Off Season Project QUILTING Challenge – Flora

The latest Off Season Challenge comes from Chris Daly of Dye Candy. Chris was one of our sponsors for last season and if you haven’t seen her shop yet I definitely recommend a visit.

She offers gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics in all types of yardage

and beautiful miniature quilt jewelry. It’s definitely a must see shop for quilters!

Okay – onto the challenge.

Flower Splash from MoranArtandQuilts

FLORA

The theme of of the third off season challenge is “Flora”. Size, Color, method and techniques are the participants choice. However the piece should be a quilt.

Quilted Wall Hanging in rainbow with Floral Applique from SieberDesigns

To read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html and join the facebook group: www.facebook.com/projectquilting

THE RULES:

1. Have FUN! These off season challenges aren’t about winning a prize – they’re about being inspired to create something you may not have in the past. There are a lot of ways to interpret this challenge – let’s see if you can in a way no one else does!
2. Please remember that these projects need to be created during the time frame of the challenge.
3. If you need advice/tips/help (or you just want to give us all a sneak peak) with your project as you work on it feel free to post pictures to the flickr group: Project QUILTING WIP: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1430386@N24/
4. POST your entries with a description of your creative process, including where you are (ie, I create in Madison, WI) and the size of your project by Sunday, July 10th, 2011, at noon, CDT, to this flickr group – Project QUILTING with KimsCraftyApple: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/ OR email a picture/description of your completed project to {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line . (just over 3 weeks to finish the challenge)
5. Since we’re in ‘off season’ we aren’t having prizes/judges etc BUT if you do want people to truly critique (the good and the bad) your project post it to the Flickr Group: Project QUILTING – Critiques
6. If you have an idea for an ‘off season’ challenge which includes a miniature feature about you on my blog please email me at {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com}.

Modern Flowers from KimsCraftyApple

Time to VOTE – Project QUILTING Flying Geese Challenge

1. projectquilting, 2. 14 cMarch 11 to 12 2011 039 (Medium), 3. Under Construction, quilting detail, 4. The Earth is the Lord’s – Organic Quilt, 5. Geese at Sunset – close up, 6. Drunken Geese 2, 7. That’s not my lion (close up of head), 8. Sky Specimen, 9. If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans – Corner, 10. Dancing Geese: sideview, 11. Left Side Stretched over the Canvas, 12. flying geese 2, 13. Project QUILTING – This is my entry for the “Flying Geese Challenge”, 14. projectquilting, 15. Project QUILTING – Flying Geese Challenge Entry – Three Geese

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

It’s been one of those weeks in Project QUITLING. Entries didn’t start coming in until Saturday so of course I sit and worry that no one will enter – my worst fear! But of course…I shouldn’t have worried – we have 13 amazing entries once again!

For those of you just tuning in you can read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html

and about the fifth challenge of Season 2 here:

http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2011/03/project-quilting-challenge-5-flying.html

CHALLENGE WINNERS:

***See the bottom of this post for two minor changes made to this years prize/voting process

This week’s PRIZES!

The winner of the Public vote will take home $10 to SpiceBerryCottage and Downloadable Quilter’s Cookbook 2009 from the QuiltingGallery

The winner of the Judges Choice will take home $10 to FabricsNQuilts and $10 to Dye Candy.

TWO randomly drawn (by my two beauties) participants in this weeks challenge will take home either $20 for Machine Quilting Services from QuiltsbyBarb OR a pdf of 2 maze quilt patterns from Lisa Penny!

Everyone that enters a piece for this challenge can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2011 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend.

Voting closes at 7pm CST on Friday, March 18th

This weeks’ JUDGES!

Diane Lapacek

Barb Raisbeck

Lisa Penny

Guest Judge: Ryan Walsh of I’m Just a Guy Who Quilts

OTHER BONUSES:

Don’t forget! Everyone that entered a piece for this challenge can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2011 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend.

I will also be sending everyone their rank (somewhere between 1 and 10 – be sure you’ve emailed me (lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com) your email address) and any critique’s the judges have about your creation. The top 3 scoring projects will be posted on my blog next weekend.

PUBLIC WINNERS: YES, you can win a prize too! You’ll find out how to WIN at the bottom of this post after you’ve checked out each of our challengers entries.

And now here are all the entries – in no particular order…

***Please note – I have left the images smaller to help the blog load a bit faster. I strongly URGE you to take closer looks at the projects before voting by checking out their submittals on the flickr group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/

THE ENTRIES:

Quilter: UpStateLisa

The Story:

This is the first time that I have entered project quilting so here it goes…

I designed my own geese on freezer paper and paper pieced the geese, leaving a gap so that I could machine appliqué one geese breaking away and going out on her own (yeah, maybe I am hoping it is me!). The goose that is breaking away is made with a commercially produced fabric which has metallic swirls, just to be unique as well. I apologize about the quality of the photo, but there has not been much light in the skies of upstate NY lately.

I used some of my left over hand dyed fabrics and took my older daughter’s advice and used the orange and blue as the complementary colors. The geese, you may notice are slightly wonky in their direction, as I like to be wonky!!!

I also decided to create a quilt that wasn’t entirely rectangular so as to have the geese fly off the quilt. In fact, the top geese is essentially a prairie point type triangle that stands up above the quilt!

I took a class recently (on a cruise ship, no less!) with Charlotte Warr Andersen and used one of her machine quilting techniques! I used a 40 wt sulky rayon for the quilting thread.

This “quiltie” measures about 13″x14.5″.

Created by “upstatelisa”, Lisa B. Filion, Queensbury NY

QUILTER: ForQuiltsSake

“Dancing Geese”

Made by Pam Geisel of For Quilts Sake in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Mar. 2011 for Project Quilting Season 2, Challenge 5, Flying Geese.

10” x 18.5”

My creative process and how I made it:

I actually spent a lot of time coming up with the layout for this quilt. Using my computer, I played with many, many different arrangements. One of the things I love about using traditional quilt blocks is the way different parts of the block are emphasized or de-emphasized depending on color and fabric placement. I knew I wanted the background fabric to be all the same so the triangle parts of the geese would be the focal point.

Once I finally came up with a layout I wanted to do, it was time to start playing with complimentary color schemes. I went to my stash to see what fabrics I had that I thought would work with and I wanted the fabrics for the triangles to be the same color but to range from light to dark. The color that provided me with the most range from my stash was yellow, although yellow is a light color so it doesn’t have a large range of shades. And if the geese were going to be yellow, then the background would have to be purple. I found a wonderful purple-y batik that had cream and yellow colored swirls, so it was time to get started.

I knew that I could fuse the triangles to the background but I was a little concerned about the background showing through the yellow fabric and I also didn’t want the geese to be so flat. I played around with some origami-like folds, kind of like making prairie points, only I didn’t realize that until later. The triangles are pretty small, only 2” on the longest point. (The 3-D quality of the triangles is more noticeable in the “Side View” photo.)

A few false starts on figuring out how to piece the background led to cutting the background fabric for each “stripe” and drawing the shape on the wrong side, much like using a template only I traced by placing the fabric over my full-sized diagram on my lightbox. Still using the lightbox, I placed the triangle in its proper place then sewed adjoining pieces and attaching the bottoms of the triangles at the same time. The points of the triangles were sewn into place during the quilting.

I made the top and left borders the same width as each other and made the right and bottom borders the same as each other but larger than the left and top borders and I added a light purple cord in the larger yellow borders to contain the triangle that extended beyond the background.

I decided to do some of the quilting with the opposite color, which is something I don’t do a lot, but I think it helped the design. I did some echo quilting around the triangles with a yellow thread and also stitched in the ditch on the yellow inner border and more echo quilting in the purple background with purple thread.

For the binding I used the same strip- facing technique that I used on the last challenge quilt “After the Rain” because I liked how well it worked.

Quilter: MoranArtandQuilts

“Homeward Bound”

It measures 21″ x 26″

I’m disappointed in how the colors turned out in my photographs so they’re not a very good depiction of the work. The purple actually looked blue at first so in trying to fix it, the thread colors look off.

I love purple so decided to use that and yellow as the dominant colors. Starting out with the traditional flying geese on the left I debated on what to do with the right side since my main goal in any work is to have a good composition. After playing around with the triangles as flowers, shapes and then birds, I decided on the birds that appear to be flying away from the traditional method. They were applied using raw edge appliqué.

I decided to follow through with this composition by quilting with yellow thread on the right and mimicking the triangle shapes. I then used a light aqua thread on the left with straight lines to carry over the aqua birds on the right tying everything together yet maintaining two distinct styles.

The binding is an aqua fabric with bits of the other colors in it, too, to also tie things together.

Catherine
Columbus, Ohio

Quilter: SpringWaterDesigns

Geese of Gettysburg

For this Project Quilting Challenge my piece is inspired by the many geese that would gather at my daughter’s college campus at Gettysburg College. I chose Blue and Orange (Gettysburg College school colors, and complimentary colors on the color wheel) for the curved Flying Geese. The silhouette of the geese in the smoky brown color represents the geese that could be seen walking all around her dorms near the lake.

I went pretty far out of my box on this one. I’ve made many a traditional Flying Geese unit, but never made the curved flying geese which I drafted on paper, and paper pieced. Batiks were used to piece the background, and the flying geese are made from 13 different graduated colors of cotton prints and hand dyes, going from dark to light to dark again (The colors are very rich in person, my photography doesn’t do it justice). I heavily machine quilted the background to make the flying geese pop. To complete the art piece, I stretched it over and mounted it to a 16″ x 20″ Artist Canvas.

Created in Jessup, MD USA. I’ll have a blog post about my design process Monday on my blog:
springwaterdesigns.blogspot.com

~ Dawn Stewart
Spring Water Designs

Quilter: Aunt Cindy’s Attic

If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans

I had an idea for the challenge within minutes of reading it. I had it fairly well planned in my head, until I tried to envision the color combos. None of the complimentary color schemes worked out well for my thoughts. Plan one was scrapped.

I printed out some geese units, cut them out and started playing with them. I quickly came up with the cross scheme. I drew it out on giant graph paper and started in on the background. I liked the concept of something radiating from the center of the cross, but just adding yellow wedges seemed too simple. I also thought that going lighter in the center and darker towards the edges would work out well. I ended up drawing triangles in the middle of the wedges to give the background a flying geese feel.

I scanned the upper right and lower right quadrants of my drawing to create a paper pieced pattern for the background. I printed the reverse image of each scan to get the patterns for the two left quadrants.

The geese were traditionally pieced. My plan was to inset the cross into the background. I’ve not sewn set-in seams before. So I spent a good bit of time researching it and watching videos about inset seams. I set in the first corner and it looked awesome. Things took a turn for the worse after that. A lot worse. I ended up taking the entire cross out.

I went with my initial instinct and appliqued the cross on. Luckily I’d wanted to try a method using a fusible web with no paper backing and I had my chance to try it. The web is sewn to the applique on the front (right sides together). You cut a hole in the webbing, turn it inside out, straighten the edges out and fuse to your background. Voila! Instant turned edge applique.

I chose the colors because the yellow is so bright – I’m REALLY looking forward to spring. Also Lent started this week & purple is the color of Lent (also a color for mourning).

The quilt is approximately 17″ x 20″.
Created by Aunt Cindy of Aunt Cindy’s Attic, Crawfordsville, IN

Quilter: AllThingsBelle

Sky Specimen

I’m Jennifer Rodriguez, art quilting in West Jordan, UT.

My piece is “Sky Specimen” and is approximately 9.5″x6″.

This piece is inspired my love for specimen art and of course our theme, flying geese.

My father is a scientist and I grew up with specimen art in our home.
I love the mix of nature and art. It was my hope that this quilt captured scenes of geese flying in the sky.

Each “flying geese” was individually quilted and sewn down the middle to give the piece motion. The Kona white backing and free motion quilting was done to resemble puffy white clouds.

Quilter: Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting

Come Fly With Me

For Challenge 5-Flying Geese I based my Project for Project Quilting on the art work of graphic artist MC Escher (Maurits Cornelis Escher). I found the two pieces of artwork on Google images and decided I could place triangles in a similar pattern to create a cool design on the front of the quilted bag. I used orange and purple for my complimentary colors. Then I decided I needed extra borders to make it larger and added the strips in a log cabin fashion creating a step like design element to the sides of the bag. Then I repeated the V on the back of the bag – upside down. My original plan was to make a small passport bag for myself, but I was having so much fun with the triangles, I decided I had to make a larger bag. So when I quilted my large bag fabric piece, I also quilted a little flying geese design of on black and white fabric to use to create my small passport bag. My Fly Bag is about 14″ wide by 15″ deep. I used a poly batting to make it a little lighter as I will pack it full for flying. I don’t have a passport yet as that is another long story… I plan to eventually apply for one, but it seems I never do it! Maybe next week!
Marcia Wachuta Boscobel, Wisconsin

Quilter: Dashasel

That’s not my lion…

…its mane is too blue!

The title of this piece is “That’s not my lion” in reference to the series of “That’s not my…” baby books that my son loves.

I was excited that this week’s challenge was to use flying geese! I had not yet made this more traditional block and thought it would be fun to use more traditional quilting elements overall. As I thought about what to create, I was (as I often am) inspired by my son. He loves all things related to cats, especially big cats, and I knew that I wanted to make him a lion. I went with blue and gold as my main colors (they were complimentary colors on the color wheel I looked at).

I decided to use one of my favorite patterns in flying geese– that of the circle of geese– as the lion’s head. I had also seen some curved flying geese and wanted to give this a shot too, so I used this for the lion’s tail. With both these blocks, I got to try my hand at foundation paper piecing (addicting!). In addition to the flying geese, the other more traditional quilting elements I used were prairie points (to “fluff” out the lion’s mane and make the piece three dimensional) and a border for the quilt. I used simple embroidery to make the face and legs and ruffled some fabric to make its furry chest. I left the edges of that fabric raw so that it would fray and hopefully contribute to that furry look. I also embroidered three flying geese in the distance as another fun reference to this challenge.

I wish that I had had the skills and forethought to draft my quilt pattern out before starting, but instead, I improvised as I went along. The head was created first, then the body, and then the tail. It was a fun challenge to figure out how to connect them all and I’ll admit that some (well, a lot) of seam ripping may have been involved :). Because of the numerous seams that go in so many directions, I decided to use random and wonky zigzags when doing my quilting. I also thought the zigzags created the illusion of the flying geese blocks, and at the risk of overkill, also used it in my binding.

This quilt is 21.5″ square and was made in Milwaukee, WI

Quilter: Christine Hampton

Drunken Geese 1

Drunken Geese 15” x 22”
Made in Oregon, WI by Christine Hampton

I used a free paper piecing pattern from PieceByNumber (http://piecebynumber.com/pastbom/colorwheelpatt.htm) for my flying geese. The curved path of the geese reminded me of the drunkard’s path blocks, so I named this project Drunken Geese. The geese appear to be flying tipsy with a bit of a swerve on. I quilted it with freehand wavy lines across the center with blue variegated and around the border with orange variegated thread. This piece would look good hung either horizontally or vertically.

Quilter: Kathleen P

Under Construction

This is the story of a quilt back that became the front in a week I had no time for quilting. I was sitting around perusing some of my many (many) quilt books for flying geese ideas, and my sweetie glanced over my shoulder and said one of them looked like a detour sign. And from there I went to some of the nifty play mats I’ve seen on the Celebrate the Boy month going on elsewhere in craft-blog-land, and figured I’d make the kiddo a little construction site mappy thing-o, despite sealing my fate as the lady who only quilts for a 2 year old.

So I whipped up a few flying geese in construction colors, and a one way sign… and a few stop signs… and a stop light… and there was no room for a construction site. So I put it on the back. Which was now the front. I let the complimentary colors guide my choice of the negative space around the blocks: there’s a lot of purple in here that I wouldn’t have used if I wasn’t trying to bring out the yellow geese arrows.

If this quilt had a middle name it would be Short Cut. I didn’t have much time, and I knew I couldn’t make it to a store this week, so I made do (hey, did you know you can brush your teeth and machine piece at the same time?). It’s all flannel because I have a weirdly large flannel scrap collection, and lemme tell y’all I am DONE with the flannel! It’s so annoying! And my scraps are all different qualities! Such the aaargh. There are so many things I didn’t have time for: there wasn’t much black, and I wanted roads but didn’t have time to finish a middle line. Maybe I’ll add it in embroidery. The quilting is minimal, and I got a little silly last night with some free-form arrows. With flannel that makes for some weird puffiness. I can add some more and I think it’ll go down to a nice kind of puffiness. I would have liked to add letters to the signs and made some more yellow and black ones. I didn’t love the black stop sign, but didn’t really have time for anything else. (Actually I think a properly planned out traffic sign quilt would be a real hit for people looking for a boyish quilt design for a toddler–maybe we’ll call this a prototype?) The binding is just the edges folded over. The photographs are extra haphazard today: it was either in the light or lying flat but not both.

But the short person for whom it was made *loves* it. The thing about making a quilt for a kid, or anyone, is that you think about that person. Turns out I don’t want my kid to be a perfectionist. I love that he grabbed the top and curled up in it on the couch. He wanted the one way sign to be put up on the wall (“Use Duck Tape!”). He counted the stop signs. He proclaimed the construction side a farm and brought it stuffed pigs. Even though we want to raise our kids to have high standards about some things, creative play isn’t one of those things. So even though the quilting isn’t perfect and I would have redesigned some of it if I had time, it is successful, and it’s a good lesson for a quilter too, since quilts have always been gifts: standards only take you so far. Sometimes you need to just pick up your tractor and pretend. And next time I’ll make something pretty, I swear.

This is 25″ by 32″ and I made it in Oneida County, NY.

Quilter: Sarah B

Geese at Sunset

This piece measures approximately 17″ x 9 1/2″. I used foundation piecing (geese), traditional piecing (sky) and fusible applique (for the lower landscape).

The challenge combination of flying geese and contrasting colors immediately made me think of geese flying in the sky at sunset!

I always try something new for each Project Quilting Challenge! This was my first time using batiks or a true black. Even though I knew just what I wanted to do as soon as I read the challenge, time got away from me, so this also became the first time I think I’ve ever completed a full project in less than 24 hours, as I finally started sketching this one after noon Central Saturday (yesterday) and we lost an hour to daylight savings overnight.

I create in Colorado.

Quilter: Sally’s Angelworks

The Earth is the Lord’s – Organic Quilt

Here is my Project Quilting entry for this week’s challenge. It is also a piece of a collab effort to raise funds for New Zealand’s devastating earthquake several weeks ago. Even in the aftermath of Japan’s devastation, for those of us who feel helpless, this is my little part. I hope to have a whole line of quilts for charity in my Etsy store soon!

For our challenge we were to be inspired by flying geese. Lately I have been making block after block with flying geese…so at first, no inspiration! LOL!! But I remembered a block I did for the Blogger’s Block-a-palooza designed by Monica Solorio-Snow (the Happy Zombie) and the way the geese looked to me like arrows. I loved that! For this quilt, I knew I wanted to have an earth in the middle, and the geese could point right to it! For me, that God is over all the earth and that everything is His is my comfort. I will probably pontificate about my religious philosophies more on my blog where it is more appropriate, but suffice it to say that He is what I want to focus on, to point to!!

I also love the colors!! I chose aqua and orange as my complimentary colors!!

This quilt is made from 95% organic cotton (Monaluna fabrics) and cotton muslin. I used Bamboo batting (so yummmy!) and embroidery thread for the earth, quilting thread for the outlines of the continents! I used a pigment pen for the Bible verse: Ps 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s…and everything in it.” I quilted the flying geese in an arrow shape and free motion quilted the corners. (I’m sooo loving FMQ now!!)

I appreciate all of your comments and look forward to hearing what the judges have to say…

sally from sally’s angelworks in Texas
this quilt is 9 5/8″ x 9 5/8″.

—————————————————————————————————-

Quilter: KimsCraftyApple

Not eligible for Public Voting Prize

Three Geese

Here’s my entry for this weeks challenge. The hardest part of quilting for me is definitely piecing so this challenge was one of the more difficult to me. To get started I browsed flickr to see what flying geese projects are out there. From what I found, I was able to draw up a sketch for a fun table runner full of movement in color and pattern.

I did have a lot of fun putting together my complimentary color combinations. I wanted to add some ‘dimension’ so I choose three fabrics for each color – mixing batiks, commercial and hand dyed all together – so much fun! It took time and many different design wall layouts to create the flow of color you see in my final entry. I found my design wall and camera very useful for this part as it allowed me to step back and really look at what was happening.

I also had a few different thoughts for the spaces between the entwining squares but finally decided on this gorgeous brown print. I felt that it helped to mellow the piece just enough. To add a bit of a twist I added a lip of a brown mini olive branch-like striped fabric around each of the brown pieces. This was a bit bulky to sew but with a little water and the weight of my vintage iron I was able to flatten them down nicely. I used that same olive branch fabric to bind the quilt. One thing I learned was the proper way to bind and inside corner – it was a bit intimidating at first but the method worked really well and I think the result looks fabulous.

I used brown thread for quilting. I had thought of quilting each color with it’s compliment but realized I already have a lot of different thing going on so I went with the brown to sort of tone things down a bit. I quilted in a fun wavy wrap around pattern in all the main portions of the geese and inside the brown squares.

I’m really happy with how it turned out and I really wish the snow would melt outside so I could taken a decently lit picture but this will just have to do.

Created by Kim Lapacek in Poynette, WI

Approximate Size: 50″ x 28″

Now for the PUBLIC Comment PRIZE!

The Easy to Sew Quilt Pattern

Fabric and Toes Photo Notecards

Everyone is eligible to win a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting for this weeks Public Comment Prize!

TWELVE Chances to WIN!

Entry 1: REQUIRED! Leave a comment on your favorite entry at the bottom of this blog post (you can also comment on twitter/flickr/facebook but that won’t get you an entry) (or at least that you voted) and vote for your favorite on the poll on the upper left hand side of the blog. –***MUST DO***

Optional/Additional Entries – please note – if you want to qualify for these additional entries you must leave a SEPERATE comment for each with your email address– if you already follow or are a fan, etc just leave comments saying each. If you write everything in ONE comment you only will have ONE entry…

Entry 2: Follow my blog.

Entry 3: Follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/kimscraftyapple

Entry 4: Tweet about this fantastic contest with hashtag #PQGeese (important or I won’t know you did it)

Entry 5: Like Project QUILTING on facebook

Entry 6: add my Project Quilting ‘Grab my Blinkie’ to your blog or blog about my giveaway (link your blog or post in your comment, please)

Entry 7: Head on over to CraftySewing on etsy and let me know your favorite item in the store!

Entry 8: Sign up for my newsletter in the upper right corner of this page!

Entry 9: Blog about Project QUILTING and leave a link here to what you wrote.

Entry 10: Like Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting of Facebook.

Entry 11: Follow Crafty Sewing’s blog.

Entry 12: Follow Crafty Sewing on twitter.

***Participants, Judges, and Sponsors in project quilting ARE allowed to enter in the public poll/contest as well.***

This means you have TWELVE chances to win! I need you to write each of these entries as different comments in order to qualify you for all twelve entries and include your email address. If you don’t include your email address I won’t be able to contact you when you win and I will have to choose a new winner. I will be picking the winner on Saturday, March 19th.

***Changes to Prizes/Voting this season***

1. One person can no longer win both prizes. If this does happen (as it has), they will take home the ‘JUDGES Choice’ prize and the person in 2nd in the PUBLIC vote will take home the ‘PUBLIC’ prize. As before, each of these winners will not qualify for the random prizes. I’m doing this just to spread around all the amazing goodies so many great sponsors donated!
2. The second is, I will not be listing myself (KimsCraftyApple) on the Public Vote. Since this is my ‘creation’ I will never win any of the prizes – I don’t want to seem like this is biased towards me at all. I’m doing this merely for the fun, the challenge, and the camaraderie. I will still, however, be showing off my entry AND sending it to the judges for their score and critique.

Challenge 6 (WOW – the last challenge) will be posted on Sunday, March 20th at NOON!

Project QUILTING – Be My Valentine Winners – Public and Judges Choice

I’m going to sound like a broken record soon but WOW! Once again so many fantastic entries for this weeks challenge. I am continually awed and amazed by what so many can come up with and accomplish within just one week!

I’m here now to announce the first batch of winners – the Public and Judges Choice winners.

First I will announce the Public Choice winner – taking home 32 of the 199 votes (or 16.08%) is…

Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

Marcia will be receiving $10 to SpiceBerryCottage AND a Novelty Square Set from QuiltingDiva

Moving onto the Judges Top 3:

In 3rd place with an average score of 8.99 is…

Besty H!

Judge 1: I think this piece is adorable. I love your color choices and the whimsical look of the guy and the girl.

I am a huge stickler on the rules. I think your piece breaks the rules by using so much traditional red in the valentines in the air. I LOVE THEM; I just think they are a rule breaker. Sorry, I am being picky. Otherwise, I love the piece.

Judge 2: Cute, cute, cute. This is a great design. You should be very proud of it. Love the heart musical notes.

It doesn’t appear to lay flat. That’s especially important when we only have pictures to judge.

More information about your technique And design process would really add to your story. It looks like the appliqué edges were outlined by zigzagging over a cord of some kind?

Judge 3: This is a really great design. I love the way you used the piping for the lines, couching it with the zigzag stitch. The color choices and whimsical fabrics work perfectly together. The red hearts aren’t entirely “outside the box,” but they aren’t the main focal point. It’s also interesting how you quilted the background by following some of the flowers and butterflies.

Judge 4: This is such a fun quilt! I love the improv nature to the sidewalk and their clothing, and those heart-shaped notes are brilliant. I would love to know more about your process as you constructed this top.

Taking 2nd in the Judges eyes, with an average score of 9.4 is…

For Quilts Sake

Judge 1: This piece is what Project Quilting is all about. You took the challenge and put a very unique spin on it. I felt a lot of the pieces this week just looked like different colored ordinary Valentines. Yours isn’t like that. I love it!

The yarn around the outer edges reminds me of moss or ferns. I like the beads holding the pieces together. This was a great use of a fabric that was already printed.

Good job. I am impressed with this piece.

Judge 2: Wow. He is a romantic, isn’t he?

This is a very special piece with special meaning to you. Very well designed and well constructed. Great use of embellishments. I really like the furry edge.

Judge 3: This piece is excellent on all levels. The concept is beautifully personal and your idea for the wall hanging sections is a great way to interpret the lyrics of the poem stanzas. It’s wonderful that you interpreted the poem with relevant embellishments, and created panels that represented the poem without being entirely literal. Your skillful techniques in construction and finishing, with the great beadwork connections, do justice to the excellent inspiration source.

Judge 4: I love all the different techniques and embellishments added to this! The sentiment behind it is beautiful too. The fur is my favorite part I think – gives it a mossy feeling.

Taking home 1st place and the winner of

$10 to FabricsNQuilts AND a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting

with an average score of 9.62 goes to…

Dashasel!

Judge 1: Bingo! You took this challenge and created to absolute perfection for the challenge. You followed the few rules and make something so different and so unique it just makes me smile. Congratulations on a job so well done!!!!

Also, on rereading your story you mentioned you didn’t want the quilting to distract on the back. I think your quilting is just right for your project. I also don’t like the messy back look on something that will be exposed all the time.

Judge 2: You are so creative. This is a wonderful valentine for your baby. I love the way you related each letter to Valentine’s Day.

I think your 2-step method of quilting works great. I often stitch my appliqués down before I add the batting and backing and my logic is similar to yours.

One suggestion. Because a baby is going to use it and love it and (probably) chew on it, I’d make sure every piece is stitched down.

The use of different textures is perfect to stimulate a baby’s senses.

Judge 3: This is one of the most ambitious pieces I’ve seen on Project Quilting. Each section is creative and balanced with the other complementary blocks. I’m impressed with the way you carried design elements of the text block styles and the whimsical illustration styles throughout the blocks. I especially like that not all the blocks looked like a cookie-cutter style, but instead it looked like you expressed yourself differently with each section as it moved you.

Judge 4: Adorable! I’m sure your baby loves his valentine! All the details are well thought and well done, the bright and fun color palette is very appealing too. As for your processes, I think what works best for you is the right way in terms of appliqué and quilting. Well done!

Congratulations to all of the public and judge winners this week! Enjoy your prizes!

I’ll be posting later with the random drawn winner and the Public Comment winner.

Project QUILTING Season 2 – Challenge 3 – Be My Valentine

Robots In Love Funny Women’s Black Alternative Apparel T-Shirt from happyfamily

Another round of great projects. Congratulations to all of you. You are all winners in my book. Kim and I had a discussion yesterday and she says I’m the Simon Cowell of Project Quilting. I have made it a point to include all the thoughts I have about your project. Some you may agree with and some you may not. That’s Ok…it’s only my opinion. I love to see quilters grow, both technically and artistically. and we have seen much of that here.

This week’s PRIZES!

The winner of the JUDGES vote will receive $10 to FabricsNQuilts AND a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting

The winner of the PUBLIC Choice will receive $10 to SpiceBerryCottage AND a Novelty Square Set from QuiltingDiva

FOUR randomly drawn participant will receive either In the Studio with Judy Murrah by Judy Murrah from UniquelyNancy OR $20 for Machine Quilting Servicesfrom QuiltsbyBarb. OR Downloadable Quilter’s Cookbook 2009 from the QuiltingGallery OR $10 to Dye Candy

This week’s Judges!

Diane Lapacek

Barb Raisbeck

Lisa Penny

Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side founder of the Bloggers Quilt Festival

Now for the challenge…

Challenge 3 – Be My Valentine

12 Heart mini pottery trinket dishes from firecat

Now, to mix things up a bit. I am hearing lots about Valentine’s Day on the radio and in the ads, so decided we’d work with it for Challenge 3…….with a few twists, of course. After all, anyone can make a Valentine quilt. In Project Quilting, we want something more.

1. The inspiration is Be My Valentine.

2. The main colors of your project will be something other than red or pink. You can use small amounts of red and pink, but the overall color should be something else.

3. You cannot use the word “Valentine” on the front of your project. You may use it in the name if you wish.

4. POST your entries with a description of your creative process, including where you are (ie, I create in Madison, WI) and the size of your project by Sunday, February 13, 2011, at noon, CDT, to this flickr group – Project QUILTING with KimsCraftyApple: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/ OR email a picture/description of your completed project to lapaceksorchard@gmail.com with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line.

5. If this is the first Project Quilting challenge you’ve participated in, please email Kim atlapaceksorchard@gmail.com with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line so that Kim can send you feedback from the judges and keep you updated on the behind the scenes going-ons.

Remember, these challenges are intended to help you Think Outside the Square. Be creative. Take a risk. Do something no one else will think of doing.

submitted by Diane Lapacek

Project QUILTING What’s in a Name Challenge – Public and Judges Choice Winners

I’m excited to be announcing the winners of the 2nd challenge of season 2: What’s in a Name. Eighteen amazing quilts were submitted – I’m sure it was hard for both the judges and the public once again!

Public Choice

We had another great turnout for voters – 226 people! The winner of the Public Choice AND taking home $10 to SpiceBerryCottage AND A Set of 8 Art Quilt Postcards from HeatherLairDesigns is

Christine Hampton!taking home 23.45% of the votes (or 53 of the 226). Congratulations Christine – I hope you enjoy all your goodies!

Judges Choice

The Top 3 from the Judges:

In 3rd place with an average score of 9.075 goes to:

Dashasel!

Here’s what the judges had to say about her J’adore Terre Haute Tote:

Judge 1: I just love everything about this bag. I want it! Your story is fantastic and I also love couture magazines. Great job.

Judge 2: Great application of the challenge, playing on the words. The way each element represents a designer is an excellent representation of the theme. Great stenciling – I thought it was an LV fabric remnant. The balance of the curves is well done. I like that you used the two vertical red strips to tie the elements together. Mixing a few different sized flowers instead of one big one gives it more decadence. The open zig-zag in the bottom fabric was a great choice.

Judge 3: Love the story and how you interpreted the Terre Haute name. It captures the spirit of this challenge. Even the fact that it’s a bag fits with your haute couture interpretation. Wonderfully done.

Judge 4: Wow, talk about unexpected! I love the leap that you took from the location name to your very unique interpretation of “haute”. The ways in which you incorporated bits of different designer influence is really quite ingenious. I especially love the small bit of patchwork to represent Gucci. Most importantly, I appreciate that you embraced the challenge and really stretched the limits of your comfort zone. Your statement that “all of the techniques I used for quilting this project were new to me” is what Project Quilting is all about. Great job! Now get out there and carry that sure-to-be-a-conversation-starter proudly.

Second place with an average score of 9.2 goes to:

ForQuiltsSake!

Here’s what the Judges had to say about ‘Sometimes I Dream of Flying’:

Judge 1: The quilting on this quilt is fantastic. I love the background, the river; your eagle is almost real. Great overall piece!

Judge 2: This is a great concept for your place name. You really captured the sense of the rural heartland, and with the ambitious style of the bird and aerial perspective. The way you did the bird with all the fused fabric pieces is wonderful! They seem like brushstrokes. The stitching on the bird adds great definition to the shape of the body and feathers. The shadow is brilliant, especially how the darks look so much like the fields below it. It adds a sense of motion, which combined with the river element gives the piece nice movement within the flat block landscape.. Keeping the quilting as simple echo patterns works very well with the geometric landscape. That was an excellent choice.

Judge 3: What a wonderful piece! I really love the combination of traditional blocks with the art quilt. Sometimes I feel like the traditional gets lost in all of this. The farm fields are gently rolling. The shadow is perfectly done. The bird is a work of art in itself. Dark brown frame is perfect. It hangs flat and straight. Great job.

Judge 4: Wow, I am SO impressed by your quilt! Your combination of traditional quilt elements with the modern techniques of art quilts helped you to create a truly stunning piece. I first noticed the traditional patchwork elements on the top and bottom border, and was fascinated to read that you angled them on purpose to add perspective. That was a particularly effective choice. I also love the patchwork look of the fields. It is clear that a lot of work went into creating the bird, and the feathering effect is very, very cool.

And in First place taking home $10 to FabricsNQuilts AND $15 to FabricFascination with an average score of 9.4375 is:

Quilties!

Here’s what the Judges had to say about ‘Buttonwillow’:

Judge 1: This is a very clever use of the name of your town. Great play on the word, love it.

I love the button border and am glad you opted for the extra color. Your 3D leaves are great.

Judge 2: I really like how you chose to go tall and narrow, and focus on a macro view instead of the entire tree. The tan fabric gives a great sense of place. Keeping the leaves rough-edged gives a natural feel and they are cohesive with the fringed edges of the linen, which is a great texture. I love the layering of the leaves and how they go 3-d at the bottom. The randomness of the button colors, sizes, and placement gives nice pop to the piece.

Judge 3: Great project. The dimension of the willow leaves is wonderful and I love the way they float over the edges of your quilt. The brown linen with the fringed edge gives another dimension. The buttons make a great frame. I’m glad you mixed the colors.

Judge 4: What a beautiful little wall hanging. “Buttonwillow” certainly lends itself to a literal approach to the challenge, and I love the fact that it bridges nature and craftiness! Your technique for creating the willow branches and leaves was spot-on – you achieved a very realistic and yet stylized design. The buttons around the outside add a lot of character to this piece, and I believe your decision to introduce a wider variety of color was the right one. My favorite part of this piece was your choice of the brown linen and the decision to fray the edges. It’s not an “in your face” detail but, once noticed, it adds that special little touch. Great work!

And I will end this with a ‘Bravo’ and ‘Congratulations’ to all our winners and a quick reminder that the next challenge will be posted tomorrow!

Project QUILTING – Zip City

Since I’ve taken myself out of prize winners I figured it’s okay to post my critiques before the public voting closes at 7pm tonight (don’t forget to VOTE and COMMENT so you can win too!) Judge 1: This piece is really fun. I don’t think it really matters how you hang this piece; it works all ways.

My favorite part of the piece is where you coiled up the zippers. I just love that. Your quilting is also great. Adds a lot to the piece.

Judge 2: OMG, Kim, I really love this quilt! I love the abstract play with all the zippers, the different color zippers, and the grommet accents that complement the metal of the zippers. The fabric choices are very cool and urban contemporary, which go so perfectly with the metal components. The swirl patterns for the quilting are perfect, as they pick up on the circular elements in the fabrics and embellishments and also make it very energetic. The swirly zippers are cool. I also think adding the pink/purple fabric in that neat 3-d arrangement at the center then carrying it out to the inner border is a perfect punch. It seems like you managed to keep it nice and flat. It might be a bit off square, and maybe a couple corners are a bit off, but that just seems nit-picky with how great the overall piece is. I’m curious about what you see if you unzip those colored zippers…?

Judge 2 – you see a strip of color that coordinates with the zipper in the opposite corner. You can sort of see it above – a purple print under the orange zipper. I had to quilt close to the zipper just to help everything lay flat…

Judge 3: Another amazing piece, Kim. Truly an original, which is what you do best. I love the way you used zippers by the binding and as embellishments. Your machine quilting is getting quite good. Next you’ll need to learn to do continuous line next, so you don’t need to cut the thread. The look of your piece will change just by hanging it on a different wall so a new color will show through the grommets.

Judge 4: I LOVE this quilt! Your use of materials, and especially the introduction of the zippers, is original, creative, and unexpected. I’ve never heard of zipper quilt blocks – kudos for searching out new ideas and not being afraid try them out. I also really like the way the zippers add splashes of color to the piece. I think that your work might benefit from a little bit of self-editing. There is a lot going on in this piece, and I wonder if you had kept your materials simple (solids, maybe?) and didn’t introduce as many other details if it would have really let the zippers be the star. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful submission that proves that you took the challenge seriously, added in your own creativity and personal interpretation, and had a lot of fun with it. Congratulations on a job well done!

Judge 4 – I had to laugh at your self-editing comment. As I was going through this I thought the same thing – but I was already committed and my week was almost up. Definitely something I’ll keep in mind for next time!

Comment from me now that judging is complete. This quilt was quite a CHALLENGE for me. I am not very good at ‘detail’ work and dealing with zippers and making them look good is ‘detail’ work! My quilt did end up a bit off square which is disappointing to me – I sacrificed some workmanship to create the piece of ‘art’ I had in my mind. adding the zippers to the binding was very difficult because I had to do it all with a zipper foot – which made me loose accuracy. BUT I don’t think the quilt would have been what it was without the zippers on the edge – I just need to keep working at my workmanship and I think i could create some neat, show worthy pieces. I just love how this challenge made me reach deep and come up with something so very ‘Out of the Square.’

There is still plenty of time to VOTE and WIN for this week’s challenge – see all the details here: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-to-vote-for-project-quiltings_30.html

Time to VOTE for Project QUILTING’s – What’s in a Name Challenge

I am so happy to see that the creativity in this challenge didn’t scare many away – and we even added some brand new quilters! I personally had a lot of fun developing and creating an idea from something as simple as ‘a cities name’. Now, us quilters, get a little break but we need YOU to cast your vote and comment to let us know who you’re favorite’s piece is (our judges will have a bit to do with the 18 pieces as well)…

For those of you just tuning in you can read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html

and about the second challenge of Season 2 here:

http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2011/01/project-quilting-season-2-challenge-2.html

CHALLENGE WINNERS:

***See the bottom of this post for two minor changes made to this years prize/voting process

This week’s PRIZES!

The winner of the JUDGES vote will receive $10 to FabricsNQuilts AND $15 to FabricFascination

The winner of the PUBLIC Choice will receive $10 to SpiceBerryCottage AND A Set of 8 Art Quilt Postcards from HeatherLairDesigns.

THREE randomly drawn participant will receive either a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting OR Log Cabin Fever by Evelyn Sloppy from UniquelyNancy OR $20 for Machine Quilting Servicesfrom QuiltsbyBarb.

This week’s Judges!

Diane Lapacek

Barb Raisbeck

Lisa Penny

Guest Judge: QuiltDad

Voting closes at 7pm CDT on Friday, February 4th.

OTHER BONUSES:

Don’t forget! Everyone that enters can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2011 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend.

I will also be sending everyone their rank (somewhere between 1 and 10 – be sure you’ve emailed me (lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com) your email address) and any critique’s the judges have about your creation. The top 3 scoring projects will be posted on my blog next weekend.

PUBLIC WINNERS: YES, you can win a prize too! You’ll find out how to WIN at the bottom of this post after you’ve checked out each of our challengers entries.

And now here are all the entries – in no particular order…

***Please note – I have left the images smaller to help the blog load a bit faster. I strongly URGE you to take closer looks at the projects before voting by checking out their submittals on the flickr group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/

Quilter: Sally’s Angelworks

The Story Behind ‘Spring Always Brings NEW HOPE’

This little mini art quilt is, first of all, dedicated to all of my northern COLD friends, especially from Oscraps.com (digital scrapbooking site!!).

My process of creating this quilt for this challenge was quite the journey!!! (pardon the pun!! LOL!) I had a couple of places in mind for this challenge, like Hungerford, TX, but thought that food and a truck maybe didn’t fit my quilt shop’s aesthetic! LOL!! Then I remembered being in Pennsylvania last August and meeting a dear online friend and her mom and daughter. We met in a little town called New Hope. I thought, ohhh, I’ve already embroidered a Hope quote!! But I just could NOT get this saying out of my head…”Hope springs eternal…” by Alexander Pope. And the word spring made me think of flowers. We’ve been having a lot of conversations of the cold all over the nation lately at oscraps and on FB. So I thought that a quilt that depicted winter with a single flower could truly bring hope to someone who couldn’t see past the winter snow!

The quilt is a single piece of fabric, with fleece, “dirt” fabric and tree trunk fabric, all appliqued on it. I embroidered bare tree branches using Silk embroidery thread and the quote and snow on the tree branches using DMC floss. The flower was made with those really cool Clover YoYo makers in the flower shape, and I just steam-a-seamed the stem and leaves onto the quilt. For quilting, I quilted the top of the snow banks (fleece) through all three layers. I also ran some machine stitches on the tree trunk and the stem/leaves of the flower. I also added a fun button on the flower. For the all over quilting, I went with snow flakes. I quilted more snowflakes on the left of the quilt on purpose to denote more winter on the left and the coming of spring on the right of the quilt. I also hoped the judges understood that every snowflake is different in the real world, and I carried that idea through on my quilt! (heehee) I specifically chose to leave the quilt unbound because that is one of my favorite ways for a mini art quilt to look, personally. I know it is not traditional, but I think it adds to the starkness of winter in this particular piece!

I am going to post a much more in depth post on my blog (http://sallysangelworks.typepad.com) explaining more of the emotions of this challenge’s journey for me on Sunday, Jan 30th.

This quilt is 15.25″x5.5″ and was created in SW Houston, TX.

Quilter: GocksFrocks

The story behind ‘Inspiring Friendships’:

20″square pillow cover
named for Friendship, NY
Driving through the hills of Allegheny, NY this summer I passed a road sign for Friendship NY and thought that would be a great place to say that you were from … when I spotted this challenge on your blog I thought it would be the perfect place name from which to draw my inspiration.

So… friendship…my online friendship with you brought me to this challenge, the fabrics I used are from other “friends” I have made both online and in real life while pursuing my creative endeavors…Patty Young and I started out together in the same boutique group on ebay, I met Sandi Henderson there as well, Jennifer Paganelli and I became online friends and later met in real life when I visited her home in CT for one of her fabulous home shows(turns out she also has in-laws in my hometown!), and I snuck a little Valorie Wells in there as I had the good luck to meet her at quilt market!

The nesting dolls fabric represents the friends we made while living in Poland too many years ago! The fabric used for the border came from my stash – the outermost print reminds me of the hills where Friendship, NY is located.

I started with a log cabin block that I cut into quarters, shifted around and sewed back together, made the strip work heart appliqué, added batting & backing and quilted it all free motion (?) … as I may have mentioned this is one of my first forays into quilting and I don’t know all the correct terminology yet! I then added an envelope back to the front so it could be used on a 20″ pillow form
thanks for inspiring me!

Quilter: MoranArtandQuilts

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The Story Behind ‘Horse Cave’

Horse Cave, KY
21″ x 24″

After searching the internet and finding some very interesting city names I settled on this city because of the picture that came to mind. I thought it would make a pretty quilt.

Horse Cave has a population of only 2252 people. It is the largest city located in Hart County in south central Kentucky.

I started out with a piece of white Moda fabric and stapled it to a board. I drew a rough outline of the cave, water and mountains and began to paint with acrylics. I let that dry while I selected the fabrics for the sand and attached them with Heat Bond. I did some free motion quilting to look like sand. Then I moved on to the cave walls and cut out random shapes for the stones and once again used Heat Bond. I then quilted all those down with a lot of free motion quilting. I ran into a problem when the Heat Bond on the horses wouldn’t stick to the acrylic paint so I had to pin them on and then sew them down using raw edge applique.

I chose the backing, cut the batting and pinned the areas I could to ready it for quilting. I also found it’s hard to quilt over paint! I then quilted the whole piece mimicking the quilting I had done before to tack everything down. I added the binding and called it finished!

Catherine from Columbus, OH

Quilter: Pastor Katie Bishop

The Story Behind the Piece:

This week’s Project Quilt challenge was hard…
Not because I was uninspired.

We had to pick a place name as an inspiration for our project.
And then we could make anything.
Any size, any shape.
Anything.

And I think that anything was the problem.

I came across Dunmovin, California
(right off 395 near the Sequoia National Forrest)
And was inspired.

Because we move.
A LOT.

As pastors, we move whenever and wherever our Bishop sends us.
So in 5 years of marriage, we have lived in 3 different homes,
(and that is if you don’t count the six weeks we lived with my in-laws
while I was pregnant – God bless them.)

The idea of being “done moving”
brought peace, brought comfort,
brought this 27-year old thoughts of retirement.
And I liked it.

Which might have been some of the problem.

So here is my submission.
After many takes, here is my quilt,
Inspired by “Dunmovin, California.”

Created in Brunswick, Maryland

Quilter: SpringWaterDesigns

The Story Behind ‘Laurel’:

My inspiration for this challenge was Laurel, Maryland. When I was born my family lived in Laurel, a little town where my dad (and also his mother before him) was born and raised. I knew right away I wanted to do something with a Laurel flower. I used a picture of the flower to design a stylized version, and made them three-dimensional (I’ve explained how I made the 3-D flowers on my blog)

Starting with a darker background to contrast with the flowers, I pieced, then appliquéd the two toned green leaves to the center block, and bordered it all with a lattice type border with peach and green fabrics.

I quilted all over with a clear monofilament thread. The backing fabric that I used reminds me of viney brambles which symbolizes the little town that we later moved to when I was young (just about 5 miles from Laurel), and where I grew up…and still live in today. That town’s name is Savage, Maryland.

To add the 3D flowers, I placed a small peach colored fabric circle in the center of each flower and strung green seed beads when sewing each flower to the quilt. Then I frayed the edges of the peach center a little.

My finished quilt measures 32” x 32” and was made in my Jessup, Maryland home ~ which is really located in Savage, but the Post Office calls us Jessup ☺

Quilter: Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftysewing/5396544285/in/pool-1401824@N21

The Story Behind ‘Escape to Cloud Nine’:

Escape to Cloud Nine Quilt for Project Quilting…. It’s the name of the place that I LOVE …. I read the challenge on Sunday and started thinking…. What place should I choose? Where’s my favorite place?….. Our favorite campground on the Mississippi River, the hunting and hiking land behind our house, a quilt retreat, a quilt shop, a vacation spot, my mom’s house, my brother’s house, my sewing room at our home, my sewing room at the camper …. I brain stormed while I cut strips for the background fabric. Then I started sewing strips and taking pictures … I had lots of ideas….but couldn’t make up my mind.

I even sent an email to family members to enlist their help with the brain storming.

My husband said “What is the name of the creative space/place you go to in your head, when you are zoning in on your quilting and not paying attention to the real world?” Hyper Focusing??? Ritch suggested I name the quilt something like…. Hakuna Matata — cause when I am “hyper focusing” that is where I go… when I am sewing, quilting, and creating. But he said that is not the right name! Has to be something about the creative space in your brain!!!

Then I did an internet search for names of places (towns and cities with unusual names) that might represent the name of the creative space in my brain. I read about the right brain and left brain and the parts in between that transfer the information back and forth. I thought I knew all about Attention Deficit and Hyper Focusing. I went Thesaurus.com and found tons of words that deal with imagination, creativity, and even more than I wanted to know! I found a site that had Quotes by everyone in the world. The coolest part is that I was reading more than I have ever read in years! Was that part of the challenge?

Finally I decided that Cloud Nine described my creative space or place in my brain. So I named my quilt Escape to Cloud Nine because I love to go there…..

Note: I blogged about the whole project from start to completion on my blog which is on my website at www.craftysewing.com. It explains how to make the background fabric and the use of double poly for the batting and quilting process.

Quilt measures 21″ X 29″

Marcia Wachuta from Boscobel, Wisconsin

Quilter: AllthingsBelle

The Story Behind “Hot Coffee, Mississippi”

My name is Jennifer Rodriguez, and I’m quilting in West Jordan, Utah.

For my project I choose Hot Coffee, Mississippi and took a very literal approach. The Starbuck’s-ish coffee mug was done with free motion embroidery. I wanted to have a “jittery” approach to my embellishment. I choose the black fabric specifically to resemble streams of steam.
It is 8″x10″

Quilter: Quilties

The Story Behind ‘Buttonwillow, CA’

What a great name!! My husband thought it might be cheating that the name sounded so much like a quilt, but I thought it was too good to pass up! And maybe not everyone has a favorite tree, but I definitely do and it’s a Weeping Willow! I love the way the leaves drape so elegantly. This quilt is tall and slender at 12″ x 18″ plus 2″ tabs. The backing fabric is a tan cotton print with sketchy architectural details that reminded me of things we saw while visiting southern California (Santa Barbara, San Louis Obispo and more), so I thought it was fitting for this piece to give it a little California flair. It is also a good backdrop for the nice light brown linen and the variety of buttons. I started with all tan buttons, but opted for a wider variety and I really like the sparkle of color in the border. It keeps your eye moving around the piece.

Also be sure to notice the 3-dimensional willow leaves along the bottom and edges of the branch. It adds to the layering effect of a real willow branch and bridges the border and center for a united piece.

Made in Urbandale, IA by Emma Thomas-McGinnis

Quilter: QuiltingDiva

The Story Behind ‘Little Lizard Lick Dude’:

This quilt was made in Tampa, Fl and measures 22.5″ x 27″. I love this challenge. The second I read it, I figured I would make something beachy, or with a lighthouse or something, but I always do that. I was telling my mom that I really wanted to do something outside the box and something without a real pattern. She said she was watching a repo show and they were filming in Lizard Lick, North Carolina! I thought that would be interesting but went to the quilt shop with my list of cities, that one not included. I spotted the Gecko print by Timeless Treasures and knew I had a winner with Lizard Lick. I love appliqué so I searched clip art for a “lizard” print and found my guy.
I made appliquéd this quilt with different stitches, he is dimensional in the sunshine, I used fusible fleece for the puffy white clouds, fish buttons in the water and of course his little googley eyes! I love my little Lizard Lick dude.

Quilter: Kathleen P.

The Story Behind ‘Shanghai’:

Hi, I’m Kathleen and this is my first challenge. My friend Elaine (from high school, thanks facebook!) of the awesome Miro quilt last time introduced me to Project Quilting.

I love Chinese place names. There’s something about being a second language speaker that allows you to see the words and their meanings rather than just hear the word as a place name (I, for example, am a Californian, and when I see “San Francisco” or “Los Angeles” I don’t think about a saint called Francisco or a bunch of angels). Shanghai literally means above the water, but the first syllable, shang, is also the verb to ascend, as stairs . So I started thinking about stairs and water, and this strange little thing came out.

I also wanted to use this challenge to try free motion quilting for the first time. I’m a rather traditional or practical quilter–I’ve been making usable blankets out of small pieces of fabric since I was in high school and my mother suggested I quilt when I was having a rough couple of weeks (smart move, mom). The last few quilts I’ve made have been baby quilts for friends, and they’re fun but nothing fancy or abstract or even decorative. Just warm cozy things to cover your baby in. I was lucky enough to go to an elementary / middle school where we did a ton of fabric arts, so I’ve always known how to sew / weave / knit / bead / spin / whatever. Lately I’ve been mostly sewing for my house and 2 year old, again very practically, just stuff we can use and save money on. So this little challenge made me do something entirely outside of my norm because it was not for anyone or anything and it wasn’t going to do anything for the house.

I’m not sure how successful my first foray into free motion quilting was–I like the waves, but I certainly have a lot of work to go to learn the technique. (And possibly I should work out to build more upper arm strength?) I included a photo of this little square between two of our pretty glass windows because I sized this thinking of that space: maybe we’ll have a rotating set of little quilts to spice up that wall?

Both parts of this quilt are paper pieced, and then I appliqued the stairs on top. I tried to get the perspective of going down the stairs into the water because I wanted to have the perspective of above the water. Again, not sure how successful that is as a pseudo-abstract concept, but I enjoyed the process. It’s about 9 inches square. I made it in Clinton, NY (Oneida County).

And I can’t take a good photo in this snowy light to save my life.

Quilter: Dashasel

The Story Behind J’adore Terre Haute!

As soon as this challenge was posted, I started running through Google’s various weird and funny America city names. There were so many great ones, but nothing was clicking. As I read them aloud to my husband, he said, you should do Terre Haute, Indiana. You see, my husband loves plays on words and he immediately connected Haute, to haute couture (too many fashion magazines laying around the house, I suppose!). From there I thought about the various designers, their logos and the patterns they were known for. I also decided on a tote bag because, well, isn’t that the symbol for shopping!?!

For Louis Vuitton (LV on brown), I decided to paint the logo onto chocolate kona cotton. To do so, I attempted use of freezer paper and stencil creation- what fun! Then for Gucci (green and red stripes) I tried a bit of improvisational piecing by cutting out strips of various widths and lengths and patchworking them together at random. Burberry (white, black, tan plaid with red stripe) was created by piecing strips of black, white and tan together. Because some of Burberry’s pieces have a layered look to the pattern, I topstitched on more black stripes to create the plaid look. Valentino (red roses) was represented by creating some raw edged rosettes. Finally, Missoni (zig zag) was simply represented by some Jay Carroll fabric that I have been dying to use!

Terre Haute translates to “High Land”, so I knew that I wanted to create couture hills with my fabrics. For this step, I appliqued them to a background piece of fabric. I wanted this bag to fold up pretty flat but to still have some structure, so I appliqued through interfacing rather than batting. I did satin stitching for all the hills except Missoni, which was rag-edged and zig-zagged, in keeping with the zig-zags of the fabric.

With the front done, I decided to keep the back simple and just used the “Missoni” pattern with the saying “J’adore Terra Haute” on the back, with J’adore referencing Dior. I wish that I could say I intended to spell “Terra” with the “a” rather than “e” at the end but that was just some wabi sabi in my work 🙂

While I have made tote bags before, all of the techniques I used for quilting this project were new to me and I had a blast trying them out with varying success! Now I can go enjoy my t’haute bag!

The bag is approximately 15 inches tall, 18 inches wide, and 4 inches deep and was made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Quilter: Kelsey Rose

The Story Behind Birdtown:

Hi, this is Kelsey Quilting from Mountain View, CA. For my town I chose Birdtown. This place just had a fun ring to it, and I started thinking, “What would a town for birds look like.” At first it was a bit too literal of a translation of the name “Birdtown” – I was thinking of birds in a very human-esque setting, which I ended up deciding would require a greater level of detail than I could provide in a challenge. Then it struck me – Birdtown wouldn’t be made of human houses, it would be made of bird houses of course! I added a few birds about their business – one in flight, one singing on his rooftop, and one as a silhouette in his doorframe, and a little bunting for decoration. I used a loopy quilting for the background as I thought it lended to the whimsical nature of the piece, and added some stitch in the ditch and straight line quilting to the buildings for visual interest. Final measurements: 10” x 14”.

I also chose fabrics to match a pillow set I made for my Mom for her sitting room using scraps. (Pillows here:www.flickr.com/photos/15912542@N07/sets/72157625688531678/)

(Unfortunately, in the low light I couldn’t get the colors to show true. What looks likes almost brick red is actually a rose color, and the background is ivory, not yellow..)

Quilter: Aunt Cindy’s Attic

The Story Behind ‘Give a Dog a Bone, He’ll Gnaw for a Day’:

Teach a Dog to Search for a Bone… At this point I couldn’t decide between the rest of the options I had for quilt names, so I’ll share them all. Choose your favorite!

Option 1: …and he’ll just annoy the neighbors.
Option 2: … and he won’t care. You’ll probably just give him another tomorrow anyway.
Option 3: … bone? Who cares about a bone? I’ll just gnaw on my rope, ok?
Option 4: …stop taking my picture already & just give me a bone!

The inspiration for this quilt was the town of Gnaw Bone, Indiana. I limited my town name scope to my native state, otherwise I thought there would be too many possibilities. This is a dog bone shaped wall hanging. I used a layer of batting and a layer of stiff Pellon to insure that the bony knobs won’t droop when it is hanging. The binding is applied traditionally. The dogs are both mine. They wouldn’t pose together, hence the separate photos, but I’d planned for only one. They did not get on board with my project this week.

Gnaw Bone, IN is located in beautiful Brown County. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been there although it is located near a camp that my dad used to take us to. He was notorious for his “shortcuts”, so it’s likely that I’ve passed through at some point.

The quilt is approximately 13″ x 7″.
Created by Aunt Cindy of Aunt Cindy’s Attic, Crawfordsville, IN

Quilter: ForQuiltsSake

The Story Behind ‘Sometimes I Dream of Flying’:

Made by Pam Geisel of For Quilts Sake in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Jan. 2011 for Project Quilting Season 2, Challenge 2, What’s in a Name.

38” x 41”

My creative process and how I made it:

What a great idea for a challenge! I immediately did a search for unusual town names and quickly amassed a long list of possibilities. I slept on it and woke up Monday morning with a clear favorite, using “Birdseye, Indiana” as my inspiration. I’ve always loved maps and have been wanted to make a quilt looking down at the earth. I wasn’t sure if I was up to the challenge, so I “drew” out my idea on the computer to make sure I could get the perspective that I wanted.

I’ve also wanted to make a quilt that had some traditional quilt blocks but also had elements of an art quilt. I strip pieced the background, piecing the blocks at slight angles to give the perspective of distance. Using some of the same yellow and tan fabrics from the background, I pieced the “Birds in the Air” blocks a light blue background to represent the sky.

I wasn’t completely happy with the way the blocks faded into the background so I decided to add a small dark brown border between the background and the pieced blocks. Then still not satisfied I decided to add the dark brown border to the sides of the background only, to frame it like a picture.

I quilted the fields in the background 1/4″ inside of each rectangle and also inside the small, yellow triangles in the “Birds in the Air” blocks. In the larger green parts of the blocks I quilted the echo of the “Birds in the Air” blocks.

I created the bird on a separate piece of fabric, fusing many small dark brown feather-shaped pieces of fabric. I did thread painting on top with both a dark brown and a tan-colored thread to help hold all the pieces down and to also give more definition to the feathers.

Once I decided on the right placement of the bird, I machine appliquéd the bird to the background. I pieced together a dark brown fabric with a dark green fabric, cut out a smaller bird-shape and fused it to the background just behind the bird for the bird’s shadow.

Aside from the literal having one eye on the hawk, I also made a quilt that was from the perspective of a bird. The working title was “Birdseye” but once I finished, I decided to call it “Sometimes I Dream of Flying.” For some unknown reason, the song “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” from the musical Oklahoma kept running through my head while I was making this quilt, even though I don’t know all the words to that song!

Quilter: Christine Hampton

The Story Behind Toadvine:

Welcome to Toadvine – 23” x 62”

I found Toadvine, AL in an internet search. I immediately knew what I was going to make. My personal challenge was the use of bias tape. I had never tackled that before. The toad fabric is left over from a quilt I made for my son. I used a fusible product to turn the toads into iron-on appliqués. The leaves were cut freehand for variety. Toads and leaves were stitched down as raw edge appliqués. The background was quilted with meandering loops. I used a decorative stitch to finish the binding.

I quilt in Oregon, WI.

Quilter: Karen’s Crafty World

The Story Behind Bountiful:

My project is based on the movie title, “A Trip to Bountiful”. There is also a town called Bountiful, Utah.

I first painted this picture with acrylic paints onto cream colored fabric. I then did some thread-painting. This piece measures aprox 12 inches by 6 inches and was produced in Elgin,IL.

Quilter: Kathleen’s Quilts

The Story Behind ‘Dogtown’:

Dog House Junction

A little town (more like a crossroads!) in California was my inspiration. Everyone has a home and there’s room for more. I used pigma pen and crayons for the dogs and signs. The houses are zigzagged down. The road fabric was bright white but tea-dyed (I learned to do this in the first project quilting 🙂 ) to fit in a little better.

18″ x 18″ created in Cissna Park, IL

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Quilter: Kim’s Crafty Apple

The Story Behind ‘Zip City’:

I am having a really hard time deciding which way this quilt should be orientated. I think I’m going to go with my gut and use the way that I first thought.

Inspirational City: Zip City, AL

When I first saw this challenge I immediately went to google and searched for ‘Strange City Names’. I scrolled through the list and wrote down anything that caught my eye. The second time through I saw ‘Zip City’. I instantly knew I was going to use this as an inspiration for a zipper quilt!

My mind raced with all the possibilities. I started one idea – it didn’t work out but then a second did.

The ‘zipper’ blocks. Four of my blocks incorporate a zipper. I sewed a zipper between two triangular fabrics to create the corner blocks.

To create the blocks in between each corner block I decided to go with a zipper quilt block – something else I had found during google searches.

For the center block I did some crazy things with diagonals…I don’t even know how to describe it but it worked.

Once I had the main portion of the quilt done I added the border. I only had four fabrics in the quilt – the deep turquoise and the dark grey – I needed a little ‘pop’ before the black border so I put in a skinny ‘lip’ of pink/purple/grey wavy striped fabric all around.

Time to quilt! I used thread colors in each corner that was the color fo the zipper in the opposite corner and quilted in a tight, swirl/twirl pattern.

I then bound the quilt with strips of zipper and black fabric – creating an urban look for the quilt.

It just wasn’t enough so I added in some grommets, hand stitched zippers in fun swirl patterns and put in some silver studs to balance the silver in the quilt.

I had to block the quilt to get it to lay flat but I’m really happy with the end results.

Approximate Quilt Size: 25-inches

Created in Poynette, WI

Now for the PUBLIC Comment PRIZE!

This weeks randomly drawn public prize will this adorable Crocheted Key Lime Pie Amigurumi from the Glitter Workshop!

This cute pie would work great for a Pin Cushion or add it to your child’s collection of fun fake food to inspire hours of imagination.

NINE Chances to WIN!

Entry 1: REQUIRED! Leave a comment on your favorite entry (or at least that you voted) and vote for your favorite on the poll on the upper left hand side of the blog. – ***MUST DO***

Optional/Additional Entries – please note – if you want to qualify for these additional entries you must leave a SEPERATE comment for each – if you already follow or are a fan, etc just leave comments saying each. If you write everything in ONE comment you only will have ONE entry…

Entry 2: Follow my blog.

Entry 3: Follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/kimscraftyapple

Entry 4: Tweet about this fantastic contest with hashtag #PQprimary (important or I won’t know you did it)

Entry 5: Like Project QUILTING on facebook

Entry 6: add my Project Quilting ‘Grab my Blinkie’ to your blog or blog about my giveaway (link your blog or post in your comment, please)

Entry 7: Head on over to GlitterWorkshop and let me know your favorite item in the store!

Entry 8: Like The Glitter Workshop on Facebook.

Entry 9: Sign up for my newsletter in the upper right corner of this page!

***Participants and Judges in project quilting ARE allowed to enter in the public poll/contest as well.***

This means you have NINE chances to win! I need you to write each of these entries as different comments in order to qualify you for all seven entries and include your email address. If you don’t include your email address I won’t be able to contact you when you win and I will have to choose a new winner. I will be picking the winner on Saturday, February 5th.

***Changes to Prizes/Voting this season***

1. One person can no longer win both prizes. If this does happen (as it has), they will take home the ‘JUDGES Choice’ prize and the person in 2nd in the PUBLIC vote will take home the ‘PUBLIC’ prize. As before, each of these winners will not qualify for the random prizes. I’m doing this just to spread around all the amazing goodies so many great sponsors donated!
2. The second is, I will not even be listing myself (KimsCraftyApple) on the Public Vote. Since this is my ‘creation’ I will never win any of the prizes – I don’t want to seem like this is biased towards me at all. I’m doing this merely for the fun, the challenge, and the camaraderie. I will still, however, be showing off my entry AND sending it to the judges for their critique.

Project QUILTING – Guest Judge QUILTDAD!

I am super excited to have some fun new guest judges this season! The first is one that I’ve been watching on Twitter – QuiltDad! QuiltDad will be the guest judge for the second challenge going on NOW!

Here’s his bio:

John Adams is a husband and father of 3 who enjoys sewing and quilting in his spare time.

Inspired by the growing number of crafting blogs and the emergence of vibrant, modern quilting fabrics in the textile industry, John convinced his wife to teach him how to use her sewing machine in 2004 and hasn’t looked back. He started his popular blog, www.QuiltDad.com, in 2008 to share his love of patchwork with others.

Since then, John has become very active in the online quilting communities. Today, he applies his modern quilting aesthetic by designing quilt patterns for both fabric designers and companies and contributing frequently to creative blogs, books and other collaborative endeavors. John is also a co-founder of the popular e-magazine Fat Quarterly.

John and his family live in Cary, North Carolina.

Quilt Dad has also just started BlockAPalooza on his blog – check it out ASAP and join along! I hope too 🙂

Helpful Links for Quilters

Here are a few links that will help you on future quilting projects and photographing those projects. Please share with me any links/tutorials you think should be added to this list! I’ll continue to update as I receive more input from you all!

Beginning Quilting and Further:

• The 3 B’s – Borders, Backing and Binding
• Easy Peasy Machine Binding
• Blocking Quilts
• Matching Seams
• Quilt Spacer Border Calculations
• How to Bind Inside Corners

Photography:

• Get to Know your Camera
• Setting up a Mini Studio on a Budget

Miscellaneous

• Judy Martin’s Classroom
• April Tips
• Fun Stuff for Quilters
• How to Make a Texture Background for your Quilt
• Fearless Quilting on the FatQuarterly

TIME TO VOTE for Project QUILTING’s Primary Color’s Challenge

WOW! WOW! WOW! I was absolutely blown away by the number of amazing entries that were submitted for the first challenge! You all made a bit of work for me in creating this blog post and the judges will definitely have something to do this weekend!

For those of you just tuning in you can read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html

and about the first challenge of Season 2 here:

http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2011/01/project-quilting-season-2-challenge-1.html

CHALLENGE WINNERS:

Before I get to the prizes I’m making two minor changes to the prizes for this season.

The first is that one person can no longer win both prizes. If this does happen (as it has), they will take home the ‘JUDGES Choice’ prize and the person in 2nd in the PUBLIC vote will take home the ‘PUBLIC’ prize. As before, each of these winners will not qualify for the random prizes. I’m doing this just to spread around all the amazing goodies so many great sponsors donated!

The second is, I will not even be listing myself (KimsCraftyApple) on the Public Vote. Since this is my ‘creation’ I will never win any of the prizes – I don’t want to seem like this is biased towards me at all. I’m doing this merely for the fun, the challenge, and the camaraderie. I will still, however, be showing off my entry AND sending it to the judges for their critique.

Now…This week’s PRIZES!

The winner of the PUBLIC vote will receive $10 to FabricsNQuilts AND Designing Quilts is Easy by Wayne Kollinger from Uniquely Nancy

The winner of the JUDGES Choice will receive $10 to SpiceBerryCottageAND Pink Ribbon Quilts-Book- from Quilting Diva

TWO randomly drawn participant will receive either a Pattern & Notecardsfrom Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting OR Downloadable Quilter’s Cookbook – Volume 2 from the QuiltingGallery

BONUS! One other randomly drawn participant will receive $20 for Machine Quilting Services from QuiltsbyBarb. Thanks Barb for this last minute donation to EVERY challenge this season!

Voting closes at 7pm CDT on Friday, January 21st.

OTHER BONUSES:

Don’t forget! Everyone that enters can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2011 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend.

I will also be sending everyone their rank (somewhere between 1 and 10 – be sure you’ve emailed me (lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com) your email address) and any critique’s the judges have about your creation. The top 3 scoring projects will be posted on my blog this coming weekend.

PUBLIC WINNERS: YES, you can win a prize too! You’ll find out how to WIN at the bottom of this post after you’ve checked out each of our challengers entries.

And now here are all the entries – in no particular order…

***Please note – I have left the images smaller to help the blog load a bit faster. I strongly URGE you to take closer looks at the projects before voting by checking out their submittals on the flickr group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/

Quilter: Karen’s Crafty World

The Story behind ‘Mondrian Art: Ode to a Red Dress’:

The inspiration for this piece was the work of artist Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, Jr., (March 7, 1872-February 1, 1944). He was a Dutch abstract painter . He painted in a spare, precise, geometric manner mostly using primary colors. It was a style that Mondrian called neoplasticism.

This piece measures 12 inches by 19 inches. The red dress was hand embroidered, stiffened with heavy starch and then cut out and applied to piece with Heat and Bond.

Created in Elgin, IL

Quilter: SewSavvy

The Story behind ‘School Days’:

Hi! Here is my entry call “School Days”. Primary colors…I thought, didn’t I learn this in elementary school?” Schoolhouse! I have the perfect fabric…let’s go! Well, I will tell you this was easier in my head. Especially when I started re-reading the rules…6″ square and trying to make the block. Well, let’s make it work (sorry Tim Gunn). From the fabrics I choose it was starting to look like a circus tent instead of school. Back to the drawing board…step back and take a breath. OMG, I have that chalkboard fabric but where is it!?? Well, the garage is now even messier than before but I found it! After all is said and done, I found things in my stash that I had long forgotten was there (I know, so sad) and in a couple of months I have to pack it all up and move it. ugh! My wall hanging is approximately 19 X 20 3/4.

Deneisha Jones
Huntingdon (RAF Alconbury), United Kingdom

Quilter: Christine Hampton

The Story behind ‘Pin-Fin’:

This is my first PQ challenge. I cut each primary square diagonally once to make the pinwheel fins. I used the triangle ruler that has been hanging unused on my wall for 5 years to cut the white-on-white print. I placed a fin in each seam then added some extra white to the corners. I lifted each fin out of the way when I quilted it with a small stipple. It is 10″ x 10.5″

Made in Oregon, WI

Quilter: SpringWaterDesigns

The Story behind ‘It’ll be Awesome!’

I’ve been wanting to make a quilted pillow from a quote that my daughter says all the time, “It’ll be Awesome”, and when I saw the challenge involved bright primary colors I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I thought this quote was very appropriate for the beginning of 2011, and the start of Season 2 of Project Quilting!

I started with a 6″ square of red, yellow & blue and cut them each into four 3″ squares. I did the same thing with some more primary colors and that gave me my color blocks across the front and prairie points around the edges. I fused and blanket stitched the word Awesome, and I used scraps to string piece and cut circles for the little stylized accents. I machine quilted with a meandering Loop-to-loop, and the words “It’ll be” are hand quilted in using a 12 wt blue thread and a long stitch. The back is the lighter blue print that I used on the front, and I finished the edges with Prairie Points because they add happiness to any project 🙂 I’ve taken several close up shots to show detail of the stitching and quilting.

The body of the quilted pillow measures 20″ square (not counting the prairie points),

Created by Dawn Stewart (aka Spring Water Designs) in Maryland, USA

Quilter: Quilties

The Story Behind ‘Colors’:

To me, this challenge sounded like a color-theory assignment from art school, so I embraced that idea!! I used some beautiful, vibrant, hand-dyed fabrics in a rainbow of colors, then had fun rearranging the colors and watching the interesting interactions. In order to soften the look and highlight the hand-crafted nature I used big quilting stitches to hold it all in place and let the raw edges stay a little raveled. I wanted it to be immediately obvious that this was not a computer-rendered piece and I had no aspirations for perfection. So the squares are a little off and the background shows through between the circles, but that’s the part of the charm.

Finished size 28″ x 21″. Made in Urbandale, IA, by Emma Thomas-McGinnis

Quilter: Aunt Cindy’s Attic

The Story Behind Twin Quilts:

The inspiration for these little quilts was my daughter’s twin babies that Santa brought her for Christmas. I thought they needed their own quilts, but I had not been inspired to make them. Couple that with this challenge and me turning colored squares in my head and the square on a square on a square flower was born! Unfortunately the flower concept was not conceived until 12 hours before the challenge was due. So I decided I could make something in an hour or so. I managed both in under 2.5 hours.

The background was made loosely using Ricky Tim’s “Caveman Quilting” technique. All flower parts are very roughly raw edge appliquéd. The appliqué stitches double as the quilting.

Each quilt is approximately 18″x15″.
Created by Aunt Cindy of Aunt Cindy’s Attic, Crawfordsville, IN

Quilter: Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting

The Story behind ‘Primary Quilt’:

I am from rural Boscobel, Wisconsin. I first cut strips in random sizes from 1 3/4 inch to 3 inches. Then sewed strips on two sides of each 6 inch square. (top and one side) Then I squared up the block at an angle to 6 1/2 inch square. Next step was to lay them out in random order…… I changed the order many times before sewing them together. I should have just picked them up in any order and sewed them. After all the blocks were in rows I sew them together unevenly to offset them. Then added three borders – one of each of the primary colors. I started with the lightest border, so the blocks would flow into the border and then stopped the edge with the red border and finally with the blue border. I chose to bind with the blue too! I quilted it with many repetitive patterns like Zentangle patterns, thus creating textures in each block. I quilted a wavy line with daisies on each end of the line in each lattice strip. I quilted a double wavy line and daisies in the yellow border and then finished with zig zag patterns in the two outside borders. It was a fun challenge and I really enjoyed the whole process!!!

Quilter: Dashasel

The Story behind ‘inspired by Miro’:

Hi! My name is Elaine and I am very excited to have discovered Project Quilting! Here is the story behind my quilt:

When I saw the challenge, I immediately thought of a print that my father had selected for me when I was a baby, claiming that the print reminded him of me. The print, “Sonnens”, is by Joan Miro and in the print he uses primary colors and geometric shapes/lines. Inspired by this print, I decided to try and mirror an aspect of his print, a portion of the left eye, in my quilt. I would have loved to freehand this aspect and then perhaps tried my hand at paper piecing the quilt top, but here’s the thing– I have made quilt tops before but have never actually machine quilted or done binding before (yes, I am a relatively new quilter) so I knew I would have enough new techniques to learn for this challenge! I decided I better get some help with the pattern and I turned to this link (http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/quilts/patchwork) which can take an image and turn it into a quilt pattern! I uploaded the portion of the eye that I wanted to try and quilt, got a pattern, and then it was time to get to work as the pattern consists of approximately 400 2×2 squares and then 9 2×6 rectangles (these rectangles were cut from my 6×6 primary color blocks).

For the quilting, I drew upon Miro’s use of lines, asterisks, and triangles. I quilted in only the white and black areas, using matching threads for those sections so that the quilting would be very subtle on the quilt top and more obvious on the quilt back. I had so much fun making this quilt and can’t wait to see if my dad can recognize the inspiration!

The quilt measures 29″ X 29″ and was made in Milwaukee, WI.

Quilter: MoranArtandQuilts

The Story behind ‘Pretty in Primary’:

I knew this challenge would be a toughie since I’m not a big primary color person. I took the 3 blocks and cut them into 3 different sized pieces then spent a lot of time laying them out into a pleasing design. I found a pretty flowered background that matched perfectly. I like the way they seem to recede into the distance so then appliquéd them on.

I knew at this point that the quilt needed more so I added the yo-yos with button centers. I felt It still needed more so I added the cute hummingbird, painting in the details by hand with white acrylic paint. At this point I called it finished!

It measures 14″ x 24″

Catherine (MoranArtandQuilts)
Columbus, OH

Quilter: Miranda’s Place

The Story:

When I first saw the challenge, I thought Primary Colors!, do I even have those? Then I said, remember when you were teaching elementary school and the students always chose the primary colors for their projects. I look at this as a big box of primary colors only crayons, ready for the next child to begin creating their masterpiece. The size is 23.5 X 13.5

Created in Atlanta, GA

Quilter: Kathy Krieg

The Story:

Primary colors made me think of crayons, young kids, and school. This is the first crayon roll I have made — it just seemed to fit the challenge. I will be giving it to a toddler who turns 3 next week.

It is a Crayon Roll. It is 8 x 15 inches. I live in Chandler Arizona.

Quilter: Quilting Diva

The Story:

I decided to start with all 6″ blocks. I ran the flannel squares through my AccuQuilt Die cut to rag the edges and put together this little “The Places You will Go” mini quilt. The finished quilt is 28″ x 25″ and was created in Tampa, FL. I love the bright contrast of the primary colors and the alternating novelty blocks.
Stacy Edell

Quilter: Mauby’s

The Story Behind ‘All Boy, Dump Truck in Primary’:

The first thing I think of when seeing primary colors are boys and their toys. Maybe I am just too wrapped up in being a mom to a toddler.

But that is what I thought of when I read this challenge. So I grabbed the graph paper and some crayons and started designing a dump truck.

I used all construction fabric prints to emphasize the dump truck.

I went out of my way to cut out the 6″ red square being sure to have the dump truck viewable. Did the same with the fabric circles I appliquéd as the wheels.

It measures 21″ x 14.5″

Aubrey (Mauby’s)
Brevard County, FL

Quilter: Kelsey Rose

The Story behind Caterpillar Quilt:

Hi, this is Kelsey, crafting from Mountain View, CA. For this entry, I really wanted to play with the bright colors of the primaries and go with a more juvenile theme. I used my primary squares (along with several additional squares) to make 4 wonky stars (my first ever!) I then combined those blocks with come The Very Series prints I had previously purchased and sort of improvised my quilt as I went. This is my first time not planning a project in detail before beginning and kind of stopping after each step to decide what to do next. I used white minky fabric for a soft backing, and used Warm n White for batting. The binding is Very Series stripes. This is also only my second quilt overall, and I’m pleased with how quickly this came together (less than a week), compared to my last one.

Size: 70″ x 78″

Kelsey

P.S. Sorry for the bad lighting, but I ran out of daylight hours and was still working on this. 😛

Quilter: Sally of Sally’s Angelworks

The Story:

Hi!! I’m sally with sally’s angelworks and I’m a quiltaholic!!!

Here’s the story behind this quilt. When I heard primary colors, I immediately thought of this brand new layer cake I bought (Lauren and Jessi Jung’s Hideaway by Moda)!! I can’t get enough of the little deer in the red fabric, or the birdies in the patterned block…those little birdies reminded me of one of my fave quotes by Emily Dickinson…”Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul-and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all!” Ohhhh what a world we would live in if everyone was filled to the brim with HOPE!! 🙂

The quote and the birdie blanket stitch is all hand embroidered. I am a huge lover of straight line quilting (while I learn free motion quilting in private! teehee!!). I also adore the simplicity of a mega nine patch with the focus on the quote,

Thanks for looking and for all of your comments!! ♥

This project measures 16.5in x16.5in.

created by sally of SallysAngelworks in Texas.

Quilter: UniquelyNancy

The Story:

I am Nancy Tanguay of Uniquelynancy and live in the northwest corner of Ct. I was immediately drawn to he primary colors of this challenge and had to give it a try. Bright colors remind me of happy, laughing children so I dug through my stash to find some whimsical fabrics. When I found the one with smiling kids framed by black and white borders I knew I had to make a house with their cute faces in the windows. I cut the three 6″ blocks and decided to use the blue one whole while cutting the yellow by 1/3. The piece I cut off made the first two windows on the blue. The Red I cut in half and sewed them back together as the tower. Then I felt I still needed another room so I added the turquoise addition. Then the fun began with choosing curtains,gingerbread,roofs flowers and the fence. I have a large collection of vintage laces that I felt would be perfect. I quilted the sky and grassy areas with stippling and then added siding to the house. I used a satin stitch around appliquéd windows and doors. Then I wanted to try new idea for the border. I added piping to the outer border before binding to give it a picture frame look.

the quilt measures 18″ by 22″

Quilter: AllthingsBelle

The Story Behind ‘Color Code’:

For this challenge we were limited to the 3 primary colors, each one had to be at least 6″ square, and cut in no more than 4 pieces.

I was stuck on the idea that the primary colors is the “code” for all colors. That got me thinking to color recipes. I quilted with the idea that this was a code or recipe for a certain final color; that each appliqué was a value.

I free motioned only in the white area as I wanted the color values to be complicated by topstitching.

Final size 9″ x 20.5″

Jennifer Rodriguez – quilting in West Jordan, UT

Quilter: Kathleen’s Quilts

The Story Behind ‘Flights of Fancy’:

As soon as I saw primary colors I wanted to do hot air balloons. Aside from the background, I elected to use ONLY the three six inches pieces of red, yellow and blue. Figuring out how to use the rest of the square after cutting a balloon shape meant lots of paper squares were cut experimenting with the extra pieces. I finally found a use for each piece. Triangles became planes… the planes wings were sewn down close together and the body of the plane was folded down. Little triangles cut from the bottom of the balloon shape became propellers. The balloons were quilted with batting before being appliquéd down and an additional layer of batting helps make them puff out. Ric rac and embroidery stitching add detail to the balloons. The baskets are burlap and are open at the top.The odd shaped piece from between the large triangle and the balloon piece made a kite by pulling the long edge to meet itself side by side. Kite strings are floss. Quilted with lots of big puffy clouds.

22.5″ x 33″ Created in Cissna Park, IL

Quilter: ForQuiltsSake

The Story behind ‘Carnival of Colors’:

Made by Pam Geisel of For Quilts Sake in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Jan. 2011 for Project Quilting Season 2, Challenge 1, Primary Colors.

19.5” x 19.5”

My creative process and how I made it:

I selected my three primary color fabrics from my batik fabrics. I contemplated the many ways to cut a 6” square into two, three and four pieces and decided to go with four equal-sized 3” squares.
Once I had the idea of squares stuck in my brain, I started noticing items around me that were square. As soon as I saw my fused-glass nightlight (from an Etsy seller) I wanted to try something like that. The nightlight has square color blocks with space between them, and a few of the blocks have other colors fused on top of them.

To add to my primary color fabrics, I picked out an orange, green and brownish-gray fabric and cut one 3” square from each. I considered using white for the background but since I went with my first instinct to use squares as my shape I decided to audition some other fabrics and found a really deep blue batik that really made the colors pop.

I played around with the arrangement of the squares, making sure that I didn’t have a row or column with a duplicate color. With the four-by-four arrangement, there was one spot left over. I thought about piecing a square with four different colored triangles but I liked that spot didn’t have as much color so I cut two quarter-square triangle pieces from the green and the brownish-gray fabric as they were less contrast than the color fabric, and I placed them on the fabric leaving two triangle shapes of deep blue background fabric.

I cut three 2” squares, three 2” circles and three 3”x.75” rectangles and arranged them off-center on top of several of the 3” primary color squares. Once I was happy with the arrangements, I fused these shapes and sewed along the raw edges using the same color thread.

I decided that to fuse the 3” squares to the backing fabric but I also wanted to piece some smaller 1” squares into the binding so I pieced the 2” borders and attached them to the backing fabric before I fused the squares 1” apart on the background (otherwise part of the 3” squares along the border would have become smaller because of the seam allowance).

I wanted to do some embellishing so I got a piece of thin gold cording and tried some different arrangements with it and decided I liked how it made the edges look really crisp so I layered the quilt sandwich then quilted the cord on top of the raw edges, which also created smaller squares where the cornerstones would be it the quilt had pieced with sashing. I also quilted the cord where the backing meets the borders, then I stitch-in-the-ditch quilted inside the squares using the same color fabric as the square that I was in.

Made using cotton batik fabrics, polyester batting; raw edge appliqué, machine pieced borders, couched cord and stitch-in-the-ditch quilting; all supplies were taken from my stash.

Quilter: TerryAskeArtQuilts

The Story:

My name is Terry Aske, and I create in New Westminster, BC, Canada. This is my first ever entry to Project Quilting.

When I saw the subject of this challenge was Primary Colors, I immediately thought of the sketch I made several years ago in my idea book. I had never gotten around to making this quilt, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. It illustrates how secondary colors are created when two primary colors are mixed (or in this case “overlapped”).

I started with a 6 inch square of each of the primary colors, then added more of each of those colors, plus the secondary colors. I used a light grey background, with a darker grey to indicate shadows and give a 3-dimensional effect.

I tried a new technique for binding – turning it entirely to the back, like a facing, to give the quilt a cleaner more modern look. I like this technique and will definitely use it again.

The finished size of the quilt is 22.25” x 20.75”.

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Quilter: KimsCraftyApple

The Story behind ‘Bookshelf Quilt’:

I had been seeing quilts made out of strips offset in the middle with fabric on each side to create a look that reminds me of a stack of books. It looked simple but I loved the linear effect of the technique. I had been wanting to try it for some time.

When I saw the primary color challenge, I almost immediately knew that I would be cutting my squares in half to make three of the “books”. I went a slightly different route and instead of going with a stack of books I went for a bookshelf. I took random scraps of fabric from different parts of the rainbow, mixed it all up and here you go! (I also think it looks a cool skyline if you’re into that more than books…)

Also, instead of using all the same brown fabric for the other portion of the quilt I also took scraps and made a more scrappy/textured look.

This quilt will look great as either a wall hanging or a table runner.

Approximate Dimensions: 36″ x 18.5″

Created by Kim Lapacek (aka KimsCraftyApple) in Poynette, WI

Quilter: Heather Lair Designs

The Story:

I made a fabric postcard for the challenge. I just realized that my pieces are too small to qualify for the challenge….Rats! Oh well, enjoy any ways!

Size: 4” x 6”

I am quilting in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada.

Even though Heather will not qualify for any prizes, I will still send her entry to the judges for a ‘critique’.

Now for the PUBLIC Comment PRIZE!

This weeks randomly drawn public prize will win $20 to my jewelry shop theApple. This is redeemable for items that are listed in my store – no custom orders please.

Fall in Love Epoxy Candy Drop Heart Earrings – Choose your Color

EIGHT Chances to WIN!

Entry 1: REQUIRED! Leave a comment on your favorite entry (or at least that you voted) and vote for your favorite on the poll on the upper left hand side of the blog. – ***MUST DO***

Optional/Additional Entries – please note – if you want to qualify for these additional entries you must leave a SEPERATE comment for each – if you already follow or are a fan, etc just leave comments saying each. If you write everything in ONE comment you only will have ONE entry…

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***Participants in project quilting ARE allowed to enter in the public poll/contest as well.***

This means you have EIGHT chances to win! I need you to write each of these entries as different comments in order to qualify you for all seven entries and include your email address. If you don’t include your email address I won’t be able to contact you when you win and I will have to choose a new winner. I will be picking the winner on Saturday, January 22nd.