A CHALLENGE
HOSTED BY “GATEWAY QUILTS N STUFF”
November 1, 2014
November 1, 2014
I resisted joining this challenge
because of obligations I had in the month of October. The challenge creator broke her foot and had
to change the completion date till January 21, 2015. I decided to participate. The rules of the Challenge are simple. We must purchase the fabric from Gateway
Quilts. They had to be from “the
American Made” line of fabrics. The
quilt was to be a maximum of 40” X 40” Or 1600 square inches. The rest was, use any technique and your
imagination.
On a lovely crisp day, I drove to
Toby Lischko’s to procure the fabric. There
was a stiff wind. I had to drive my Ram
Diesel truck at a slower than highway speed to keep the truck in the correct
lane. It is a 40 minute drive to her place. Missouri
highways are beautiful, especially in the fall.
I visited with Toby
before purchasing 1 yd of cream, ¼ yard of 3 blues, and ½ yd of red. There is a fourth blue but she was out of it when I was there.
The fabrics are solids, this
presents a mental road block for me. I
don’t fancy Amish quilts and have never worked with only solids. This would be a real challenge for me. I hadn't any inspiration going into this
endeavor and realized the fabrics themselves were not going to be conducive to sparking ideas.
The colors and the “American
Made” name were leading my thoughts in the direction of the United States Flag. All I could think was how trite that would be
to make a flag, how predictable. I
sketched variations of red, white, and blue themed things. Nothing interested me. I haven’t mentioned we have a son who has
been in the Navy for 28 years. He is a
Command Master Chief on the USS Carl Vinson.
It’s an Air Craft Carrier. You
would think this would provide me with a multitude of ideas to work with. Actually it is a barrier, looking at the 3
colors and the solids made my mind freeze up and I couldn't get past the
“Flag”. That was all I could think of.
 |
| Over 180 different purples |
Yes, I realized I could use only blues and white, or the red with white. We had a speaker in October who brought red
and white quilts to guild. That thought
was fresh in my mind. I love looking at
two color quilts but I know I would be totally bored piecing a two color
quilt. This is strange, because I can
piece a “one color quilt” with complete enthusiasm, during the entire process.
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to sleep
because I had so many ideas running through my head. Usually when that happens I have to get up
and take care of what is bothering me before I can go to sleep. It had the opposite effect. I think I was relieved I finally had direction. There was no worry about the
colors of the fabrics and no worry about the solid colors, the inspiration had solved it.
Next morning I gathered the tools
I needed to draft a drawing of my Challenge quilt. I hadn't named my challenge yet, it was begin with the pencil and scratch paper and see what developed. Now I needed to round up my "basics" for interpreting an idea.
THE BASICS:
Camera, Very sharp #2 pencils and
erasers, Yard sticks and rulers, Roll of 22” wide brown butcher paper, Scissors,
Blue painters tape, Clear wide packing tape, Computer with internet, Printer, Used typing paper, glue stick.
The first thing I did was google examples of components I thought I would need in my challenge.
The second thing I needed was to figure out how big did I want to make this quilt. Was it to be large and did I need to go back to Toby's for more fabric? Or could I execute it with the fabrics I had?
I picked a measurement of 22" wide X 26" long. Why that, 22" is the width of the roll of brown paper, and 26" made a nice size rectangle. I had the background to draw full scale on.. I had a
place to begin.
Now that I have an idea I was able to draw inspiration from several places. It felt good to be able to know what direction I was going, to know I had a destination for my fabric.
I hope my articles inspire you to complete in Challenges. They are very rewarding.
Introductory blog about the Challenge:
My friend Toby Lischko's on line shop
more blogs by me:
http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/
Where I have stories of my cats and other pets
a blog about my courtship with my husband,
and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.
A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.
blogs about the wildflowers on our farm
Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,
blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures
Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle
http://pitbulladog.blogspot.com/
Chronicling our adventures with a dumped Pit Bull Pup,
who has become a hidden treasure.
All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.
I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .
Please do not copy without permission
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