Museum Quilt Guild Brown Bag Challenge

What do all of these items have in common?

For the second time this year, Kathi Everett and I hosted a brown bag challenge for our guild.  Anyone who wanted to participate received a brown bag full of these elements.   The brown, gold and black fabric was a "must use" as were 2 "prompts" on 2 small slips of paper - which said  1.  Use an unusual fabric and #2 add a straight line.  The rest of the items were a cork, set of washers, mini clothespins, 2 beads attached to a ribbon, candy wrapper, piece of suede fabric, a tassel, piece of gold cord, dryer sheet and coffee filter. We could omit any 2 of this last group.  As before, the creativity of our group never ceases to amaze us.

Mine was literally, a brown bag.  It is a purse with the parrot made from the suede, silk, and dryer sheet.  His eye is from the washer covered with floss and the beads are used for feed to hang on the perch which is the straight line made from the gold cord.  The tassel is the zipper pull and the coffee filter is the half circle on the back.   I also added a lot of beading on the back.

Lori Anderson's wash day on the left and her daughter, Bethany on the right.   Beth did a lot of painting with her elements.  For a young artist, she never ceases to amaze.  Lori works a lot with miniatures and that is reflected in her wonderful little quilt.

Cynda Watroba  - whimsical tree on left and Gloria Crittenden's peaceful home scene on the right.

Tracy's bouquet - loved that she used the background from a previous workshop - she is probably the one for whom this was the most a big stretch.   Love the butterfly.   Mary Ellen Casey did the owl - she is always so creative and works larger than I would dare most of the time.   So realistic!!

Another Mother daughter duo - Mary Ann Watson was inspired by wash day also and even joked that it is sad when laundry day is her main inspiration for a quilt.   Her daughter Melanie Watson did the piece on the left which is a journal cover for the book that houses information about our community service quilts.   Love that she was so practical - and yet it is such a lovely keepsake for us.



Kathi Everett did hers totally by hand.   She is the queen among us as to using unusual items in unusual ways and this is no different.   She calls it Harmony.   Love that she is so creative doing all by hand.

Alex Hammon did the sash for her bear, Cinnamon.  Such a lovely story about the first bear she ever purchased and the sash contains all the elements.

My final comment is that I don't understand why the blogger cooperates for all by the last 2 pictures.   I couldn't get them side by side no matter how hard I tried!

Ricky Tims Seminar in Rochester with Alex Anderson & Libby Lehman

What a fun weekend we had!   The Ricky Tims seminar came to Rochester.   Along with Ricky was Alex Anderson & Libby Lehman.   It was great fun, full of lots of quilting information, laughs, jokes and cammaraderie with friends.

Here are some of my "partners in crime"

L-R - me, Mary Ellen, Shirley, Mary Ellen, Charlotte, Eileen & Lori

And my partners in crime at lunch time.   This was the coolest spot we could find for our picnic.   Then we headed to Abbotts for ice cream.

Lori pictured with Ricky & Libby

Lori chatting it up with Alex.   They seem to have this "daughter thing" in common.

And of course there was shopping - everybody wanted a hand dyed fabric

Yes, yes, I do own this piece now.   Beth seems to be giving her approval, and with her knowledge of dyed fabrics, how could I go wrong?

Well, naturally I have to find thread to go with it.

One of my favorites - all raw edges give such great texture - each little color spot is a separate piece of raw edged fabric.   I love everything about this.   This is in Ricky's private collection of purchased quilts.

Libby's ribbon quilt - just love the way the ribbons weave in and out of the pattern.

Libby's circle quilt.   I have to try this technique.

Ricky is a classicaly trained pianist and musician.   That was his first love and his first vocation.   He treated us to a concert on Friday night, complete with slides and stories of his journey in music and quilting.   It was positively awesome and inspiring.  One of my best recent musical experiences.   Here he is playing the pan flute with images of his home state, Colorado in the background. 

Anniversary Vacation in Williamsburg and Jamestown Virginia

This year was our 42nd wedding anniversary!   Our very good friends David & Janet Fryling celebrate their anniversary on the same date, same year.   We have started a tradition of an anniversary trip each year.   The past 2 years we have gone on cruises, we decided to do something more simple this year.   I'm not sure 100 degree heat is simple, but we did love Virginia!   On our anniversary date, we went to Jamestown, to see the settlement.

 Mark with his new best friend!!!!

 Mark, ready to set sail.

 View from one of the 3 ships

 Nothing special, except the ferry leaving across the way.   I just liked the view with the rocks!

Our anniversary dinner at the end of the day -

David & Janet Fryling, Elaine & Mark Ross