The Quilt Show

2010 Best in Show at the Jacksonville Quilt Show

Both the quilt and the wondeful ladies in my life!!!

This year (okay...really last year...), Aunt Martha came up with a WONDERFUL idea.  She thought that since we've made the Jacksonville Quilt Show an annual tradition, we could add some quilting of our own into the tradition.  So we've started an annual challenge quilt.

Aunt Martha choose the fabric for this year's challenge and sent each of us a yard of the fabric, a package of crib batting, and some rules:  only add 4 more fabrics (but can use different fabric for back and/or binding), must be crib size, and you CAN'T SHARE your ideas or finished project until the quilt show.

The last rule was the hardest and easiest.  It was hard not to share our ideas...but since all of us didn't finish the quilt until a week or so before the show, not sharing the finished project wasn't too hard!!!

And here are the quilts (the blue fabric with flowers was the challenge fabric).

My Quilt:

Aunt Martha's Quilt:

My Mom's Quilt:

I was AMAZED at how totally different all 3 quilts were.  Even though we all picked basically the same types of fabric for the extra 4, they are all so unique.  Aunt Martha's quilt is super cool because she did not have to piece any curved seams...and yet it looks like she did!  Mom's quilt TOTALLY fits her and their house...Dad wishes there was enough material to make it a queen quilt for their bed!  Spencer thinks this is the best quilt I've ever done (isn't he sweet???!!!).  This was my first time hand appliqueing.  I LOVED it, so I'm looking forward to adding more details like that to future quilts.

My Mom has already picked the fabric for next year's show...it has a black background and is an Asian floral print.  Rules are similar: add up to 6 other fabrics (there are 6 colors in the challenge fabric), any size you want, can add 1 more fabric for back and binding, and must keep it a secret.  Again...if we all finish in September, this last rule shouldn't be too hard!