Tag: Challenge

2021 November Book Challenge

Maker: Sally Sloane
Book: Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
Quilt Description: This twin size quilt is done from a collection of sea colored batiks with a sea themed embroidery added to the middle of each block.

Voted winner for Best Representation of Book and Members’ Choice.

Maker: Barbara Knapp
Book: Polar Bears & Bear Came Along
Quilt Description: I found this pattern of a momma & baby polar bear and just loved it. The pattern is called Polar Bear Peekaboo and is approximately 55” x 62”. It is the largest foundation paper pieced project I have ever done and really enjoyed doing it. I don’t know how many pieces are in it, but it is a lot. I wanted to keep the quilting simple so I did straight lines at an angle. I also did a double edge binding which gave a little pop of white around the edge.

Maker: Gail Sevilla
Book: You Will Leave a Trail of Stars by Lisa Congdon
Quilt Description: I was inspired by an alphabet I bought from Laura Hartrich, @laurahartrich. I wanted to make something scrappy. Just now, looking at her feed, I guess I was inspired to add stars from a baby quilt she made. Who doesn’t support “Girl Power”? Lisa’s book is full of colorful illustrations and empowering essays. It is actually a coincidence that the colorway turned out to be so close to the cover. I chose the Kona blue “Storm” as it is brighter than navy and would work with all the colors.

Voted winner for Best Modern Design

Maker: Susan Manson
Book: You Matter by Christian Robinson
Quilt Description: Using a block lotto win I was able to create two toddler-sized quilts. The abundance of color plus being bound in a variety of skin tones reinforces the story of inclusion no matter your gender, ability, or ethnicity. Two copies of the book and two pillow cases using Ann Kelle’s “See Us, Hear Us, Love Us” fabric will be included.

Maker: Betty Altstadt
Book: Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston. The book centers on a 13 year old girl, Amari, who goes on a search for her missing brother. She discovers that she has a place in the supernatural world. To help her figure things out, she meets up with a wise man who plucks constellations out of the sky. He gives her the stars and has her toss them back into the sky, where she sees her ancestors, herself and her future.
Quilt Description: The quilt is my own design based on a nine patch with wonky stars. I selected fabrics to give a feeling of being under a starry sky. The quilt was long-armed by Cosmic Quilts. The binding is by M&S fabrics and the back reminds me of colorful paint swatches.

Maker: Kelly Hogan
Book: Aetherbound
Description: This book was a sci-fi coming of age novel about a young girl breaking free from an abusive home life and starting a new life with friends, food, and kindness. It’s also about autonomy and making choices and how people should be treated. I picked fabrics with happy food for the back. The front has fabrics with empowering messages for girls inspired by RBG.

Maker: Julie McCluney
Book: Z is for Moose

August 2021 Improv Challenge Entries

We have had a lot of exposure to improv this year with lectures and workshops- David Owen Hastings, Cindy Grisdela, Amy Friend, and more. Use your inspiration to participate in our August challenge.

Quilts must be completed with quilting and bound. Quilts must measure no less than 18″ per side.

Three prizes will be awarded based on member voting – Best Improv Quilt, Best Modern Quilt, and Members’ Choice. The dates to remember are submission open July 29 until August 13. There will be an online form and you will need photos (by phone are great). The voting will be August 16 right up till our meeting on August 26. Be part of the fun. Let us see what you can do. Improv is such a great brain puzzle!

Maker: Jason Titus

Maker: Susie Johnson

Quilt Name: Happiness Doubled

Quilt Designer: Susie Johnson

Quilt Description: This is my improv quilt from Cindy Grisdela’s workshop, Improv Puzzle Quilt. I used all scrap fabrics from my stash, and that makes me happy! I also love the fabric color combinations and that also makes me happy to look at it 🙂

Improv Techniques Used: free-hand rotary cutting with no set pattern except for the improvised log cabin-style blocks

Maker: Jeri Polizzotto

Quilt Name: I’m Not Afraid of Storms

Quilt Designer: Carol Lyles Shaw

Quilt Description: One of my favorite things about this quilt is the color palette. I started with a large scale print and dyed greys, blues, and purples to go with it. Working with Improv is a lot of fun although I sometimes have mixed feelings about the end product. It kind of makes me want to sew a nine patch or something that is more structured! This quilt is measures 72″X72″ I quilted it on my home machine using my walking foot.

Improv Techniques Used: Improv Curves and stack and whack

Maker: Lisa Handley

Quilt Name: Marge Tucker Log Cabin Improv

Quilt Designer: Lisa Handley

Quilt Description: This is the quilt that was the result of the Marge Tucker Improv workshop.

Improv Techniques Used: Improv and Log Cabin

Maker: Mary O’Bannon

Quilt Name: Just a little Fun!

Quilt Designer: Mary O’Bannon

Quilt Description: I had fun with the workshop from Cindy Grisdela. I liked adding the black and white for fun!

Improv Techniques Used: Vivid colors, change of size and just let’s try this approach.

Winner for Members’ Choice

Maker and Quilt Designer: Gail Sevilla

Quilt Description: Using fabrics from 1978 until the present, I was able to finally house these children and let them come out into public. I want to thank the book Collaborative Quilting by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston for inspiring this over 15 years ago. They let me know that not everything in quilting had to line up and be uniform.

Improv Techniques Used: improv house blocks framed with improv strips, improv triangles and log cabin

Maker: Maritza Rodriguez Farr

Quilt Name: Improv Orange Pop Puzzle

Quilt Designer: Maritza Rodriguez Farr

Quilt Description: The bright orange fabrics really pop in this quilt. The white on white fabric a well as the green fabric, used in small quantities, have dots that provide a nice contrast to the geometric shapes. I used a bright orange Aurifil thread for quilting.

Improv Techniques Used: Techniques from our workshop with Cindy Griselda were used.

Winner for Best Modern Design
Winner for Best Representation of Improv

Maker: Sam Saturday

Quilt Name: Terrace

Quilt Designer: Sam Saturday

Quilt Description: As a lover of vintage Disneyland, Terrace was inspired by the stained glass backing of the original Tomorrowland Terrace stage, where musical acts have performed through the years. I borrowed some of the shapes, then chopped them up to create negative space. I quilted it was I went, borrowing from mid-century patterns.

Improv Techniques Used: Improv applique, improv quilting

Winner for Best in Show

Maker: Susan Manson

Quilt Name: SuperSpreader

Quilt Designer: Susan Manson

Quilt Description: Using planned and unplanned improv techniques as well as taking cues from the fabric design itself, the composition evolved intuitively over many months. By using mostly ruler free triangles in various colors and values from both sides of the fabric, I was able to create movement across the quilt directly correlating to news of super spreader events causing a disproportionate rise in COVID-19 transmission rates. The rectangle structures represent those who were safer at home and in their pods. Finishing this quilt with facing allows the design to fall off the edge, expanding the design concept of the virus transmission.

Improv Techniques Used: Planned and unplanned improv, alternative grid, ruler free piecing, matchstick quilting

Maker: Nikki Constantine

Quilt Name: Tuckered

Quilt Designer: Nikki Constantine

Quilt Description: This quilt is a compilation techniques and blocks from the OCMQG Marge Tucker workshop.

Improv Techniques Used: Strips, curves, pieced curves, insets, modern log cabin blocks

Community Outreach Quilt Challenge – QuiltCon 2021

The Modern Quilt Guild announced its 2021 Community Outreach Quilt Challenge! This is one of the MQG’s largest scale charity projects, formerly known as the QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge. It’s an opportunity for guilds or teams of MQG members to create a quilt to be donated to a charity.

Theme: Curves

The design focus for this challenge is on curved piecing.

Color Palette:

Details on the Challenge:

https://www.quiltcon.com/community-challenge-2021

We need volunteers:

Be a part of the fun. Email us if you’d like to participate.

Opposites Challenge April 2020 post

As we announced in January, entries for the Opposites Challenge are due at our membership meeting April 30. Our April meeting will be now be held online so in order to give every member the opportunity to show their quilt to its best advantage, we will be holding the Challenge online also.

The procedures will be similar to submitting a quilt to QuiltCon or the Orange County Fair, and we’ve worked to make it as simple and easy as we can.

  1. Below is a link to an online form where you will fill out your name and information about your entry.
  2. You’ll take 1-3 photos of your quilt and either email them to us OR send us a link to them. Only one photo is required.
  3. Once we receive the entries, info and photos will be posted online and you’ll get another link to see them and vote.
  4. At our next in-person meeting you’ll get a chance to see all those fabulous quilts in person.
  5. At our May meeting winners in the three categories will be announced:
  • Best Expression of Opposites Theme
  • Best Modern Design
  • Members’ Choice

Schedule:

April 27- Online submission begins, a link to entry form emailed to members
May 10- Deadline for online entry form and photos
May 17 – Online viewing and voting begin
May 25 – Last day to vote
May 28 – Membership meeting: see quilts in person, winners announced, prizes and ribbons awarded

Need help with the form or uploading your photos? Email the guild with the best phone number for contacting you and someone will assist you.

SUBMISSION FORM LINK

Modern Star and Modern Log Cabin Challenge

The OCMQG holds a challenge once a quarter for its members to show off their creativity and have some fun. See the Challenges Page for our current challenge and challenge details.

For the first quarter 2016, the challenge is about taking a traditional state star block or log cabin block and making it modern.

Take 30 seconds and think about / write down what “making it modern” means to you.

Below are images from Google Image searches on “California Star Quilt Blocks” and “Log Cabin Quilt Blocks” – which are showing mostly traditional ways of creating the blocks.

Screen Shot 2016-02-07 at 9.46.24 AMScreen Shot 2016-02-07 at 9.47.27 AM

How can the modern aesthetic be brought to these blocks to create a modern quilt? Well, first – what the heck defines a quilt as “modern?” This question is hotly debated and is as controversial as “should you prewash your fabrics?”

Basically, modern quilting has no rules. The individual quilter decides what rules to follow or not follow. For example, in traditional quilting, there’s usually a standard sized block that is repeated in rows and columns, has one or more borders, and uses traditional fabrics.

What rules do you “break” or “bend” when translating traditional into modern?

One way to make the block modern is to use a solid “background” fabric to create negative space and to use modern patterned fabrics (right) or to use only solid fabrics (left).

quilt by Shea Henderson’ (photo on MQG site)
Ingrid, by Kristen Fleckenstein (photo on MQG site)

Screen Shot 2016-02-07 at 10.11.39 AM
Made in 2013 by an OCMQG member

Another way is to super size the block and show off one block or a part of the block. The quilt to the right is a traditional block called Ohio Star. The OCMQG member who made this blew up the block to the size of the quilt and used saturated solid fabrics.

These three example all use precise measuring and piecing, but move away from the traditional in the fabric choice and block size.

Other ways to make it modern:

  1. Use only scissors to cut the block pieces (no rotary cutters or rulers)
  2. Make the pattern “wonky.” In a log cabin, the sides of each strip are usually parallel to each other – What would it look like if they weren’t? What happens when a star block made with 60 degree triangles now has triangles that vary between 45 degrees and 90 degrees?
  3. Use “found” fabric. Old jeans, ties, button down shirts, slacks, bedsheets, towels, curtains can all be used to make a quilt. How do different fabric types affect the look and feel of the quilt?
  4. Create blocks and align them so a large amount of negative space is created

Join the conversation – Tell us your favorite ways of making traditional patterns into your version of “modern.”

Follow our hash tags for this challenge on Instagram #ocmodernstar and #ocmodernlc