Monday Musings - If you Give a Quilter a Challenge...

It's Monday, and the official beginning of summer! I am clearing the desks for the week before heading off to Vermont for the week, and today's blog post topic arose from a guild presentation on Cape Cod last week. This first photo is a bit dark, but the luncheon was held in a really nice restaurant. It was  so nice to see the ladies enjoying an I love to be invited to speak with Guilds, and it's even more of an honor  to be asked to be the Program for a June luncheon. In this case, it was a bit of a drive for me to visit the Plymouth County Cranberry Quilters of Plymouth Ma, so I went down a day early and enjoyed some quilter style hospitality. They treated me like a princess, and I had a wonderful time meeting some of the members at a night before pot luck dinner. I especially appreciated the efforts made to accomodate my being gluten free.The presentation that they asked for is "If you Give a Quilter a Challenge...", which is my trunk show about the many challenges I've entered over the years.  The title is taken from one of my all time favorite children's books, "If you Give A Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff.The trunk show actually has an introduction: "...If you give a Quilter a challenge, she’s going to go to her stash looking for the perfect fabric. While she’s looking in her stash, she’s going to find a UFO that just needs to have the binding finished…"  I do think that the story needs to be fleshed out more, but it is funny and I love hearing the giggles roll through the audience.Well, it turns out that I need to add a check list to the packing of the show - because I actually forgot a few.  I told the ladies that I would be using the missing links as the subject of today's  blog post, ..so here it goes! The first quilt that I left right on my wall in the hallway is a 2005 guild Challenge for the Squanicook Guild in Townsend Ma. I can't believe it's been 11 years, but that's one reason I use quilt labels. This was the year that I was co-chair of the guild challenge along with Beth Helfter of EvaPaigeQuilt Designs, and we wanted it to be a mystery/row robin type of theme.  I had asked for a country Americana theme, and started my quilt off with the friendship stars and the background.  I do love it, and most of the year it does hang in my hallway.This was my Challenge from the same Guild, but we've moved forward to 2012 for the Paint Chip Challenge.  There may be several variations of how to run this, but in our case, we used the first initial of our first name (L) and the first initial of your last name (P)...then you go to the hardware department of your favorite home improvement store, and find paint colors to correspond with the initials.  My colors are Parisian Taupe and Liberty by Behr...I know this because I actually have the paint chips attached to the label.You might think that I was  done at this point - and wrong you would be. I still haven't gotten either fabrics to match the paint chips - or an inspiration as to what I was  going to make with it.  The colors were ones that I could find fabric for in the stash, and I ultimately went with a 10 minute block pattern that I reduced. I liked it, but it was still a bit on the blah side.  I decided to take a look at a tutorial I found in an old Quilter's Newsletter, and I had something I really liked.  This piece serves as a small table runner in my kitchen when it's not supposed to be part of the trunk show.The next piece that was forgotten drew it's inspiration from the fabrics I got to work with. In 2013, I  served as the Challenge Coordinator for  A Quilter's Gathering, and we used beautiful fabrics from the Arabella Rose line for Marianne Elizabeth Designs, chosen because she has been a presence at the show for the many years it had taken place.  This piece is made more unique by the fabric that I used for the pattern, but it didn't have the punch I wished it had had. Of all the challenge pieces I wished I could do over, this one is at the top of the list. Oh, well.There is one Challenge piece that I can include here, that is no longer in my collection. In 2012, I sponsored (yes, me!) a Challenge based on the TV show Downton Abbey, with the items entered into the challenge being auctioned off for the benefit of New Hampshire Public TV  - the channel which brought us Downton.  My entry into the auction was this small wall hanging, inspired by a Ricky Timms piece in the April 2012 issue of The Quilt Life - called the Titanic Star.  Research has shown that this star pattern was inlaid in marble in the ballroom in the Titanic.  The sinking of the ship led to the introduction of Matthew Crawley (insert sigh here!), and the rest was history.That's all for now...but I leave you with this thought.  I have another paint chip challenge due next April.  Oh, boy!