what fun!

Last fall Pat and Cher were put in charge of the 2nd round of the FAB "Summer in Winter" challenge. The whole thing was spurred from a group chat on Windows Messenger, as I recall. Actually a lot of fun ideas get started there when we start brainstorming. Pat mailed us each a yard of something called "tropical camo" which seemed to scream summer. We were given the name of a FAB to send to and there were few rules but the hardest one was to keep things secret for all these months!

Cher had my name this round but unfortunately just as she was approaching the mail date, she fell and broke a bone in her right hand. Poor Cher but we all decided that none of them get opened till everyone had one however long it took. Woohoo! Cher in spite of her hectic schedule with the quilt guild raffle quilt sales and all that managed to get it finished up and in the mail Monday. It arrived yesterday so now all that was needed was to round everyone up. After chat, some text messages, emails and even some phone calls I had everyone agreeing to meet at 8 PST to do the reveal. LOL, Norma was "late", we assumed doing the supper dishes, so I rang her up and said "it's time"---no hello or anything, but she knew it was me. Too funny! Cracked her up too.

Here is the cool top that Cher made for me! Wonky lettering and a bright color palette which Cher loves to do. Flamingo fabrics and isn't that a cool sun with the shades! I haven't looked at all the fabrics closely yet to see if there are other hidden surprises in there. She backed it with a special label and quilter fabrics. I should have taken a picture of that too. I love it, Cher---thank you so much for this!

Cher used these cool cat fabrics as "filler" in the mailing box. I am doubly blessed!

For my part---I had Norma's name this round. I know that Norma loves to decorate for the seasons. A scroll through her blog archives will show you that---Christmas, Easter, St. Pat's, fall, summer. You name it! She has kept her home and her mom's supplied with table toppers and such and I know she will continue to do so. I toyed around with a few ideas but THIS placemat idea from Quilter's Online Resource is what I kept coming back to. I made 6 of them and debated about sending all of them to her--two for when her folks came over?--but ended up keeping two at our house for DJ and me. I can finally show you what kept me busy for part of January.

One at my house

At their new home---looks like they need a spin through the dryer to get the mailing folds out. Not sure why that fabric looks so turquoise but it is really more like the single shot above. Maybe the way the flash hit them when Norma took the picture last night?

I used a little bit of everything in the way of applique prepping techniques on this one. I stink at needle turn applique so that is about the ONLY thing I didn't employ. I did "templar and starch" ---like thread basting a yo yo over a shape more or less--for the flower centers, the plant leaves and flower pot sections along with the bird body and tail feathers. The plant stalks were a small folded strip sewn down and the flipped since they did not need to be a bias cut. The flower itself--freezer paper because of all small convex and concave areas. I had a hard time turning those stinkin' bird wings---one was templar method and the rest I just had to give up and use freezer paper in the end. Lastly, the ivy was fused---no way was I going to do those itty bitty things any other way. Oh, I used the back side of the fabrics for the flower centers and bird wings for a slightly muted color in those areas. Machine buttonhole appliqued with my trusty Viking---a warm up for the "Be Attitudes" and then a little hand embellishment with perle cotton for the bird and ivy tendrils.

Be sure to drop by the other FABS spots for their version of the stories. I think Pam is the only one I didn't link to yet in this narrative. She and I are in charge of the next round---probably in the fall, after our summer retreat. The scheming and planning will commence before long!

Thanks again to Pat and Cher for inspiring us---I say, we all did good and made out like bandits! Love you all.

Thanks to you, dear reader, for stopping by--------