A QUILT CHALLENGE: RED, WHITE & BLUE

A CHALLENGE HOSTED BY “GATEWAY QUILTS N STUFF”
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.

 After about a week of sketching, I decided not to draw after I got into bed. I always read or write something when I am in bed to take my mind off the day's frustrations.  Instead I decided the mail needed to be read.  And Voila!  A vision of an idea presented itself.  

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:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-quilt-challenge.html

My friend Toby Lischko's on line shop

http://gatewayquiltsnstuff.com/

Toby's blog:  She has on line giveaways of great fabrics.

http://www.gatewayquiltsnstuff.blogspot.com/

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.

 http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

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