Challenges!

Have you ever participated in a quilting Challenge? There are all sorts of challenges to do. You may find one through a quilt guild, your local quilt shop, or through a variety of online forums. Challenges are a great way to find inspiration and to learn something new!

I am participating in two challenges at the moment. Both are through my local quilt shop, Rachel’s Quilt Patch in Staunton, VA.  The first is a “Pizza Box Exchange.” Thirteen people signed up and were given an empty pizza box to fill with coordinating fabrics. We each picked a “focus” fabric, a background, and five to eight coordinating fabrics. Here’s mine.

Every month for a year, we will each make a block with someone else’s fabrics, and return it to the shop in their pizza box.  Here’s the stack of boxes from the day I went to pick up my second exchange box. One person had already come so there are only 12 boxes.

 

We can make a different block each month, or we can make the same block over and over. I picked a block from Judy Martin’s book “Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts” called Charlottesville Star. I wanted something Virginia-ish! I also really like Snail’s Trails blocks, and Judy Martin designed this star with a Snail’s Trail in the center.

 

This is how it looks in the fabric from pizza box number 2, which happens to belong to my friend Diana.  Diana picked a blue for the background color, which makes it really striking. Her focus fabric has a large floral print in it, which is fun to play with. I was afraid to “fussy cut” the floral with the flowers showing in each triangle because I was the first person to cut her fabrics, so I didn’t want to leave someone at the 12th month without enough focus fabric!

 

 

 

 

 

For the second month we each had to make two blocks (this is because of there being thirteen of us, so that we can finish the exchange in 12 months). I decided to make the same Charlottesville Star block.

I love how making the same block in two different color ways makes such a huge difference! It is the same exact block, just done in someone else’s color choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my second block for this month I chose another block from the same Judy Martin book, called “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

I like how the “flying geese” give an impression of movement, sort of like shooting stars. I look forward to making a whole quilt with this block some day. Stay tuned for future installments of the Pizza Exchange. At the end of the year we will have a pizza party and each of us will finally get our box of completed blocks, which we’ll assemble into quilts.

“Ah but Sandy, you said you were doing TWO challenges.”  Yes, I did. The second challenge is even more challenging. Those who were willing were given a little bag with fabric scraps. We had to make a piece at least 14 inches square, using every fabric in our bag. We could add other fabrics or embellishments, but we had to use every fabric we were given. Each bag had the same fabrics. There were several greens, a dark purple, a bright blue, a small piece of bright red, and some white which up close has white butterflies printed on it. There was also a rose floral which you can see on the top and left side below. Here is what I made, and a close-up:

I added two more greens, the background which is light with green and blue splotches, and the darker floral on the right-hand side and bottom. All of the fabrics I added were scraps from previous quilts, as was the backing I used (which is more of the dark floral).  When I was deciding what to make, I thought of turtles because of all the greens (and the fact that I just have a thing about turtles), but I couldn’t figure out what the white would be until a friend suggested bubbles. Perfect! The red and blue worked well as seaweed, which the turtles are dragging along. I googled images of sea turtles to get the basic shape, and drew the turtles, bubbles and seaweed freehand. I was all done with the applique, moved the piece away from my machine to iron it, and found the dark purple fabric scrap which I’d forgotten about! So it ended up being swirls on the turtles’ backs. The piece is about 20 inches by 22 inches.

I did a raw-edge applique technique, which I will describe in detail in a later blog post. It is a fast way to finish edges on applique pieces that are not going to get washed. I probably wouldn’t use this technique on a quilt that will go in the washing machine, but it works great for wall hangings. I finished the binding at 9 PM the night before the Challenge deadline. Whew!

Challenges are a great way to meet other quilters, either in your area or online. Being challenged is a way to inspire each other and learn new things, or a way to get to know your local quilt shop owners and find out what kinds of things inspire THEM. This particular challenge has a couple of prizes–there was a prize for the first person to turn in a completed project (not me!), and there is a prize for the person deemed by the quilt shop to have made the most creative use of the fabrics.

What is the most interesting challenge you’ve done? Tell me in the comments!

–Sandy