Changing the Rules Mid-Game

Today was the CCCQ monthly meeting, whereat I provide an update on the annual Quilt Challenge. I've posted several times about the inception of this challenge and my progress:

January:  Stepping up to the plate

February: Introducing the Challenge to the Guild

March:  My "Big Book" about the challenge: Milt

Sew...what should I do next? I thunk, and I thunk, and I thunk a bit more.

Then, I discovered/realized that we would be meeting on April Fool's Day. I could have some fun with that!

When it was my turn to speak I said something like this:  

"Ladies,  I have received some feedback from others. Some folks are saying my "Challenge" isn't much of a challenge. Heck, a person could take a quilt they made 10 years ago that had tan and green in it and declare that it was a quilt representing New Mexico because it has tan for the desert sand and green for the cacti." 

I went on to say:

"I received some suggestions that I provide a fat quarter of fabric (for the uninitiated a fat quarter is approximately 22" X 18" - it's a 1/2 yard piece cut in half on the fold) so I hunted for something that would work fairly easily with everyone's projects. Something that's....oh, how do you say it?..."

"Oh, yeah. Something that's kinda "neutral". Something that would go with any color. Oh, and by the way, since I had to use some of my budget to buy the fabric,  the prize money will be changed a bit. Instead of $75 for first place, that will now be $45. 2nd Place, instead of $50 will be $30 and third place will be $15 instead of $25."

Maybe they weren't too happy about the prize money changes!

Then I rummaged in my bag and brought out the length of fabric that I brought with me, which would be rather ugly in most quilts. It's a Route 66 themed material that I have on hand to make some journal covers for a Route 66 trip we are taking later this year.  As I held it up I explained,

"It has every color in the rainbow; red, green, blue...and oh yeah, it has some highway signs and sections of maps. It's perfect!" I said as I walked around the room showing the fabric. 

There were only a few ladies who were laughing.

Everyone else was less than impressed!

I explained that I wasn't able to get enough of that one cut of fabric, but found another with similar colors that would work just as well, and participants could pick which fat quarter they preferred. 

That's when I rummaged in my bag and pulled out the next piece:

Our guild president is in the background, laughing,

As were most of the ladies in the room by this time!

(Thanks to my bff for suggesting the sign!)

It was all fun. No harm. No foul. 

Now my only problem is...what can I do next month to inspire, instill enthusiasm, keep folks interested in participating? If you have any ideas, I am open to suggestions! 

New Pieces

 Uh oh.... I found another quilt shop in Berkeley. It's actually been in this location for 13 years, having moved from another Berkeley area. I have just never found it before.

I wasn't looking for a quilt shop....honest, I wasn't. I simply accompanied the grand kids to their fiddle lessons, which happen to be conducted upstairs. I've driven by the area many times, but I never ducked into the parking lot, which extends a bit back from the road so the buildings aren't really visible. But there it was, "New Pieces Quilt Shop". 

I had to go in to see what New Pieces there were to see. I wasn't going to buy anything. Really, I wasn't. 

But, somehow I found myself at the cash register with these three fabrics. The first is for the background of the new mystery quilt I am starting. The middle piece would make a darling tote bag, and the bottom piece might be used in my State challenge quilt - you do see why I had to buy the fabrics, even when I had no intention of doing so! Don't you?

Yes, I am thankful that I am not Susan! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

This Year's Quilt Challenge

I stepped up to the plate to run our quilt guild's 2026 challenge. I'm excited, as are several of the other members.

This is the blurb that will be in our newsletter explaining the challenge:

This year’s quilt challenge is “The challenge of the States” in honor of our country’s 250th anniversary! Participants are asked to pick the name of one of our 50 states from a hat. They will have the opportunity to research that state.

• What is the state’s flower?
• What about the State bird?
• Is there a State quilt block or quilt?
• Are there colors associated with the state?
• What is the State song or motto and what designs does that inspire?

From there, participants will create an entry for display and judging (by attendees) at the annual  Christmas party. 

Entries may be any size and may be created using any quilting/fabric technique. 

I had so much fun introducing the challenge to the group at yesterday's meeting. I began by playing the music from this video:

After explaining the challenge, I closed my presentation by playing the music from 'Mission Impossible'.

 

There were smiles all around.....until it came time for the ladies to pick a state. Unbelievably I heard the following:

• Illinois is boring.
• I can't do Alabama.
• Is Mississippi a 'red' state? (I was very tempted to pull up a map on my phone to show her what color it was in the illustration 😂)
• I won't do Kansas, (and as she threw the state back into the hat), I'm not gonna do this unless I get a state I like. 
• Yay! I got Texas! (She said as she pulled her hand out of the hat with nothing in it!)

Do you believe the sass I got from ladies who are all of an age they should know/act better? Yeah, I guess you do believe it!

Me and my BIG Mouth!

I belong to a small quilt group/guild that meets near my home. The Citrus County Crackers Quilters have about 65 members, and usually over 40 show up at the meetings. I think that is great attendance, and speaks for the value ladies find in attending. Each meeting has a few drawings for prizes, offers a chance for folks to show off their current quilts or quilted objects, offers a few classes, taught by members and has a few fun events through the year. 

One enjoyable event is the annual challenge. The Challenge is presented in February and members have until the Christmas party at the end of the year to create something to address the challenge. I wrote about my work on the challenge for 2025.   I enjoy the process, and I have always enjoyed presenting a challenge for my students, way back when, and for my friends. Some of the past challenges for the CCCQ, I've been told, include having ladies pull 3 crayons out of a bag, and their creation must include those colors. Another time they were given magazines and had to open to a random page, and use colors from a picture on that page as colors for their quilts. And, this past year's challenge was called, "Red on Red" where we had to include...red! 

The woman who ran the challenge this past year chatted with me after she had asked to have someone else do the challenge....and I raised my hand! Of course I did! She told me that she had planned to use "Winter White" as a challenge. She felt that if you make the challenge easy, more people will participate. I understand that, but I also think a challenge should inspire the folks to try something new or different. 

I did look online to see what other clubs have done. One idea I liked was,  "Never ever have I...." where sewists could pick a quilting technique they have never used, or make a quilted garment or a quilted bag. The other idea I liked was having folks up-cycle different materials to use in a project. 

The hand sewing group met the other day. I shared the ideas with them. They weren't sold on them. We chatted about other ideas, when somehow the idea of using a map to select an area in the worl

as inspiration for a quilt was voiced. For example, China or the Netherlands. We started laughing at the idea of using a 'pin the tail on the donkey' method for selecting your country. As most of the ladies are in their 60's and beyond, we decided that might not be safe... even if we didn't turn folks around first! 

At that point, one of the members of our little group practically jumped up and reminded us, "It's the 250th birthday of our country. We should use a US map." From there, bouncing ideas back and forth, we decided that folks would draw a slip of paper out of a hat, with the name of a state on it. Their quilt/project must depict something about that state: state flower or bird, industry in the state, the motto of the state...well, you get the idea. 

So, why am I chastising myself for stepping up to the plate? It's not the idea of running the challenge...I got that. My eyes are rolling because my predecessor always shared an example of a quilt/project that met the requirements of the challenge....a different one each month! Yeah.... 

WEP Entry: Alcoholic Annihilation

Writing Challenge for October - WEP + IWSG

Here is my Horrible Harvest:

Golden orbs, a blush of pink on their cheeks, sway and bob from branches of the ancient, gnarled apple trees. The sweet smell of freshly mown grass rises from the earth and the cicada chorus tunes its tymbals to accompany the sun’s descent. Dusk’s deepening colors splash playfully on the fruit, filtered by the leaves of the trees in the orchard. 

The scene is idyllic . The sort that plein air painters capture on their canvases. The day’s end in fall;  the clear blue sky blending to purple, with washes of red and gold; cooling night air a portent of winter to come. The scene is deceptively sweet. Deceitful.

As nightfall advances a curious phenomenon occurs; sugars produced by the sun and stored in the apples combine with naturally produced yeast on the skin of the fruit. Fermentation begins. The fruit exposed to more sunlight during the day, on the upper branches and those on the southern side of the trees, are the first to ripen, and the first to become noticeably tipsy and silly. 

The orchard fills with sounds of mirth, the volume increasing to eclipse the music of the cicadas as evening stars march into their places in the sky. The moon arcs across the sky; the party escalates in cacophonic splendor. Less inebriated fruit duck under leaves within the trees’ branches, fearing the loss of control of their comrades and the resulting consequences. They’ve seen it all before. 

More alcohol is distilled within the most exposed fruit and tempers flare. Nasty comments rent the air. Ugly, harsh voices snarl and screech. Emily Post filters of etiquette and reasonableness fall to the ground, along with the first colored, withered leaves of autumn. 

The fruits bob on their stem tethers trying to turn hateful words into hurtful actions. Biting words turn into blows when one fruit manages to reach another. Heavy, wet plops echo throughout the orchard as drunken fruits smash to the ground, pulpy and brown, releasing an odor of apple cider that has turned. The fruit within the inner sanctum cringe at the bawdy behavior, wanting to disassociate themselves from the horrid show of inebriated excess. They sense the coming terror, with anxious tightness in their cores, wondering when they themselves will lose control and plunge to a pulpy end. The raucous noise slowly abates, turning to muttered epithets as sounds soften with the first blush of daylight. Actions slow, and with the exception of an occasional guttural grunt, a somnolent snore and soft mutterings, all is quiet. The sun’s first rays focus on sweating fruit, seemingly from a heavy dew, hanging languidly on the branches. The cloying sweet smell of alcohol rises with the morning mist. Throughout the orchard smashed bodies, oozing sticky wetness and attracting numerous buzzing insects, are mounded in the grass casting long shadows across the ground.  

The sun rises. The light intensifies, beginning the cycle of destruction anew.

Word Count: 486

Feedback is always welcome.

Afternoon of the Arts

Recently I organized "The Afternoon of the Arts". This was the culminating show for the Paint Chip Challenge projects. It was a lot of fun for viewers and participants alike. We had only 12 15 projects. Yes, I was disappointed. But I was surprised by the variety of projects and by the artists. People I had never met and who were not a member of our Creations Guild also participated.

Inspired by a quilted jacket my mom made, I put together a wall hanging using many of her techniques. I find it fascinating that even though may mom passed away fifteen years ago, I am still learning from her! My wall hanging also included some of Mom's fabrics. The Challenge colors were perfect for a project with flowers... lots of pink, lots of yellow and a soft blue/green. Here is a sneak peek.... it isn't quite finished in this shot.

The night before the projects were due I decided to try my hand at pastels to have one more thing to display at the show. I wasn't all that displeased.

Several of the Guild members came to help put up the show. I was in awe of how artfully they arranged the entries. We had ceramics, needle point, a beaded bracelet, flowers and stained glass. We had a two full size quilts and two quilted wall hangings. We had painted metal, painted pine cones and even a painted coconut!

What thrilled me most was that people came! Our show ran from 4 - 6 PM. The club bar opened early and offered Happy Hour prices. We had slips where folks could vote for "Viewers Favorites". Almost 60 slips were turned in! We also sold tickets for a quilt raffle. We sold $270 dollars worth of tickets at the show, and another $170 the next morning before the show was taken down. 

Here are some shots from the show:

And the viewers favorites:

 Yes, that would be my hanging with the first place ribbon. I felt a bit chagrinned.





                                                                                         

Let the Chips Fall Where They May

Most of you know that we have sold our house. It has been a long 10+ weeks of getting ready. First we had to sort through our things for an estate sale. Then we had to sort through our things and decide what we are going to keep, what we are going to give away, what we are going to take to our RV lot at RiverBend in Florida, and what will go into storage pending the location of a home with a craft place for me and a workshop space for the Mr. In addition to the sorting and packing, we had to fix things. We have had paint cans all around. We have been busy with screwdrivers and hammers. We have hired helpers for inside and outside. Life has been crazy. 

Now that the house is sold and the inspection is past (although we have not passed), we have a bit of a lull before movers arrive on August 21. I have had a chance to attack the "Do Not Sell" shelves and weed out things that were stored there very carefully in the beginning, and then not so carefully, and then things that were just chucked into the corner. As I was once again sorting I came across my paint chips! Oh, yeah. I am supposed to be doing something creative with some sort of medium using these colors predominately. 

As a member (and I think I agreed to be Vice President) of the RiverBend Creations Guild I came up with the brilliant idea to have an art show. I dubbed it the PaintChip Challenge. It sounded like a wonderful idea in the coming of spring and all of the new-found energy that comes with that change of weather. It still sounds like fun, but it is also sounding like work!

So, the idea of the challenge is that folks go to a store with Glidden paints and select the called upon paint chips. (Dapper Tan 10YY 55/163, Racy Red 64RR 12/436, Luscious Moss 70GY 27/154, Gold Strike 20YY 46/425) Then, using whatever their choice of artsy stuff is, they are to come up with a piece for our show in January. 

Since I was sorting through things that go to 'wherever we land', and things that need to go to Florida, I thought to myself, "Self, it might be a good idea to find some fabrics in your bins that are destined to go 'wherever we land' and pick out the colors that closely match the paint chips. so you can have them with you in Florida."  I looked in this bin and found some pinky-reds. I looked in another bin and found some greens, and so forth. I ran down to the local quilting shop to pick up something that was "Dapper Tan". 

Ta-Da.....  here are the results 

Now, what to make of it? I'll have miles and miles to imagine and sketch ideas and dream about this project as we head towards 'Wherever we land'. And, of course, I will do a show and tell whenever I finish my project. And, of course, you will hear all about the PaintChip Challenge at RiverBend, and how all of that works out.