Decisions, Decisions

On Saturday, our church is having our umpteenth "Quilt Day." It started out many years ago with our hiring someone to come and teach a new project, but over time as different people have taken a turn organizing the day, it has turned into pretty much of a "Do Your Own Thing" Day with lots of input from peers. We generally have a Quilt Day in February and another one in July or August. There will be about twenty of us this time, each woman bringing her own machine and project. We share mats, cutters, rulers and advice. We pay $15 per person and that includes juice, coffee, and sweet rolls in the morning, a substantial lunch, and always door prizes. I've seldom missed one of these days since they started back in the late '80s. Marsha, Helen and I signed up to do the set-up on Friday night and all at once it dawned on us: We don't need to go home after the set-up! We can hang around and sew for a few hours! None of us knows why we didn't think of this before.
. . . .
My dilemma is what project to bring. Out of my massive stock of UFOs, the projects under consideration are these WIPs:
. . . .
Bill's baby's quilt. Bill has just one daughter, Melanie, and Melanie had a little girl last week, on Sam's first birthday, actually. We knew ahead of time that the baby was a girl, so I was thinking pink. I had some wonderful 30s/WOW blocks from a swap and picked out nine that contained a fair amount of pink and then put WOW blocks in the intervening spaces. But it looked too plain. Bill's a dedicated Republican and -- coincidentally -- circus elephant aficianado. I'd seen and earmarked a pattern in an Australian Patchwork and Quilting managzine years ago for a quilt with little appliqued elephants. Dug it up and enhanced those WOW blocks. This quilt needs to be sandwiched, tied, and bound. The baby -- golly, I wish I knew her name -- lives in Texas, and Bill will be going down in sometime in the next several weeks to get acquainted with her. It would be nice to have this ready for him to take along.
. . . .
Pre-K 2007-2008 quilt. Each year, my best friends at school -- the Pre-K class -- make self portraits that are magically transferred onto fabric and then I set the portraits into a quilt which goes to the school auction. The class this year has fifteen students -- a very nice number for a quilt. Some years it is more of a challenge to get the lay-out to be attractive.
. . . .
These kids bring so much joy into my day, coming to visit me usually on Mondays on their way to physical education, and other times as well. Sometimes I go visit them in their classroom. They are always full of news, and frequently have a new poem to share with me.

. . . .

This year the auction isn't until May -- it used to be early in March -- and so I've dawdled a bit on this project. I need to put some bottom borders on, sandwich, tie, and bind.
. . . .
Laurel Burch baby quilt. Thought Sam might like this. It was made from swap blocks and there are plenty more where these came from!

. . . .

We used her Jungle Songs line when it first came out and we were all smitten with it (and some of us still are!). We used Kona black for the background and most of us made much more intricate blocks than we usually do for a swap. Needs to be sandwiched, tied and bound. Have been trying to decide whether to use red or black floss to do the tying. In either event, procuring the floss will entail a little trip to LQS -- always a risky behavior!
. . . .

Tom and Anastasia picked these blocks from several sets I had around. These were from the first "favorite fabric swap" that I ever participated in, and I've always like them, though I must admit that my taste in fabric has changed over the years. They are up on the design wall now, and need the alternate blocks to be made and then the side triangles cut, etc., etc.

. . . .

Making those alternate blocks might be just the thing for Quilt Day -- there are always so many distractions and interruptions that something mindless would probably be a very good idea.

. . . .

In any event, I need to make a decision by Wednesday afternoon so I can spend time that evening getting everything together. I'll post pics after the Quilt Day, fershure.