Twenty Years on the Shelf! They Never Go Bad...smile

This is a project I started over 20 years ago.  Thank goodness, fabric does not have an expiration date.  I guess maybe if you are shop owner, you cringe at that statement, as moving out fabric means selling fabric.  But, thankfully for us quilters, who are closet ADD folks, we can always circle back around and pluck it off the shelf and start again, right where we left off!

This is a pattern called Radiance, by Judy Curtis.  The pattern came out in 1985.  I was working at the world"s greatest quilt shop at the time, called Creatively Sew.  It was in Old Town Spring, north of Houston.  This was a wildly successful quilt shop.  When I worked there we sold a lot of material.  Of course, this was before the internet, and Houston has a few million people living there, so that helped.  

BINDING LESSON:  

I chose the dark blue to be the frame for this wallhanging.  Whatever color you choose, especially for a wallhanging, it pops out the color on the quilt.  I also wanted to emphasize the contrast.  I would be a shame to work on such a difficult piece and not be able to see the design, because you didn't choose a good contrasting material.  

Part II-Life in Kentucky, Round Robins- UFO list at long last my longest post, over time...smile

BEGINNING 2 QUILT GROUPS WHEN I MOVED HERE:

So we moved to Crestwood, Kentucky in 1996. After floundering around looking for a new quilt group, the time looked ready to start another one. So, meeting at the County Home Extension office in Oldham County, myself and a handful of other ladies began a new quilt group, Log Cabin Quilters. This is now a very large quilt group, but, at the time, I felt like I needed to start another one at our church, Northeast Christian Church. So, in June of 2000, I went to our, then Women's Ministry Leader, Laura and said Laura, we need a quilt group and she said okay Julie you're it! This was the beginning of Northeast Quilting Friends quilt group. So, long story short, we now have 20 members on our roster, but, weekly anywhere from 10 to 15 come regularly. If all 20 came every week, it would be impossible to meet where we do.

Anyway, in the beginning we did some round robins and these are the results of those round robins. The first one dates back to 2004. The members that wanted to participate, started out with a block for the beginning of the passed around inspiration. I've always liked to embroider and this was my homage to Aunt Martha, you know the inexpensive iron on transfers that have been around for 70 years or more.

This is a Sunday design. I enlarged it and made it an applique pattern. I've included the original iron on to embroider when I put it together. I'm so glad to have this blog. I'm famous for hiding things from myself, and I haven't been able to locate this box that contains these blocks for quite some time and now I have pictures and proof of where it is!! Yes, it's in this closet, on this shelf...somewhere...smile.

After that UFO, on my shelf, we have the Lemons to Lemonade Round Robin, in which, you guessed it, ugly fabric exchange for RR inspiration. I had some hideous bird feed material and the ladies came up with these lovely blocks.

My last RR UFO is an embroidered heart block exchange. I can't wait to finish this one as it has some very uplifing messages from my quilt group.