challenge quilts

Saturday was fun at the community rec center. The quilts looked gorgeous hanging on the clothes lines. The quilts challenge went great. Gwen won the peoples choice for the challenge quilt. Among our quilt group, we all had to guess who made what quilt. Gwen’s quilt had thousands of bead work on her quilt. So we all new it was her quilt with the bead work, since she likes to do bead work. People seem to know,my work and Gwen’s work. We have a style that everyone knows.

I had a few people thinking that I made the quilt with the lady, because there were a lot of hand work done on this piece and they knew that most of the time I like to do hand work vs machine work. my quilt is the one in the middle. people also thought that the quilt on the other side might be mine also. but everyone did pick mine as being my quilt. we also did a block exchange and only three of us completed our block exchange quilt. we exchange dress blocks. with my quilt i added shoes to the quilt.

here we have gwen's, charlene and my quilt hanging so beautifully.

i love these dresses, i just wish everyone had finished their dresses. just the fact that i know they are all going to be different, i can't wait to see the rest of the dresses when they are finish. here are a few pictures of some of the challenge quilts.

here are some of 2006 and 2007 challenge quilts that we also showed this weekend.

it was a fun day.

enough is enough

i was reading another blog, and the quilter stated when is enough, enough. she stated that she had made a quilt a couple of years ago and it was missing something. and she kept playing with it for a couple of years. i like her final outcome. well i did the same thing and i still don't like it.
the back ground fabric was hand quilted with a sun and a hut. but it seem to me that was not enough. so i started coloring the hut and the sun. but no i has to go and add another hut and hundreds of beads to the sun and the huts. that still wasn't enough for me to stop and say enough is enough. i marked the ground area with color pencils to make it look like dirt and dry grass. it is a total mess. i totally hate it now. i am trying to think of somehow to fix this. the bead work is ok but i don't like the body of the huts. i should have applique the huts. someone asked to buy it and me like a dummy said i wasn't finish yet. it should have been enough and sold. i am trying to think of a way to put real dirt on this piece for the ground area and just leave the huts alone.

but for right now i am going to just leave this piece alone. i have told myself that i am going to finish everything that i start this years. this is what i am pushing myself to do this year.

i finished the piece with the girl in the orange dress. the family reunion is thrown to the side again. i am just not feeling that piece. my challenge piece is finish. i will post that hopefully friday or saturday. the space alien brothers piece is almost complete. the only problem is, i need is to get some heat in my sewing room. the air conditioner has that room freezing cold. my bones are killing me. the weather is hot as hell outside, but my husband is freezing me up in this house. i am sewing in the sun room, sewing by hand. just so that i can get some heat on this old body. i will try in a couple of days to go backing to my sewing room. so enough is enough.

journal quilts

someone ask to see the 2006 and 2007 Journal Quilts. these are quilt pieces that i entered into the Journal Quilt Project for the international quilt festival. the 2006 journal quilt project consist of doing a quilt piece once a month that is 8x11" for nine months and to keep a journal of your experience. at the end of the nine months, you decide what five pieces you are sending them. two of the 2006 pieces were chosen to be in a quilt book, "the Creative Quilting/The Journal Quilt Project," quilt book. the two pieces are on page 161, title: Hi, I am a …., and Healing Hand. they are the first two piece in the picture here.

i also entered a 2007 piece that is call "Brotherman." for the 2007 piece i only had to do one piece that was 17x22" and you had to use three ideas from the quilt journal project quilt book. the two pieces from the book and the 2007 piece are still on tour with the international quilt festival. i am trying to decide if i am going to do the 2008 journal quilt, that is due by the end of august. i know what i want, but just have not decided how to do it. it is a beautiful picture i took on a trip last year.

Busy Month

The month of june will be a busy month for me. there are three things going on near the end of the month of june, family reunion, family day at the rec, and our guild quilt show. for the family reunion, i am trying to make a quilt for the reunion. family day the quilting bee that i am in, will be exhibiting our quilts at family day and we have a challenge quilt going on also. i just finished my challenge quilt. sorry no pictures of this one until after june 21st. i also have two other quilts that i am making for family day. i hope that i can finish all of these before the 21st.

here is one of the quilts that i am working on. this quilt is hand applique'. the cap is fabric that i used to make the cap look 3D. i don't know if you can see that in this picture. the hair is REAL dreadlocks, that i attached under the cap. and to my friends and family, no i did not cut my locs. i am a hand quilter who sometimes try her hands at machine quilting and with this piece that was not working so i am going to do this entire piece by hand. i am still having some health problems, but i am not going to let this stop me from doing what i love to do.

this next piece is machine raw edge applique' that i am trying to decide how i want the border to look. i want it to be kind of different. i am trying to think of the border with a bright color or something. so right now i am letting my brain rest on it for a couple of days. this piece will be machine quilted with added embellishments.

the family reunion quilt is not coming out the way i want it to be. so that is not going to be worked on until i finish the first two pieces. if the family reunion quilt is not finish in time i can still have my family sign the quilt. the family quilt is a signature quilt that the family will be able to sign their name. i don't like to use white fabric, and i think that is why i don't like this quilt. some of the pieces are white and i am trying to like this quilt and finish it. some of my friends have seen it and like it. i am the one that don't like it. i have to like my work in order for me to finish it. i know what i want, but i just haven't done it.

wish me luck.

Blood on your hands

one of my friends emailed me and told me to make sure that I put, "Blood on your hands," in the quilt show. she said that this quilt truly moved her. i also was moved by this piece, when i was making it. seeing the red paint dripping from my hands made me wonder why it was so easy for this mother to kill her children. where was her family support and why didn't they see that this mother needed help. when my niece was a little girl her babysitter went through the same thing. something inside of her was telling her to kill the children. but her will power was strong enough to keep the children out oF the house until she could get help. IF AT ANYTIME YOU FEEL THAT YOU WANT TO HARM A CHILD PLEASE KNOW THAT THERE IS HELP OUT HERE AND THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONG. DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK.

3 makes 4

today is a better day. i have decided what pieces are going into the quilt show for next month. the joker, the mask III, and call me mr. jazz. these are the additional pieces that are chosen.

their is another piece that i would like to add, but i don't know how, i want to add the sleeve to this piece. it is call "blood on your hands," this piece was made in memory of a mother killing her four daughters. the quilt is about 15 inches long and about 36 inches wide. i am trying to decide whether, to do a regular sleeve on the back or to make some hoops to hang from the top of the quilt. i can't seem to decide what to do.

here is a picture of "blood on your hands."

need to get to work

i am just coming back from a quilting cruise and loved it. second day back in the states i had to call 911 because i was having chest pains and finding it hard to breath. they are saying i have gerd and a slow heart rate. now this chest pain is causing me to not what to sew and that is not me. all i want to do keep still so i don't have to feel the chest pain. next month the guild that i am in is having a quilt show and i have not sent in my quilt pieces yet. i haven't even decided which piece to send. and i have a few pieces to finish. i need to get to work on this. i did pick one and the only reason i pick this one is because i had the measurement for this one. some of the pieces that i want in the show i need to add the sleeve to the quilts.