Finishing and Starting

Woohoo!  I finished up my wearable for the Canadian Quilters' Association Trend-Tex Challenge.  
It is our annual fundraiser, our only fundraiser and it helps us with operational costs.   This was under my duties this year as VP.   The theme was 'Modern Ways' and we added in a wearable category along with the quilt category.

Above is the front, and there are 3 pockets inside and it is lined.  Below is the back.   I even went all out and padded the strap so it is ultra comfortable.   

In case you didn't know (and the pics above gave no hints), I have an obsession with circles and dots.   My dear friend MT showed up at our guild meeting last month and plunked a bag of fabric down and told me it was to help my addiction.

Guess what was inside?  Hundreds of these precut colourful circles.

Does anyone have any super ideas about what I can do with them, and please do not say hand applique anything=)

During all the circle excitement, I started another project.

Our President's Challenge at my guild is a black and white quilt.   I designed a quilt on my sketch pad, made a few notes and got underway.  You can see all my black and white, with a sneak of grey in there, of fabric.   

I then pieced them together in groups of twos.   Did you notice that I added a few bits of colour to wake you up.   

I have to sew them into rows and then join them all.  But it is still not done, then comes the crazy part.

Stay tuned!

Trend-Tex Challenge

I belong to our national quilt association CQA/ACC , and each year we have a fundraiser at our annual conference.   It is called the Trend-Tex Challenge because Trend-Tex Fabrics donates ALL the fabric.   This year I got to organize it.   I made a theme of 'Modern Ways' and instead of just a small quilt entry, you had another alternative, a quilted wearable entry to choose from.

You were mailed 5 fat quarters.  I also got to pick out the fabric=)   This is what I chose:

I had to have a zinger in there=)  Here is what it looks like opened up.

I chose to do a wearable and decided  a bag would be fun, and I should mention, all the quilts are auctioned off and I wanted something practical.   

Of course, my modern bag had to have circles on it.  I used my Baby Go by Accuquilt to cut out fabric that had fusing put on the back of it.  

I decided to use the pink as my background for my bag, and laid out the circles on the fabric in a manner that I liked.  I had to do a front and back and decided that the back would just have a few circles on it.  Pictured below is the front.

I fused them down and did straight line stitching in a contrasting white thread so it would not only show up but I think the lines add some texture and fun to it.

 Here is what the front of the bag is going to look like.

And the back.

I am going to line it and put in lots of pockets for keys, phone, pens etc.   I have some interesting ideas for the straps but will have to audition them to see what will work with this bright fabric.

One more thing, we do have a fb page and it is not just Canadian quilting stuff, but rather a great source of quilt info...   so if you are interested in joining us, we are here.

Christmas Flutter Emag

  Amanda from The Quilted Fish put together a wonderful emag using her new line 'Flutter'.

It is filled with Christmas inspiration from her design team, a guest and herself.   Go and check it out, it is free.  If you are looking for my contribution, it is front and center in polka dots=)