CO West Quilt Guild Challenge

 Tonight was the CO West Quilt Guild's annual challenge presented by Marla, who was in charge of the challenge this year.  The theme was "Sizzle" and we each got a piece of bright, sizzling, yellow, orange and red fabric.  We had to make a small-ish quilt and we had about six months to do it.
Here are a few of the quilts displayed at the meeting.  About 20 people participated.

 This is Marla's quilt which really shows the challenge fabric well in the woman's dress and shoes.  I love the "sizzling" foot popping kiss!  Even though you can't see the kiss, you KNOW :)  I voted for this quilt!  Every member present, whether they made a quilt or not, got to vote for their three favorites.

More quilts on display.

 This is Phyllis' quilt "Liar, Liar! Pants on Fire!" which won third place.  I love this quilt!  It reminded me of when I was a child and how whenever my brother and I said this, we got in big trouble - like sent to our rooms or something.  Calling someone a liar was like using a dirty word.  I just remember not being able to use this little chant.  My Mom taught us well :)  But I love this quilt!
Phyllis said the inspiration for this quilt was a Zits comic where the teenage boy comes home from a date and his parents ask him how it went and he said, "boring" or something like that and his parents said, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"  I also really like Zits comics.  If you've ever had a teenage son, you can SO relate!

 This is Eddy's quilt, which I also voted for because it's so funny and made me laugh out loud as soon as I saw it.  I showed this picture to my husband and he laughed too.  If you've ever gone to a big quilt show and browsed the huge amount of vendor booths - your Visa card would sizzle too!!  Eddy attended the Home Machine Quilting Show in SLC in May and shopped the over 200 vendor booths.  Sounds like her Visa was getting pretty hot!

 This is Michelle's quilt which I also voted for and it won first place!!  This quilt is amazing and the picture hardly does it justice.  She said there are 170 plus inset seams (which are hard and time consuming to do) and a ton of tiny hand appliquéd circles, and her machine quilting (a lot of it done with metallic thread) is absolutely amazing.  I happen to know this quilt took her a ton of time to make (she said four months) and is absolutely stunning. It is definitely one of those quilts you ooh and ahh over.
Way to go Michelle!!

This is my quilt "Sizzling Hot Tropics" or "Hibiscus and Heliconia".  The Pattern is from the book Paradise Stitched by Sylvia Pippen.  It won second place!
Laura Pedge asked me to teach a class at her shop Laura's Home based on this book.  Those taking the class will get to choose any pattern from the book and I will be teaching the back-basting hand appliqué method and Sashiko.  The class starts July 25th.  I'm excited!  And a little nervous :)  But it will be fun.
I really love hand appliqué and the back-basting method is my method of choice.  I like Sashiko too.  I guess I just find hand work relaxing :)


Happy Quilting and Congratulations Challenge Winners and Marla for putting on a great challenge!!