Sunday, February 11, 2007

FONS AND PORTER CHALLENGE





Out of 340+ entries, my cyberguild group's entry was chosen to travel with the Fon's and Porter's 25th Anniversary quilts. We were sad that it didn't win anything, but not all of the quilts entered will travel, so this is kind of special. I guess they will appear at all of theSewing and Quilt Expo's this year. Our group started on the about.com forum as one topic thread on the forum called "Karen Stone's New York Beauties and Beasties". The thread was started 12/22/00, and a group of us were going to work together making a New York Beauty quilt using Karen Stone's pattern. We would 'talk' together everyday, and that's about all we ever got done. The thread has over 33,000 posts. It would have even more if we hadn't moved our group to a private yahoo forum around 3 years ago. We found that we were talking about to many private things, not really thinking that everyone in the world could see them. One too many times someone would jump on one of us for saying something they didn't like.. (gee.. I wonder who might have been the offending person?) Anyway, we still visit the about.com thread, and we still 'talk' every day. We have 14 members in our yahoo group. Most are strung out all across the US, and we have Birgit from Germany, and Maree from Australia.
Anyway, Birgit had the idea of making a quilt for the challenge. It had to have 25 different patterns of blocks, and could all be in the same setting. It was a challenge in itself getting 10-12 women together to do this. We posted pictures of our fabric choices, chose blocks to make.. all over the yahoo site. Everyone in the US sent our center blocks and star points to Teresa in MN and she mailed everything to Birgit who put the quilt together and quilted, bound, and shipped it to Fons and Porter. I guess only 14 quilts were chosen for the traveling show and we are one of them. Not bad, considering many of us have never laid eyes on each other, let alone work on a quilt together (physically) Pretty cool if you ask me..

11 comments:

Suzanne Earley said...

What a beautiful quilt! I like the setting your group used -- much more interesting than just setting the 25 blocks together!

Debra Dixon said...

An excellent quilt!

Suze said...

Wow...thats some quilt. I love how it pulls together...and the narrow resting strip is just perfect. Any pictures of it after it was quilted? and what block did you do?

Teri said...

I have found detail pictures of the quilting which was done by Birgit. She did a great job.
Suze, I don't really remember which blocks I did. I think there we did 3 each. I probably have a pic somewhere, I will have to investigate. You see that the obligitory NYB block is in the quilt. That was the only block that we all thought was necessary.

sophie said...

The setting is fantastic, as is Birgit's quilting. It's a perfect example of how fabulous a sampler quilt can be. I hope I have a chance to see it alive and in person at one of the shows. I love the narrow border, too.

Dorothy said...

I love it! The colours and layout and quilting couldn't have been better executed had you all been locked in the room (and wouldn't THAT have been an adventure!?)

I miss you hoodlums on the forum. No interesting windows to peek into anymore. ;o)

Unknown said...

Teri,

I love Birgit's layout for our quilt. I guess the plastic covered thing is F&P's idea of a non-traditional quilt. I just call it weird.

All of us locked up in one room is a scary thought, no? There isn't a room in the whole world that is big enough for this group.

Thanks for posting our moment of fame on your blog.

Kathie, a charter member of the NYB hooligans

Dorothy said...

Hi Kathie!!! Like I said, I miss you guys.

Granny said...

That's a beautiful quilt and I love the quilting. Congratulations on being chosen for the traveling exhibit.

Unknown said...

What a great result of your efforts! Of course, orange IS my favorite color. :-)

Shelina said...

Wow! This is a gorgeous quilt and such a great setting. Congratulations on being chosen to be a part of the traveling exhibit.