A Finish!

Did I set any goals for February?  I think the only goal I set was to get my quilts entered in Best of the Valley.  Past that?  ohmygoodness!  My days are too full to set goals!  In fact, I'm taking a break from quilt show tasks right now, to post.  shame on me!  ;)

I was very excited about the theme for this year's BOTV Challenge, i.e., "Colors of the Valley."  But make a quilt?  I didn't have time for that.  But when the deadline for the show challenge arrived and there weren't many entries?  The deadline was extended for 5 days, so that those who ran out of time could finish their submissions. 

I looked around at my UFO's, and spotted the top that I'd put together last May in the Jean Wells class up in Sisters, OR.  The challenge quilts were to measure 18 x 24", my top was 20 x 26".  With some heavy quilting, I thought it might just shrink up to 18x24, and surely enough, it did!  (I trimmed off less that 1/4" in each direction.)

Here is my final piece, finished in time for the extended deadline:

 "The Early and Late Rain"  by Suzanne Kistler, March 2017

 "The Early and Late Rain" - detail

I'd been thinking that during this wet wet year, this quilt is the color that rain brings.  I had a working title of "The Color of Rain" as I quilted, but once it was finished?  I tried to recall a Bible verse that mentioned both early and late rain.  I found it through a search on Bible Gateway. 

In trying to keep with the deadline, I decided to "save time" by printing my label, rather than stitching it out on my embroidery machine.  In doing so, I could increase the amount of text.  Here is my final label - I need to play around some more, to figure out how to "pop" the text better - I put the text on a background of a recent photo from my backyard.  I am very pleased with the results.

And that's it.  wow.  I actually quilted for more than 5 minutes in a month, AND I finished something.  Big things are afoot!  woohoo!

P.S.  In other quiltie news, my quilt By The Sea was accepted into the Sacred Threads exhibit this July.  Stay tuned for more details.