Red and White

Hi Everyone!
Can you believe that summer has come and gone. I am a little sad to see summer go but my favourite time of year is just around the corner. HALLOWEEN! I love to carve pumpkins. I have not been super active on my blog so those that still follow me. Thanks! I must say it is weird when you run into people that seem to know so much about you and i don't even know their name. It catches me off guard but then I am happy that they take time to read my blog of randomness. I stopped blogging for a while as I was getting ready for a quilt show. I picked a project that was massive and I had to learn new techniques in order to get it done. I also wanted to keep my project on the down low. Those who know me knows it is next to impossible for me to keep any thing on the down low. Last September The Cloth Castle here in Victoria set the theme for next years Quilt Challenge. The theme for 2012 was Red and White. I love Red and White quilts. Like most of you, I have to be inspired to make something. Once I have it in my mind there is no stopping me.(unless i get bored!) A few years back My sister Natasha took me to Quilt Market in Houston.. While I was in a class the teacher held up a quilt and I loved it! I had to buy the book. I now had a mission. Find that book and buy it! Well at sample spree I found the book. Almost had to throw a few elbows as it was super affordable.You know quilters at a sale.

In this book they talk about how in 1920's in the newspapers they would have quilt blocks in the paper. So this book Roaring through the 20's has recreated those blocks into Paper Pieced blocks. Have I told you yet that when I bought this book and up until I opened it I never paper pieced in my life. I have only been quilting a few years. Natasha just shook her head at me and patiently taught me how to paper piece even though she does not like. I tried the first block with scrap fabric to see if i would enjoy it. let me just say I was hooked!So off I go I buy all my fabric. I'm going to do this quilt and it is going to be Red and White. The first day I started working on this quilt was September 5 2011. I got two blocks in and I hear a few words of wisdom from across the table from my sister "Hey Miriam, you pre-washed all you fabrics right...)This was my first moment of OH MY GOD! No! I was so excited to get started. Off i go and just bought the whole bolt of the red as good lord who knows how much I'm going to mess up. I better be prepared. I just started working away and hoping I don't get bored or frustrated.I got myself a zip up binder and had each block and its paper pieced patterns in sheet protectors. I would just grab the binder and go!

Block 1 : Persian finished September 20.

Block 2 : Mollies Choice Done September 18

Block 3:The Phil'ippines Done September 22

Block 4: The Double Star Done Sept 20

Block 5: Rambler Done Nov 19

Block 6: Doubl'e T Done Nov 19

Block 7: Odd Fellows Chain Done Dec 8

Block 8: Ladies Delight Done Dec 31

Block 9: Birds Nest Done Dec 31

Block 10: A very Old Saw Tooth Done Jan 4

Block 11: Eight hands around done Jan 15

Block 12: Crossed Canoes done Jan 15

Block 13 : Mrs.Clevelands Choice done Feb 15

Block 14: Blindmans Fancy done Feb 18

Block 15: Palm leaf done Feb 25

Block 16: Wheel of fortune done March 24

Block 17: Barristers Block done April 5

Block 18: Ocean Wave done June 7 (over 20hrs plus for this one block)

Block 19: Wild Goose Chase: Done June 20

Block 20: jack in the box done June 20

Boarder started June 30 done August 9

Those are the blocks to the quilt that i like to call Big Red. it took me 11 months, over 300 hours and 3 bottles of retayne to set the red. Here is the finished quilt.

Here is Big Red at the quilt challenge. Finished August 20th

I was worried I would get bored and frustrated. The only part of this quilt that made me walk away was when my binding was 5 inches too short. We all know what that feels like, don't we.
The quilt challenge was August 25. It is a very relax show. People come and vote for the quilts.

Helping set up the show

There was some very hard competition this year. I was so surprised when low and behold. I got first place for the large quilts.

 The Cloth Castle who puts the show on every year has some great photos. Here is a link the there facebook page.Cloth Castle Facebook page Like it :)
Also my good friend over at Quilting Along The Gorge has a great post. She also has some great photos of a class we took together. Next years challenge is going to the Dreseden Plate. Never made one but have already started doing some research. That's all from me. Thanks for reading!