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The Coastal Quilters 2012 Chapter Challenge
For the past two years (and the coming year) I’ve been the coordinator for our local quilt group’s challenge. Last year, long time readers may recall, the quilts were to be 20 1/2 by 20 1/2 square and use an item from the grocery store as inspiration (see posts here and here). THIS year we did the same size, but had to use a vintage block in the quilt. This challenge was inspired by Mary Kerr’s Vintage Revisited exhibits which were shown at Maine Quilts.
The Coastal Quilters (Maine) 2012 Chapter Challenge
Mary graciously said of course we could do something similar! So I went to troll eBay for Vintage blocks; no one set seemed to have enough for the usual 12-16 participants in our challenges, so I ended up buying two sets of blocks: the red-green Ohio Star and the burgundy-cream Ocean Waves.
The results, once again, were STUPENDOUS! We had the twelve completed quilts (several others wanted to make some, but life seriously got in the way…please send them comfort and healing). From left to right across the two panels, the quilts are:
Top Row:
- Eleanor Greenwood — Vintage Ohio Star Medallion
- Jim Vander Noot –Three Sheets to the Wind and a Sail
- Sarah Ann Smith — Cardinal in the Pines
- Rebecca Hokkanen — Ocean Wave
Second Row:
- the Ohio Star block, description of the challenge, participants/quilt names, description of challenge Ocean Waves Block
Third Row:
- Prudy Netzorg — Waves of Fish
- Karen Martin (alas her black border disappeared on the black drape!) — Flight to the Past
- Mathea Daunheimer (sent all the way from New Zealand! where she now lives) — Progression: Growth
- Gail Galloway-Nicholson (made with wool!) — Simply a Star
Fourth Row:
- Patty Courtney — Leaving Ohio
- Maggie Schwamb — Railroad Colors
- Robinsunne — Expansion
- Barb Melchiskey — Block Swap (the blocks have velcro and you can move them like on a design wall!)
Here’s a close-up of the two blocks:
Our challenge blocks. The red-green blocks had some fading on the green but were meticulously hand-pieced. The Burgundy-cream were made from old-fashioned shirt ticking prints.
And on display at Maine Quilts 2012 in the Chapter Challenge aisle:
The small Chapter Challenge aisle at Maine Quilts 2012 (www.MaineQuilts.org), put on by the Pine Tree Quilt Guild, Maine’s statewide guild
If your group would like to have a similar challenge, we had very brief requirements this time. I wanted a consistent size as the quilts look better, more cohesive on display. For our statewide show, Maine Quilts, the small challenges must be pinned to a backdrop. A couple years ago I bought some plain black in an estate sale and use that for my drapes. The consistent size also makes it much easier to arrange the quilts and estimate size of the final display (required on the Maine Quilts entry form). The rules were to use at least 40 percent of the original block on the front of the quilt and that the fabrics must be recognizable. As luck would have it, we ended up with almost an equal number of quilts from each block. Barb was so inspired that the muse carried her away to a slightly larger sized piece (on the bottom right).
In my next post, I’ll share my quilt, Cardinal in the Pines.
September 8th, 2012 at 10:49 am
I love the idea but would love to see close-up pictures of each block. You know–the–“How did they do that?” part.
Nice challenge. Janet