The Great Rainbow Balls Takeover and OI Raffle Quilt

It's officially Mud Season! And what does that mean? Well, this year it means the Rainbow Balls Takeover of the Lawrence Library art gallery.

Every March, my Squanicookies quilt guild hangs a mini quilt show of our coolness in the art gallery of our local library. It is always amazing and stunning, and not to brag (too much), but it is the most popular of all of the different art shows that go in there each year. I think it may be because our brand of art comes in so many sizes that we can totally fill the walls floor to ceiling in a way other types of art cannot. But I digress in order to brag. 

I was unable to help set up the show this year, but was thrilled to check it out one day after school and lo and behold, two of my tester participants from the "Kickin' Stash" group quilt had finished their quilts and put them in the show. As you may recall, Paige suggested the names "Rainbow Balls" or the forever classy "Blue and Purple Balls" as a name for "Kickin' Stash", and these two quilts do give her argument some merit. I love that Barbara T (quilt on wall in above photo) "borrowed" some blocks from another friend who participated, so she only had to make a few extra to complete her baby quilt. Angie C (quilt on piano) made two borders pink and two blue, which is a blatant deviation from the pattern. Who said she could do that? Well, me, in any given lecture, actually. I love it.

Also showing in the photo in almost the dead center is an "All-A-Flutter", my prairie point heart pattern that was in Quilter's World earlier this year, also made by Angie. She's our resident overachiever after all. I love that Paige's reaction to this whole show was "Mom! This show couldn't even happen without you." Untrue, but swoon.

For your viewing pleasure, some more photos of our show:

Angie also made the funky heart one on the bottom here. Yes, we all roll our eyes at her. The top one is all Jinny Beyer fabrics and is very stunning. I think it was made by Marie A, who also is quite prolific.

Made by Regina M from a kit. Regina does beautiful work but claims to be a beginner. She is crazy.

 Aside: The ornament quilt above was designed by Ann Lauer. I think she may be a liker on my FB page, and I hope she sees this.

We had a workshop where people made the braided quilt on the right; unfortunately I don't know who did that one but it is lovely. Cath H did the black and white one with the pop of orange. Love.

I have no idea who made any of these. Angie probably made them all. But do keep the bottom right one in mind for a moment or two from now.

Some cute small quilts. And some random flowers.

Don't know who made these, but we have to love them.

 Wasn't that fun? Don't you feel like you were there?

Now, check out the quilt below, which is not currently hanging off my deck but it looks so cute there I probably should have just left it. Also check out that blue blue sky as exhibit A as to why I love New England winters. The 6" of snow still on the ground at the end of March this year is NOT a reason, but that isn't "normal." It is, however, "annoying."

So this quilt is made from the same fabrics as that one I told you to make note of up there (Basic Grey, good luck finding them as they are a year old). Totally different looks to them, though, since this one was made with a few slices of layer cake (ie not the whole stack) and a focus fabric and the one up top was a jelly roll.

I started this quilt about a year ago, trying to replicate how I had made a quilt that now resides on Greta's bed. Unfortunately for me, I never wrote down what I was doing, and I never could figure out how to make the blocks like I had the first time. So the whole project ended up in my UFO pile until this year's DAGMT, when I pulled out some of the blocks and trimmed them so they fit together and whipped up this baby quilt.

To look at the UFO basket you'd never know it was gone, but I know, and that makes me happy.

It also makes me happy that this baby quilt has been donated to The Alle Shea Project in Rochester NY, to be raffled off during their "Walk N Wheels" event on May 4 at North Ponds Park in Webster NY. The Alle Shea Project was founded by Kim and Angelo Colazzo to raise awareness for Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a genetic brittle bone disease that claimed the life of their daughter Alle Shea after only five weeks of life. They have done an amazing job as a grass roots cause and I wanted to help out in some way because Kim was actually my BFF in elementary school as well as our moms being our Girl Scout troop leaders and very good friends for life themselves. We'd lost touch over the years but through the power of FB have reconnected and I am honored to be able to do even a small thing to help them honor the daughter they lost. I wish them all the best in their fight for awareness.

Up next....time to fight with the weather, quilt rack, and camera again to get a photo of Taking Names before I lose my mind. The failed attempts have been stunningly disastrous so far. Wish me luck.