Crafting a Life: Sister Quilt Power Unite!!

I made a quilt in a week....and entered the same quilt into a contest. Isn't that nuts???? My life needs to be very measured at times due to life with a medically intense family. That isn't a bad thing, just a fact. There are times I get a tad impulsive, like last week, like seeing a quilt challenge on this one magazine's website, and coaxing my sister into doing it with me, because you had to enter as a team. The challenge had been open since September, and with only one week to go, there were only a few quilts entered, like four. SO, I said, "Seester, let's do this, we could win a sewing machine and cabinet, ( I wanted the cabinet), yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, it is a queen size quilt....and we are total newbies, and we are totally busy this week, ( see previous post) but, hey, we can do it!!!"

WE DID IT!! My sister did an adorable gingerbread print theme.....I did a loosey goosey kind of thing called going to Joann's and picking out fabric I liked and cutting it into 10"squares, and arranging it into some kind of pattern. It is so funny, because these quilts really show a lot of our personality. I am following the pattern...almost...and almost got a well done quilt. It is still needing quilting, because my little new friend threw a stubborn hissy fit and quit working after I used her to sew those buttons. Fancy machines sew your buttons on for you, but they are so temperamental if you dare sew THROUGH the buttons. It has to do with timing mechanisms and such that I had no time to think about as the hour drew near. I KNOW I wan't suppose to sew through the buttons, but getting everything all lined up was, well, hard. That machine quit, but I am NOT a quitter, so I got my old friend Janome back on the table and she began to sew just fine in her limited kind of way. Good girl. So, I began to stitch the layers together when little old friend machine stopped, too. Bad girl. With the help of my resident engineer, (everyone needs 15 year old boys in the house, I'm telling ya') we got my Janome running again. My temperamental new friend went back to the shop for a stern talking to and resetting whatever you have to reset when your timing gets off. She came out all glowy and happy again, and sewing even better now.

This is so my life.

The deadline to enter was 11:59PM.......I hit the send button at 11:07PM. It was just like a term paper, only more expensive, and I might USE this project, on my bed!

I have to say, I think my sister's total "love to follow the rules, thank you very much!" attitude is going to make her an awesome quilter.....look at how precisely everything is done!! Her binding was HAND-STITCHED. Dang. Me......my secret....sew rick rack over every binding......it is like duck tape, it cures all and hides all. I am so happy T. set all aside to do this with me, (separated by several hundred miles, we did a "cyber quilting bee"). I had a great time and we will always look back on these Christmas quilts and go, "Can you believe we did that?"

I am going to do some free motion quilting now that I have my machine back, I hope that works since I went ahead and put the binding on, to enter it into the contest. I did stitch in the ditch, but I know it needs more since the squares are 10".

Okay, I'll let you know if we make it to the top 10. Then you all can vote and help us to the finals!!