This and That

Reading Vicky's post about Mardi Gras reminded me I let the entire celebration pass without showing you my Mardi Gras quilt. One of the Tangled Threads returned from a visit to New Orleans a couple years ago with a panel and a couple matching fat quarters for each of us. She challenged us to do something with them by the beginning of Mardi Gras the next year. Here is my quilt. Not at all colors I usually work with, and I never make things asymmetrical, but this turned out to be lots of fun. I got the idea out of an old quilt design book by Judy Hopkins called "One of a Kind Quilts". We had pillows, a small wall hanging strewn with beads and feathers, a purse and other small quilts on revelation day. It was a lot of fun.

Somehow I managed to volunteer to co-chair the making of our little guild's 2006 contribution to the Northwest Medical Team Quilt Auction next November. Our community has been putting this on for several years, and the amount we raise gets bigger each year. Last year it was over $40,000. Northwest Medical Teams are made up of doctors, nurses, dentists, surgeons, etc. who volunteer their time to go anywhere in the world where they are needed to deal with either natural or man-made (read war) disasters. I know they were very active in the hurricane recovery efforts in Louisiana. Anyway, my co-chair chose the colors and patterns. Not at all what I usually work with, but it certainly helped me use up some stash. We're showing this to the guild tonight and scheduling work parties to get it finished. I was supposed to make blocks in the opposite colorway also - white center and white outside ring - but I didn't discover that until bedtime last night. I didn't look at the picture closely enough, and the second block layout was two pages farther into the article. I thought the blocks were set with white sashing. Oh well, we can pass around the magazine picture to give them the idea. This is from an AP&Q - last December's issue I think. I don't like the pink at all - I'm going to take it off that block and substitute another color.

It's been a very busy week had work - hence no posts since Sunday. Got to get in the shower now - duty calls!