TCQC - Auction quilt - Canyon Quilters Challenge 05-08-22

I do enjoy a quilt auction and this past week I have participated in two.  SAQA' s Spotlight Auction was held in conjunction with their annual conference which was an online event this year.  The quilts up for auction were tiny - only 4" X 6", or the size of a postcard - but they are presented in a 8" X 10" mat and enclosed in a plastic sleeve.  I have purchased some at previous SAQA conferences, but I remove them from the sleeve/mat and usually have to finish the edge.  This time I was high bidder for four little quilts which I will show you after they arrive here.  The other auction was sponsored by Pokey Bolton and her Craft a Life website and benefited the World Central Kitchen which is providing meals in Ukraine.  These quilts were all different sizes and went for higher bids.  I won one by Jennifer Sampou which is a little different but has trees in it.  I bid high (I thought) for a lovely bouquet by Terry Grant, whose quilts I greatly admire, but at the last minute someone almost doubled the bid and will have that lovely quilt hanging on her wall.  Bummer.  

The quilt I am showing tonight was part of the Canyon Quilters of San Diego Challenge and Auction last fall.  The quilts went on to hang at Visions and were returned at the meeting last week when I was the speaker for the meeting.   Of course, another bird quilt - there wasn't a Toucan in the Collection before.  This one is 14" square.

"You Too Can" Judith Peters - San Diego  2021  14" X 14"

Cotton fabric, Machine pieced and quilted.

The Challenge fabric is in the bottom two corners and appliqued in several places.

The back is one of Kaffe Fassett's fabulous, colorful designs.

A hand lettered label which I can hardly read.  With magnifying glass I see it says:

"Canyon Quilt Challenge 2021

Judith Peters, San Diego, CA

My first Challenge"

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Friday Food + Showing TCQC quilts 04-22-22

Breakfast at a restaurant always seems luxurious to me!  I don't understand why, maybe because my family never went out for that meal.  When my sister and I traveled by train in the late 40s from Portland, OR, to Los Angeles going to the dining car and having fresh squeezed orange juice  and silver covers on our plates was just too sophisticated for words.  When I was in San Diego this last  Monday/Tuesday I had breakfast at Farmer's Bottega with my friend Andrea.  We ate on their charming patio and the benedict was delicious along with tasty fresh fruit.   But it set me up for another visit to Toast in Brea on Thursday with friend Carol.  Their benedict is the best, this time with avocado.  I was much too busy eating to take pictures.

 

I was in San Diego to do a program for Canyon Quilters, showing quilts from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection (TCQC).  It had been about three years since I did a program due to Covid and I worried that I wouldn't remember how to do it!  My friend Liz, who has helped me since I started doing presentations, is ill and unable to help.  I was really exhausted from getting the quilts down, "packaging" them for transporting, and then setting up at the meeting.  But the members pitched in to help and all went well.  I did remember how to do it!   I tried to take quilts that I didn't show when I visited the guild in June of 2014, but there are some that are just too interesting to leave out.  Ruth B. McDowell's "A Rash of Flamingos" came to me after the original owner died and her heirs contacted Ruth about it.  I feel so fortunate that I could add this treasure to the Collection.  It is a prime example of Ruth's masterful machine piecing and amazing eye for fabric selection.   One of the members took this picture of me in front of Flamingos. 

 

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Quilt in progress 12-11-21

I am still TRYING to create something, but it goes sooo slowly.  Lack of concentration, ennui, needing a nap almost every day.  I don't know what is the cause - pandemic syndrome?  old age?  need more vitamins?   Whatever.  I know it would help if I did exercises every single day and maybe even twice a day!  But I don't seem to be able to force myself to do that.  Self control is not one of my strong points!  However, I have been working on several projects, switching off when I can't continue on one.  This is a small (18"W X 40"L) wall quilt composed of 1-1/2" squares that I have cut over the last 40 years or so.  I have a box of light and a box of dark that I paw through when needed.  I posted about this piece on 11-16-21 when I was still selecting squares.  Now I am machine quilting it and wish I had been more precise about lining up the little squares.  Oh, well - it isn't going to be a masterpiece!  

I have quilted vertically about 1/8th inch from the edges of the squares and will also do the horizontal.   I couldn't find a thread I thought would look good with all the different fabrics, so I am using mono-filament as the top thread and a lime green cotton on the back.  So far it is looking okay. 

I belong to Canyon Quilters in San Diego, but find it hard to do the two hour drive home after the meetings end around 9pm.  ZOOM has been a big help and I do attend most meetings that way.  They also have a "Sit and Sew" twice a month and I have enjoyed that.  There are usually fewer than 20 members attending, and once there were only four of us!  But it is a chance to become acquainted with some of the members.  There is not a lot of visiting going on, most are intent on their own work, but someone will bring uo a subject and we can all chime in or just listen.  I enjoy it and today finished up the vertical quilting lines on this little quilt. 

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Challenge quilt, Canyon Quilters fund raiser. 11-17-21

Monday evening was the Challenge reveal at the Canyon Quilters meeting in San Diego.  I did not drive down for the meeting, but watched on ZOOM.  There were 33 Challenge quilts with the theme of "Color Me Festive" requiring the use of the challenge fabric in either black background or white background.  I had chosen the black and decided that a wreath is festive, especially at this time of year.   I quilted the background first doing a plaid pattern.  Then I cut out the flowers and some solid red 'berries' and outlined each of them with black fabric marker.  I couldn't make the wreath look round so i fused on a circle using two layers of black nylon netting and arranged the flowers, leaves, and berries, fusing them down.  You can hardly see the circle but it helps create the round shape.  One problem is that the front of the quilt can never be ironed lest the nylon netting melt!  Then I straight stitched around each applique with mono-filament thread.  

                      

"Festive"  Del Thomas 2021  14" X 14"

"Festive" Back  I found this coordinate fabric at Back Porch Fabric in Pacific Grove and was originally going to use it for binding, but that didn't look right and I just used the green.

The quilt did sell at the guild meeting, but I don't know who bought it or the final bid. 

Since I was not there to bid I asked a friend to bid for me and she was successful with a bid of $200 for this piece "You Too-Can" by Judy Peters.  A nice addition to the bird section of TCQC.  Judy used mostly the green foliage of the challenge fabric with one red flower in the lower right corner.  

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Fabric tonight 10-25-21

I definitely don't NEED any more fabric, but I do love printed cottons and there are always some that I cannot pass up.  Being at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA, (the world's best quilt shop) was sooo wonderful.  But I did restrain myself and only purchased nine fabrics.

These four were all on the sale table.  Gail Abeloe, the shop owner, doesn't let fabrics sit around on the shelves.  If they are not selling she marks them down so that when you go to the shop there are always sale fabrics and lots of new fabrics to tempt us.  

When I went back the second time I was looking for a background for a Challenge quilt and there was the coordinate to the Challenge fabric of which I didn't take a picture.  I had changed my mind about the background for the Challenge and found the Grunge green which is a good color match. 

I also bought enough of this drapery weight fabric to make a tote bag for a chicken loving friend, using Gail's pattern sheet.  The red wattles are bright red. 

At PIQF I spotted these two which I had been sort of looking for.  Nelda in the art quilt group used the white for the background of her Himalayan Poppies quilt.  

 

While I was in Pacific Grove I set up my machine and planned to work on the Challenge quilt for Canyon Quilters in San Diego.  I had everything with me and bought the new fabric for the background and the backing.  But other things got in the way.  Since I have been home I have been working on the quilt.  

I sandwiched using a sample of Mountain Mist Cotton/Silk batting which has been on the shelf for years.  I quilted the sandwich in a plaid pattern.  

I fused the Challenge fabric and cut out the red flowers and a few leaves. But they are not enough to make the wreath I was looking for.  I am cutting leaves and dots from my fabric library to see if I can fill it out a bit. 

And this is the back!  I think I will need a binding of this same fabric. 

I will need to work hard at machine appliqueing the flowers because the quilt has to be turned in on Saturday.  Always a procrastinator!

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