Back From Quilt Camp- Tumbling Blocks Pieced!

My tumbling blocks (pattern from a book by Marci Baker) from Quilt Camp 2010 came home pinned to this board, and went to this year's camp still pinned there:

I had all but given up on them because I was told that the only way to assemble them was to lay the entire batch out on a board, bed, floor, etc. and take them to the sewing machine to piece together in that exact order! What???? I don't think so. So for two years, I have run this process through my mind looking for the always-possible-but-never-easy-to-figure-out shortcut. Well, it looks like I finally figured it out, and my Random Tumbling Blocks came home looking like this:

This exercise just proves to me once again that randomness is nothing to fear! I like the way it turned out. Because there were only five block colors, the orange and yellow ended up together a bit too often for my taste, but I think that would've been a problem even with excessive (or obsessive) planning. Now all it needs is borders!

Laura finished hers a few months ago- it's king-size! I love her color-way. Of the finished ones I've seen so far, I like hers best. Most of us saw translated the tumbling blocks into a kid's quilt, but she brought it very successfully into the adult realm.

This year's quilt project was 10 Minute Quilt Blocks by Suzanne McNeill (click here to see a YouTube video of the technique. I didn't do one for two reasons: a) I'm on a mission to finish up UFO's and b) I was still working on 2010's project!

It was fun to see how different they all looked. Everyone who participated took home a finished top, ready to quilt.

Kathy's (from a pink jellyroll)

Lou's (from a layer cake) 

Laura's (from a layer cake)

Mary Ellen's (from her own fabric and a similar pattern)

Sandy's (from a jellyroll)

There's lots more to say about camp, but this is all I have time for right now! I'll hope to show you the completed tumbling blocks quilt very soon.

Sewing Room Sunday: New River Valley Fair Quilt Challenge Update

A lot creative quilts made from this packet of challenge fabric, which I posted about back in May, will be on display next week (starting tomorrow) at the New River Valley Fair.

NEWSFLASH:

I didn't make any of them. I guess you could say that life got in my way. If you know me, you're not at all surprised. I am a little disappointed in my own lack of follow-through, since I have always wanted to do a challenge like this. However, I'd have to admit now, after seeing Sew Biz's photo album of the quilts (click on the first photo to view full size, then click through all 14), that I was not nearly as inspired as the quilters whose work is on display at the fair! But I did have one unique idea (maybe I'll still do it, just to see!)- a window made of the green and turquoise fabrics, with the red poppies showing through each pane and curtains on each side made of the striped fat quarter. Envisioning it, though, I don't think it would've been as pretty as what some of the other quilters did. Another idea I had involved cutting out some of the poppies and fusing them to another piece of fabric from my stash to use as a border... well, you can probably see why I didn't do that one!

I'll say this for myself though: I enjoyed what I did instead (see vacation posts here and here). As far as the whole month of June, I really couldn't tell you where that went. The summer is just flying by!

Getting ready for Quilt Camp

I'll post later in the week as I pack up to head over to Selu Conservancy in Radford for Sew Biz Quilt Camp (our seventh) on Thursday. Two full days and two half days of fun, friends, food and quilting (too bad there's no synonym starting with "f" to use here for alliteration...)! Here's a picture of some of us at last year's camp:

Camelia, Laura, me in the middle, Mary Ellen, and Judy