Mountains of Fun!

I feel like I haven't blogged in FOREVER!!!

And I probably haven't.....

My friends are even commenting on a lack of writing on my part!

I have been INCREDIBLY busy! I feel like I can't catch my self no matter what I do... But it is all good, and we are doing great!

I thought I might give you a quick look at one of the MANY things I have been busy with...

My mom and I entered the quilt challenge at the California Mid State Fair this year. Then my grandma got REALLY sick, and we sort of got busy taking care of her, doing end of school year life, and just living, and the suddenly the deadline snuck right up on us!

Have you ever done a quilt challenge before? Well, if not, it is where the group hosting gives you a piece of fabric and a theme (and some other rules) and you get to create a quilt using those guidelines. Thankfully, this challenge is for a small quilt (24x24 minimum to 30x30 maximum), unfortunately the fabric they gave us was UGLY!!!! (see picture above!)

The theme this year was "Mountains of Fun". In thinking about an appropriate quilt piece, I could not get "Maynard's Mountain" out of my mind. Maynard's Mountain is this really cool waterfall in the center of the fair grounds at Mid State Fair. I sent my dad to take pictures of Maynard's Mountain for some inspiration. This is the one that jumped out at me from the group he brought me.

With the picture as my inspiration, and the ugly fabric to incorporate, I jumped into creating last weekend at craft day. I decided to cut the ugly fabric up into color blocks, then use in in aplique to create a picture of Maynard's Mountain.

After craft day, my mom took the square to do some of the applique stitching on it (it was supposed to be a joint effort you know..) and I forgot about it until last night when Faline called to remind me it was due TODAY!!

I went to grab it last night... and it was NO WHERE near where I thought it would be...

After pretty much an all nighter last night, I had this this morning:

That just left a few SHORT hours to detail and quilt it before it was due in Paso Robles (an hour away from my house!) by 2 today!!! Ahhhhh....

I worked on it pretty much non stop all morning, and when Faline got off at 1030, she came by to help until she had to go back to work at noon. Over all I am REALLY happy with the final product...

The quilt finished at 110, for my parents to drive it to it's destination by 2... and they JUST made it!

Some up close details..

Those trees are a FUNNY story in themselves... oh my the LAUGHS we all had over those trees! Mom, Faline, Josie and I all made trees, and I used them all... even Faline's CRAZY tree!.... But I LOVE that there is 3 generations of family in making those trees!

From inspiration to quilt, using insanely ugly challenge fabric....

So what do you think??