Tag Archives: challenge quilt

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The first Project QUILTING challenge of season 14 is The First One.

I am a habitual overthinker. I have a list of things I'd like to work into my PQ challenges this season and none of them were the "perfect" fit for this challenge. So the options to meet The First One theme seemed infinite. I brainstormed some ideas and considerations with my daughter:

  • my first quilt
  • my first blog post
  • my first IG post
  • red, the first color in a rainbow
  • the letter A
  • the number 1
  • the first PQ challenge I participated in, PQ 8.1
  • fabrics from my first PQ project
  • the very first PQ challenge
  • my favorite fabric designer, Alison Glass
  • my first Alison Glass Sun Prints (as seen in this 2015 mini I made)
  • my favorite print from Alison Glass Sunprints 2015, Grove

Taking all these things into consideration, I chose the purple Grove Sun Print as the first fabric for this project... my Sun Prints are precious, rarely used fabrics in my stash. And this print was used in my first Project QUILTING project way back in 2017. I decided I would improv piece some simple 1s, using each of the Grove prints... which happens to be in 8 color ways, a nod to my participation in PQ since season 8. I looked back at what the very first Project QUILTING challenge was, way before I had heard of the challenges... rectangles! Ya know what really simple 1s look like? Rectangles!

I started by cutting my rectangular number ones from my scraps. The size of my fabric scraps dictated the size of my rectangles. From here, I oversized each section of my quilt when I pieced the background to surround each rectangle and trimmed down when I puzzled them together.

I paired my prints with Alison Glass Kaleidoscope solids. These are the colors I landed on: Blue Jay, Poppy, Carrot, Peacock, Cosmos, Dahlia, Grass, and Sunflower. Tip: Use a sharpie to label the color name on the selvage edge of your solids. I used "AG" here to indicate they are Alison Glass.

I made a little thumbnail sketch of free motion quilting motifs, choosing four angular and four curvy motifs.

I matched my thread colors to the solid fabrics. I used Aurifil 50wt for the quilting in Light Delft Blue (#2720), Red (#2250), Green (#2870), Yellow (#2135), Fuchsia (#4020), Magenta (#2535), Bright Orange (#1133) and Dark Turquoise (#4182). (Colors listed left to right, top to bottom in their placement in the finished quilt -- see photos below.)

I enjoy using a medley of free motion motifs on a project. My Sunset All About Angles quilt comes to mind as another one that features a wide variety of free motion motifs.

My binding is Alison Glass Kaleidoscope in Charcoal. I attached my bias binding with Aurifil 50wt in Black (#2692) using my machine binding technique.

My quilt is trimmed to 14" x 18.5", making it placemat sized. It is my first finish of the new year.

I love the different appearance of the quilting in overhead and side lighting. The shadowy side lighting really shows off the texture.

 

As a longtime participant of Project QUILTING, I'm excited to be a sponsor this year. Each week as a Weekly Sponsor I have contributed a PDF pattern to one winner. Week 3, I am the Ultimate Weekly Sponsor. The prize is a spot in one of my self-hosted open enrollment live virtual workshops. I'm also a Grand Prize Sponsor. Again, the prize is a spot in one of my self-hosted open enrollment live virtual workshops.

I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING The First One challenge.

P.S. This blog post is my *first one* of the year. :-)

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Rhythm & Repetition. This is one of those challenge themes that is so easy... but also quite difficult. So many things would work. Three of anything really. Three 4-patch blocks. Three chickens. Three triangles. The possibilities are endless! On my first challenge quilt this season I made a wholecloth quilt and toyed with making wholecloth quilts for each challenge. But then I used two fabrics for challenge 2. So here is my every other wholecloth quilt. I decided to take inspiration from Jacquie Gering and feature my repetition in the way of walking foot quilting. On a small scale. My initial grid is approximately 1/2" squares.

It sewed up quite quickly. I initially did no marking, using the edge of my walking foot as my guide fo the parallel lines and eyeballing the first horizontal line to be perpendicular to the vertical lines. Then I marked a small dot in the center of each square as my guide. I adjusted my stitch length for the zig zag quilting so I was taking exactly 3 stitches from corner to center of each square.

My quilt is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". Fabrics are KONA Splash (front) and Jade Green (back and binding). It was quilted with 50wt Aurifil Jade (#4093).

I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING Rhythm & Repetition challenge. Check out my previous challenge entries:

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Back in October, with just a week left to the submission deadline, I finally dove in on my idea for the American Patchwork & Quilting Hexagon Quilting Challenge for QuiltCon. The moment I saw the challenge theme I'd had the idea of these "half and half" mismatch hexagons (which my daughter points out don't really count since they are actually octagons ????).

The challenge rules stated "Eligible quilts must use a hexagon shape as a primary element in the design. A hexagon is defined as a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple hexagon is 720°." There was no size requirement for the challenge. In previous months I had done some work with green solids and was really excited about that palette. I love the play of values and contrast.

photo by Roberta Pabst

I'm very excited to have my first quilt hang at QuiltCon. I didn't make it to the show this year, but friends shared photos of my quilt hanging in the show with me. Also shown here, Hextraordinary by Isabelle Selak and Double Hex by Nancy Lambert.

Hexie Halves is 28" x 28" and finished with a faced binding.

The quilting is two-color walking foot quilting. I used an off kilter plaid as the backing fabric and quilted the quilt upside down, using the lines in the plaid as my guide.

photo by Roberta Pabst

"I came to quilting nearly 20 years ago through a love of the geometry of patchwork. As my personal style has shifted into improv piecing, I have enjoyed finding new and different geometric shapes to feature, purposefully or accidentally. When I first heard of the hexagon challenge, I was both excited to see what the category would bring and inspired by the idea of these “half and half” hexagons. My choice of monochromatic green solids gave me an opportunity to play with the interaction of color and value."

See all the Hexagon quilts in the show in Heather's walkthrough video and check out all the winners from the show. You'll see Sarah Ruiz's quilt that I contributed to in the group category.