A last minute challenge

Last week (and this week, too!) I missed the "Tip on Thursday" (you had been warned it might not be that regular), but it was going to be very short anyway: "Don't decide to take part in a challenge two days before it's due!" Especially when you also have two Christmas concerts and a quilting class to go to in those two days...
No surprise that I didn't listen to my own advice!

I have been a member of the Irish Patchwork Society of Ireland (IPS) for years now. The Southern Branch meet once a month in Cork city, and going to meetings helped me enormously getting to know people when I first moved here, they are a friendly bunch! There is coffee, tea, biscuits and chat, show and tell, demonstrations and/or a speaker, a diverse library, and a shop (of course!). There are also regular initiatives like a block of the month, or a challenge (usually at Christmas and over the summer). While I enjoy seeing what others are making, in all the years I haven't been tempted to enter in any of the challenges and I didn't think I would enter this time either, but I pulled myself together was inspired at the last minute.

For this challenge we were each given three circles of fabric, at least two of which should be used to make a Christmas item. Of course I could do that... I was going to make a table mat anyway (I had seen a lovely eight-pointed one demonstrated just there)! Then I discovered that the circles were not only three different sizes, but also of different types of fabrics: There was a 5" circle print with robins, a 3" circle of solid white flannel, and a 2" circle of plain black felt. Mmmmm. I wasn't so sure now...

However, ideas kept nagging at me, until at the last minute I decided at least I could give it a try. Searching my boxes for Christmas fabrics I didn't find as many as I thought I had, but they had to do. After all there was no time to waste! Before class on Thursday morning I drew some circles on Bondaweb, and while at the class I pondered which fabrics I would use.

Thursday afternoon saw me ironing Bondaweb to the robin fabric, the black felt, and three other fabrics. I sewed the eight pointed shape as a background, played with an appliqué layout, ironed, sewed and quilted, backed, sewed and quilted some more, added some details by hand... and gave a sigh of relief! If it wasn't up to challenge standard at least it was up to my standard and I'd be happy to have it on my table! I even added some gold embroidery to my black felt circle to tie it in with the other fabrics.

And the challenge? Yes, I did win, too, and now I have another challenge to ponder over the holidays: What to make with this big box of flannel fabrics! I have some ideas already...

Sandra