prints in what is becoming one of my favorite color combinations.  Susie came in second place, by the way.

 

Here's Judy's top which was made as the beginnings of the backing for the friendship blocks we made for her.  She plans to take apart a few seams and add in some additional fabric to make it large enough for the backing.  She's always got a plan!

Here's Kathy's top which made us all want to have a beach getaway.  The photo is not crooked, the right side will get trimmed at some point.

Here's Syd's piece which started with a dog themed jelly roll that Kathy gifted to her.

 

 

Here's a closeup of some of the dogs plus the other fabrics Syd added.

 

Mary Ann made a top from the jelly roll she received as a prize last year.

Fran was trying to use up some neutrals and wound up with this very pretty top.  The photo does not do it justice.

 

Gwen made a top from some of the Halloween strips she collected from the Friendship group.  We just can't get enough Halloween. So cute!

 

 

How did Dianne get her accent squares so evenly distributed?  She must know the secret.

Here's my batik top which I wanted to read as beachy.

 

For show and tell, Gwen brought some of the storefronts she's been working on--starting with the Friendship blocks we all made. I can't wait to see this finished.  The details are stunning.

Here's a close up of the left side.

 

 

Right side:

This section is in progress, also.

 

 

Gwen has so many strips, she's also been making lots of Halloween houses.  Here are a few.

When Dianne realized she would have to miss our February race date, she put together the jelly roll she had prepared.  Ruth, if you squint, you will notice this is quilted and bound.  We have another overachiever!

 

 

Here's a shot of the back, right before Sherman cozied up on top of the quilt.  I think that is his look of approval.

Lynn made a baby quilt--spontaneity!

 

All of the jelly roll tops were beautiful and interesting.  Show and tell was great, too!

December recap

We had a great day catching up with our fellow Divas.  Here are a couple of candids to show all of the merriment.  We had fun experimenting with different beverage combinations, including Jan’s soon-to-be-patented basket of punch.  Her process is genius and tasty too.

 

Laura quilted Dianne’s pineapple quilt and brought it to the meeting.  The quilt and quilting are spectacular.

Kathy finished this Hello Kitty quilt for a friend.  Luckily, she warned me in advance that it wasn’t for me.  J

We had lots of great snacks and sweets in the morning and had a late lunch which was wonderful, as usual.  No holiday lunch would be complete without a themed creation from Judy.  These were as tasty as they look in the photo.  Brady had one after dinner and said it was the best thing he’d ever tasted in his whole life.  So there you go!

Thank you all for the fun and games today.  It is the highlight of the holidays for us.  For those of you who were not here, you were missed and talked about.  Happy Birthday, Ruth!  Get well soon, Fran!

We will skip January’s meeting because many of us will be in Amishland. 

 

Nice personality

Usually I can tell when I'm avoiding something because I find myself repotting plants.  Since I've killed all of my plants, my new avoidance task is cleaning my sewing room.  Recently, I had a couple of hours and went into the room with a ruthless mindset to really take action on some delayed decisions. 

First up is a charity top that I showed a short while ago.  I finally got it bound and will ship it soon.

The next few projects are doozies.  They each prove that I truly am resolved to finish all of my UFOs.  I am not tempted to give or throw away any of them, no matter how homely. Who knows if this is a fault or a virtue.  After all, you never know when you might need to change a tire. 

Here's a not so lovely primitive Moda panel.  I have NO idea where this came from or where it was intended to go.  Where could I possibly have bought this?  Certainly not Erie Street. Must have been a weak moment at Remembrances.  It was partially (poorly) free motion quilted with ye olde nylon thread, mostly bound, and wavy for a multitude of reasons.  I removed a lot of the nylon and requilted it with some functional and decorative stitches.  It also features an ill-conceived faux piping that is snipped at the intersections.  Odd and wonky---but it is stitched down now and not going anywhere, for better or worse.  On the back is a not so pretty 90s green almost calico.



The next piece was developed as a way to use up remnants of that fusible grid stuff that some folks used for water color quilts.  I was also trying to use up all of these leftover squares I had from a Lorraine Torrence workshop.  Those two reasons are not the best start for a successful quilt.  Many of the squares are on the bias (long story) and, combined with the fusible stuff, it is  kind of wavy.  It was quilted and mostly bound when I unearthed it.  The binding on this one and the fall piece is really strange.  It is about 1/4 inch on the front about 3/4 inch on the back.  Clearly, I had no idea what I was doing.  When Brady saw it finished, he loved it and asked if he can have it.  It's certainly not spoken for otherwise. 



Last up is my serendipity piece from Color from the Heart.  Like a dummy, I stuck to the rules (of course I did) and picked randomly from the bag--resulting from a not so charming set of squares. This was a top so I quilted and bound it.



I thought I'd also have my Marie's Scraps included in this post. It's been pin basted for a long time and all of the anchoring quilting was done.  After recently completing the fall row by row quilt with lots of continuous curves, I quilted the Marie's Scraps pretty quickly and easily.  I've been stumped for a couple of weeks on how to quilt the nine patches, though.  I finally decided to dig in the night we had the recent power outage. I got most of the first block done and didn't like it at all. As I paused to decide what to do, the power went out.  I decided that was an omen to take a pause and reconsider my plan.  The good news is that the binding is cut and I just need to finish the three strips of nine patches.  Maybe inspiration will strike soon.