Goodies!

Wednesday was the June meeting of my quilt guild.  I just joined this guild in April, so it was only my third meeting.  When I joined, I was definitely apprehensive and second-guessing myself for jumping into a group like this.  Everyone was much older than me and acted like they were already best friends. I was unsure that I would fit in.

I am really glad I took the leap and joined!  Every meeting has been a total blast.  When you walk in there is a sort of "give and grab" table of quilt books and magazines.  I have gotten an awesome book on quilted clocks, one on Mariner's Compass blocks, and a few others from this table.  If you decide you don't want it anymore or you are done with the project in it, you just bring it back for someone else.  There is also a "Treasure Table" every few months where you drop off scraps and can collect scraps from others for a donation of $.50 or around there.

Then they also make these little raffle baskets from donated stuff.  The tickets are incredibly inexpensive and the funds go to the guild. This month I made sure to have cash on hand for this part.  And I won one of the raffle baskets!  Here is what was in it.  It looked very cute all put together, but I was so excited that I took it all out of the basket before I took a snap.

There are two patterns, both "Southwest" themed, a pair of applique scissors, and some coordinating fabrics.  The main fabric has cacti all over it and is about 2 yards!  This was pretty cool to win.

I also decided this meeting to join in on some of the guild sewing opportunities, which is one reason I really wanted to join a guild.

The fabric challenge right now is a panel.  Everyone got a different panel to work with, either Holiday or Kids themed.  Here is the one I got.

Now I can do anything I want with this panel, due in August.  I'm not sure if it's cheating to ask for help online or not.  Probably is, so I'll just tell you what I'm pondering.  One idea I had was to make it into the wallhanging as intended and just embellish the heck out of it.  I could also have fun with FMQ on top of that.

The second idea, that my boyfriend suggested, is to convert it into a holiday apron.  The center panel with the snowman and sheep is the bottom/skirt part, then I could rearrange some of those other elements for the upper front, maybe throw in a pocket.

Both interesting ideas.  I am excited to work on this and also excited to see what everyone else does with their panels!

Okay, on top of all of that, I also decided to jump into the charity bee this month.  Each moth they pick a different sort of challenge theme for a charity quilt that you make.  This month was wholecloth, which I thought would be an awesome opportunity to practice FMQ.  They provided the top, batting, and backing, all I have to do is quilt it!

Here is the wholecloth quilt top.  Whoa!  So much potential.  It's also HUGE, there's no real scale in this pic.  There will probably be a lot of tracing going on, but still a lot of fun potential to fill in those spaces.  I am really excited to tackle this, even though it will definitely be a challenge.

Here is the backing that came with it. It doesn't match the front at all. (No, it is not the same shade as the blue/indigo you see above.)  I am debating whether to contact the organizer and ask if I can substitute some other fabric.  I think all of my swirls from tracing the front won't come across well on this back grid.

The meeting fun continued with us drawing a winner of the opportunity quilt raffle.  Tickets for this have been sold all year and all around the area and state.  We called the winner live on speaker phone, she was incredibly excited and was able to actually come down to our meeting and pick it up in person.  It was great to see how happy she was and I could tell that quilt was going to a good home.  

I also showed my "Stairway to Cat Heaven" quilt during show and tell and got a ton of incredibly nice comments.  Everyone is so sweet!

Anyways, the meeting was fun and inspiring and I can't wait for July.

In other news, I've been on a total quilt shopping spree.  I am about to start my first landscape quilt.  I have chosen an image and am trying to get permission to use it right now, so photos will go up once that goes through.  I could do an image of my own but this one is just so much better, you'll see why if I am allowed to use it and can show it to you.

In prep for this big quilting leap, I have taken an embellishment class and bought all kinds of fun new tools like fabric paints, angelina fibers, etc.

After my books arrived from the Martingale $6 sale, I was inspired to get even more.  Here are the two new additions to my quilting library.

They both have a ton of great information and lovely photos.

In addition, I got an email on Monday that Fat Quarter Shop was having an anniversary sale!  I was able to purchase some pretty great batik bundles for half off.

 I got both of these with landscape quilts in mind.  Both of these are colors that aren't really represented in my stash right now, since I usually only buy incredibly bright colors.  They will definitely be helpful for my upcoming landscape quilt!

And that's all the goodies for today.  I am really looking forward to delving into all of these new projects in the upcoming month!