TST #31 - A first challenge

How many of you have attempted a quilting challenge?  Did you take a leap and attempt one?    If you have been following my Trunk Show Tuesdays, you will remember that I initially joined an online group on Compuserve; it was my quilting guild.  We called ourselves CISters, after Compuserve Information Service.  But that's a story for another day.

There came an chance to meet some of the CISters in person during the Pacific Northwest Quilt Show when it was held at the Seattle Centre.  With my mother I travelled to Seattle and met with four CISters I had previously exchanged quilt blocks with.  Okay you're probably wondering how we recognized each other.  We had made pins that had "CISters" in big letters on them and had agreed to meet at a particular time at the entrance.

After a tour of the show and a fun lunch one of the ladies suggested that we do a challenge. She pulled out a large piece of fabric and cut it into fat quarters.  She suggested that we use the fabric to create five 6-inch blocks that we could exchange, put into a wall hanging, and then share the results online with the rest of the CISters.

This is the block that I did and the pansy fabric in the block was the challenge fabric.  I had no idea about setting blocks into a cohesive wall hanging.  At that time I had only been quilting for approximately 3 years.  This is what I came up with. 

 



The other blocks were from the others. I also did the block that is in the left one in the center four.  It was also one of the few first attempts I made at hand quilting.  Here is a closer look.

This hung on the wall in my mother's bedroom for some time.  She loved pansies (violets actually) and the colours went with a crocheted afghan I had made for her.  Since then my mother has passed on and it is stored in a trunk.  I periodically take it out to hang on the wall to remind me of her and how she supported my interest in quilting.

So how about you?  What was your first quilting challenge?  I'd love to hear about it.