Not Your Grandmother's Flower Garden

Remember my farmer's market hexies?  You can see where I started them here a year ago, and a little more progress here.  I've been working on them off and on since then.  When the Quilt Guild of Dallas announced that their show theme for 2013 was "Edible," a couple of people said I should enter with the hexie quilt.  I plugged away with that in mind and was at this stage when I decided to enter the show in late February.

I kept saying, "I'm almost done," but I wasn't!  With the March 6 deadline looming, I stitched more.  I took it to QuiltCon with me and stitched in the hotel room.  I stitched at night while watching TV.  Late on Friday, March 1, I stitched the last corner medallion in place and thought I was ready for the borders.  But it needed one more outer border of red hexies, so I plunged ahead.  It took me all day Saturday until about 2 a.m. Sunday morning to finish that hexie border.

I had planned to border it in red but while I was at QuiltCon I realized I wouldn't have enough, so I searched for and found a nice avocado green and a nifty diagonal stripe for a border.  I got the borders sewed on on Sunday and pieced the back.  Two days to go until it absolutely had to be done and it still needed to be quilted.  So I took off work on Monday and Tuesday to quilt and bind it.  I sewed on the label and hanging sleeve at small group Tuesday evening.  I finished it just in time to take it to the Dallas Market Hall on Wednesday morning.  Whew!

Thursday was preview night.  I decided to go see the quilts in relative peace, even though I plan to also go on Sunday with some friends.  When I finally found my quilt, what did I see but a ribbon!  My last minute quilt had won an Honorable Mention in the Show Chair's Theme category!!  Not bad for my first ever quilt show!

 

 Not Your Grandmother's Flower Garden

70"x72"

Christmas ... a little late!

A week after Christmas we spent the weekend with Mr. T's sister's family at two cabins at Lake D'Arbonne in northern Louisiana.  The cabins were spacious, with each having beds for 8, plenty of room for the 16 of us.  The weather was beautiful, firewood plenty, and the company great.  We shared cooking duties between the two kitchens, including a big holiday dinner.

We each had  to provide a Christmas gift for 2 other people.  My quilter niece and I had each other, so we bought each other fat quarter bundles and other quilty goodies.  Mr. T had his sister, my sis-in-law.  I had already started a quilt for her before we knew we were getting names, so I made it for him to give her.

I used charm packs of Ambrosia by Kathy Davis for Free Spirit.  At first I used only the charm packs in the squares, but it was WAY too busy, even for me.  So I unsewed several blocks and added in some solids to break up the busyness.  I was happy with the result and my SIL loved it.