In 2003, my sister-in-law turned 40. I made her a table runner in recognition of this milestone and presented it to her for Christmas that year. I named this table runner, Four Decades.

I had fabric left from making the table runner so I continued to make nine patch blocks and put them together in this wall hanging.

My brother also turned 40 in 2003 and his Christmas present that year was a quilt. This quilt was named Forty Years. It is comprised of 40 hourglass blocks – one for each year. Surrounding the hourglass blocks are rail fence blocks. The rail fence blocks represent the roads by brother has traveled in 40 years. You can’t see it in the photo, but the backing of this quilt was flannel printed with license plates. The reference to the road and license plates are in recognition of my brother’s hobby which is buying old vehicles (sometimes not running at the time) and fixing them up for enjoyment and later re-sale.

The Quilting Guild that I belong to is having a quilt challenge that will be showcased at our Quilt Show to be held October 28, 2006.

This is the fabric that we have to work with. It is a batik and I can honestly say that it is not the prettiest fabric that I have ever seen.

I don’t know what I will be making out of this!

PieceMakers Quilt Guild 2006 Quilt Show Challenge

* Each kit included 1 fat quarter – see picture above – and the rules for $4.00.

* The challenge fabric must be very visible on the front of the quilt.

* You can use any additional fabrics of your own choosing.

* The perimeter of the finished piece must not be larger than 144 inches and not smaller than 72 inches of whatever shape you choose.

* Your design may be original or traditional.

* Any combination of machine and/or hand hand piecing, applique or quilting is permitted. Embellishments are at the quilter’s discretion.

* The deadline is September 19, 2006.

This is my official quilt tester. All quilts made by me have received the official “stamp of approval” by our in-house quilt tester, “Joey”.

Another UFO finished!

I finished hand sewing the binding on this quilt last weekend.

This quilt finished 75″ x 84″ and was machine quilted on my long arm with concentric circles – 208 circles and 36 half circles in all. The borders were quilted with a clam shell pattern.

This is a heavy, warm quilt with a flannel back and Warm and Natural batting.

This is what we woke up to last Sunday morning. It started snowing late Saturday afternoon and continued all through the night.

…………………..just when we thought winter was over.

The good thing is that the snow had all disappeared by the end of the day Monday. Hopefully, this is the last snow storm of the season.