Some ribbons and a fish

No, these are not all the ribbons I won at our quilt show last weekend.  These are, however, the ribbons we will be handing out at our guild meeting to the winners in this year's show.  There were some outstanding quilts featured in the show.  Over the next few days, I will try and share a few of them.  I had fun making all the ribbons.  I folded the points and stitched them together using a stiff pellon button covered with batting and fabric on the top.  I used iron on labels to cover the backs.  Each one gives the year and the type of award it is.

After I got the last pin affixed to the last ribbon, I started playing with fish.  I have joined a swap over at Mary Lou Weidman's Yahoo group and we are all making brightly colored fish.  This fish block is 14" long by 8" tall.  I used a piece of made fabric that doesn't go with any of my other made fabric.  It was just the right size.  Mary Lou teaches a method she calls hootchie mama piecing, and I tried it with this block.  I was amazed at how much stress was reduced using this method.  I have already sketched out an idea of how I want to put the 12 blocks I will receive together.  I will be working on these blocks for a while along with MAD's bookshelf quilt.  They should keep me out of trouble for a while.
Did any of you read the article in the new issue of Quilter's Newsletter about modern quilting?  It sort of gives an overview of the modern quilting movement.  I don't really consider myself a modern quilter, but found it interesting. There is also a cool lesson on whole-cloth "Applique" where you do no cutting.  You use permanent markers.  Intrigued?  I am ready to try it on a small scale.  Not too small, though, as it calls for very tiny stipple quilting as it is. I also downloaded free patterns for four 9 patch quilts from the Quilter's Newsletter site.  Free patterns are a good thing.