PoP Challenge Quilt

My large quilt guild, Pride of the Prairie Quilt Guild,  has a quilt show every two years.  The next one is March 10-11, 2018.  At our last meeting (last Thursday) we got the info for the Challenge quilts.  What a great challenge they came up with this time.

our challenge instructions

Since you can't really read the rules in that tiny picture, I'll type them out for you.  They are very creative!
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Pride of the Prairie 2018 Guild Challenge

Stretch yourself this year with our Paint Chip Challenge

Here are the rules:

Using the first 3 letters of your first name, pick out paint chips whose color name begins with one of those letters.

for example, if you are well known quilter, Bonnie Hunter, you might choose:

Best Friends            or      Blazing Orchid                or      Blueberry Hill

Of the Moment        or       One Spring Morning       or      October Air

New Beginnings      or       Natural Burlap                or      Nutshell

(see paint chip colors in above photo)

You may also add solid Black and/or solid White but the majority of the piece (at least 75%) must be your chosen paint chip colors.  In short, your quilt must contain 3 paint chip colors and the possible inclusion of black and/or white accent ONLY.  You may use solids, tone on tone and/or batik but the fabric must be recognizable as matching the paint chip color.  Fabric is not limited to cotton - could be wool, velvet, poly, rayon, etc. 

A full set of paint chips must accompany your completed entry - name of paint chip MUST be clearly printed on chip by manufacturer (see above examples).

Use at least 1 handwork technique on the quilt - hand quilting regular or big stitch, hand piecing, hand embroidery, beading by hand - or any other hand technique not involving a machine. *(Does NOT include stitching binding down by hand on the back of quilt).

The size of your Challenge quilt must be no smaller than 24" and no larger than 45" when measured in any direction.  It does not need to be square.  It could be a rectangle, parallelogram or even a circle.  As always, your Challenge must be quilted, have a binding or other finished edging, and have a label on the back.

Quilts are to be submitted in normal fashion as dictated by 2018 Quilt Show directions including entry form with photo and individual pillowcase.  Sleeve is not required.

Take a trip to your favorite paint or home improvement store and start playing with color!

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What fun!  

Hubby and I went to Home depot on Friday night, and grabbed TONS of paint chips (a stack about 2.5" tall) that started with either the letter C, H or E (for CHEryl).

just some of the paint chips we grabbed

Hubby even found one that fits my letters (C-H-E) on one paint chip.

Cosmic Quest, Hacienda Blue, English Daisy

I had Ladies Crafting at church on Saturday morning, and went thru my paint chips then.  I sorted them into letters (C-H-E), to see if anything caught my eye.  Yes, one chip, with the name of Elephant Skin, caught my attention.  I'd spent Wednesday and Thursday cleaning my sewing room, and had run across an elephant pattern (my mother collects elephants, so, I'm good at finding elephant items).  

Elephants made me think of the dry grass and the coppery gold colors in Africa.  I pulled all the colors that might work.

C's on left, H's in middle, E's on right

Ideas were forming!  On Sunday afternoon, I pulled out my pattern, and map pencils.  I came up with this.

my challenge design

The shape of the quilt will be the large elephant.  As long as it is at least 24" high, and less than 45" wide, it will work.  I still have to figure out a good way to make it stiffer than normal, since I don't want the trunk, tail and foot to 'droop' down.  I also don't want to put traditional binding on this, with all the curves.  

The 'grid' on the elephant is planned (not graph paper).  I plan to use several different fabrics, all the same colors, and cut them apart, and sew them back together as either 4 patch or 9 patch units, so that the quilt has more texture/interest, than just plain fabric.

I also have a few ideas for giving the elephant 'texture', too.  I'll try Texture Magic first.  Not sure how well it will do what I want till I try it.   

On Tuesday, Marilyn and I went to sew at Sewing, Etc, in Yorkville.  I knew Kelly (the owner) would have the fabrics I needed for this challenge.   I'd pulled some fabrics from my stash, but, wasn't pleased with the gray.   I had several paint chips to choose from, so, I started pulling fabric off the shelves, to match the paint chips.  These are what I ended up getting.

Curry Powder

Herb Cornucopia

Euro Gray

One of the Curry Powder fabrics and one of the Herb Cornucopia fabrics are from my stash.  I really wanted to use my stash for this challenge, but, knew that it would be hard to do. 

I'm waiting on Office Depot to enlarge my elephant drawing, so that I can really get started on this challenge.  I'm really excited about it!  You will be tired of this project long before it is done.