Time in a Bottle

My mother mailed me the 2012 challenge fabric because we were living in England. When it arrived I had no clue what to do with it. I was still puzzling six months later when we moved back into our Utah home. An idea finally struck as I was unpacking scraps leftover from previous state fair challenge quilts. They were in the same box as Lori Holt’s State Fair quilt pattern, which features home canned goods competing for a blue ribbon. I couldn’t use her pattern, because the rules insist each quilt be the work of one person, and because her 58x62” design far exceeds the 24x36” limit. I made six little jam jars using the challenge fabric and scraps from the five previous years. I added six more jars with fruit prints and printed clever labels for each jar. I quilted a butterfly over each jar in silver. The blue bottle ring background and twisted ribbon border were meant to inspire first place. But I’ll settle for second.