Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Challenge Recap

In my last post, I introduced the Going Up Challenge that Annie, Jerry, Kare, Connie, Jeffry, and I were doing and I've finally got some updates and a recap and this mostly presented in pictures. 

We had a really fun time, and I think everyone is happy with the results. (A couple of the quilts are not completed, but they will be soon.)

I still find it amazing how different the projects look; and the differences are not only a result of very different fabric choices, but also the variety of "design spins" and decisions made by each one of us.

The 2 1/2" pre-cut strips that Connie brought needed some extra attention before Kare could begin. They were beautiful strips, but they were a bit wonky and not cut straight in some cases. Kare actually put together one unit (5 strips) and then decided that she needed to take that apart and trim EVERY strip. That took a lot of time, but she was not going to be happy giving a wonky quilt to Connie. 


Once the strips were cut, the real planning began. Some of us just laid them out and just "went with it", while others took pictures or sketched our layout ideas.




 

There was a lot of work time, which resulted in a bit of quiet time as well. That's very unusual for us. I guess we were concentrating!


Kare used her Featherweight for the first time! Yay!!


Even though he wasn't sewing, Jack spent time in the room with us.


If you look at the bottom of this picture, you'll notice a stack of fabric. The bolt has the Kaffe fabric Jerry brought and periodically throughout Saturday, I randomly pulled fabrics and laid them on top of that fabric to see what Jerry's reaction was. I already knew what I was going to do, but thought it would be fun to see his reaction to fabrics that obviously did NOT belong next to that floral. Yes, it was mean; but it was fun! 😈

Our friend Eileen had a couple of quilting questions, so I told her to come on over, but be sure to bring something on which to work. She is doing hexagon handwork. Kare's sister Gail also stopped over for a while, but I didn't get a picture of her. Darn it!


We were good and did remember to take some time for hydration and nourishment! 


Saturday was very productive, fun and loud. But, it was very quiet early Sunday morning before anyone else woke up. I think this could be considered the calm before the storm.




Jerry's low bobbin indicator was not working so he thought he might investigate. It was quickly decided that cleaning one's machine is very important! From this picture, it looks like a mouse had started making a nest in Jerry's machine. 😜 


And to not be left out of the fun, Kare gave us a good laugh when she looked at her phone and wondered how it could only be charged 19% when she had it plugged in overnight. Fortunately someone had a compatible charger to hers and when Jerry plugged in her phone, he noticed that it was actually charged to 99%. Further investigation showed that Kare was looking at a snapshot that her sister had sent her and the 19% was in the picture, and not Kare's phone. Kare was a bit disgusted with herself, but laughed with us!


Jack returned and entertained us with some light reading. (I guess it helps that he has hearing aids and can remove them when it gets too loud.)


And there was a little mischief too. Jeffry stepped out of the room just long enough for me to take this picture and send to him.


Nothing was moved, but it was fun to pretend! 

It was also fun when the quilts were being put up on the design wall!
 

The missing section of the quilt is the section that Kare decided to rip apart, trim and re-sew. (I'll be sure to get a picture when the quilt top is complete and before it gets sent to Connie.)


It wasn't long before we started seeing finished quilt tops!

Connie decided to forego the sashing and borders altogether to create a quilt that fit the Edison Chargers School theme Kare was going for. She added an extra section to make it longer. I think it looks awesome and love the lightening bolt look to this. 


Annie finished Jeffry's top and I love how this looks. She purposely arranged the yellow and orange fabrics so they were showcased because they are Jeffry's favorite colors. 


I think Jerry had the biggest challenge because he did not love the fabrics he had to work with. (Ok, secretly I hoped Jerry got my fabrics because I threw in a bunch of strips and fabrics that were left over from another project and I didn't absolutely love them either. I knew that if anyone could make them work together, it would be him.) I love how he reversed the fabrics and put the dark as the background. He opted for the four light horizontal sashings only and no borders. I like how this turned out! 


Jerry's an over-achiever who had extra time and fabric so he made scrappy binding and a strip quilt. I think I may add some borders to this and use it as the backing for the other quilt. 


Jeffry has borders to add to Annie's quilt, but I love how bright and cheery this is! Do you notice how he swapped out the background fabrics in the center section in order to make the strips pop? Awesome! 


Here's what I made with Jerry's fabrics. I placed his black and white batiks in a way to alternate lights and darks both vertically and horizontally. It wasn't always easy because many of these read as mediums. Instead of using the solid black and white fabrics he brought, I use a purple Peppered Cotton from my stash. (I really must love my brother because I love this fabric and am very selective of when I use it.) I love how it works with the batiks.

I then pieced the four horizontal sashings with the Kaffe floral and some orange fabric that I had in my stash. And finally, I asked Jerry what he would like for the outer border or if he even wanted one. I was thrilled that he and I were in agreement that the solid black batik was THE perfect choice. 


Overall, we had a fun and productive weekend and have already started the discussion about another challenge.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What fun you all must have had! Beautiful quilts.