Every year in my quilt group in Balsam, we have a challenge project. The challenge is selected by our leaders, Wendy and Jane. The criteria vary each year by design criteria and size. Here are a few of the challenges in which I have participated from the past years to the present.
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2010 "Wisteria"
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this was a color challenge - we drew a "paint chip out of a paper bag and had to use shades of that color
as our primary or focus color. My color was "cold water blue." This little quiltlet - 24" x 24"
was hand pieced and hand appliqued. My design source was an ancient Japanese crest design.
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2009 "The Idealized Land"
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The criteria for this challenge was that we had to do a scene with no borders. I chose a scene reminiscent of the
Blue Ridgemountains where I live for part of the year. I used some of Sabra Field's woodcuts as an inspiration.
This quilt was created using raw-edge applique.
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2008 'Tree of Life"
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For this challenge, numbers were drawn out of a paper bag and we had to use that
number of fabrics in the quilt - not including the binding fabric. Mine was the number
sixteen. The background was created by piecing squares of the same black fabric. The tree
and leaves were hand appliqued on the background. Along the branches of the tree are
a number of quotations written in machine script. The top is alsoembellished with some beads and
dots and squares painted with Shiva paint sticks.
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2007 "Post Cards from Montorosso"
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In this challenge, we drew a letter and had to use the letter as an inspiration for a quilt. My letter was
"M." Having just returned from a hiking trip toItaly, I chose a photograph from the village of Montorosso
in the Cinque Terre as my inspiration. I printed the photograph on fabric, as well as various other pictures that
I took on my trip.One "postcard" is actually of my husband Jim and I standing with the
Ligurian Sea behind us. The borders of the quilt were embellished with Shiva paint sticks.
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2006 "A Slice of Orange"
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.This challenge involved making a small quilt, 24" x 24"that included something orange. I took this somewhat
literally by actually appliqueing an orange slice and an orange onto a black background.
The background squares were cut from one piece of black hand-dyed fabric, then pieced together again.
I used beads to embellish some of the intersections as well as the some of the orange blossoms that were
machine quilted onto the background. Orange slices were machine quilted around the border.
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2004 "Matisse"
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For this challenge, we were supposed to create a quilt, inspired by one of our favorite artists. I chose the impressionist artist, Matisse. About the only thing representative of Matisse here are the colors I used, which are frequently found in some of his paper cut pieces. It turned out to be a pretty bright quilt. The technique used for this quilt is Seminole piecing.
