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Question of the Week

Question for the week of January 4, 1999:

Our question this week comes from J Pelland

I would like to know what kinds of challenges different guilds have had and enjoyed - Is it alright to have a challenge theme, but no challenge fabric?

Jane ryals :
I think the biggest challenge is time. What can you create in a limited time. Say, three weeks. further limits--monetary, materials on hand

Dottie Cyr :
Have your quild pick a theme. Our quild
Heart of the Valley chose a bird theme. Some where on the quilt there had to be a bird of any size also the color orange had to be inthere some where and lots of embelishment.

cherry pie :
we have a challenge at our annual retreat every year. We always have a theme and a fabric, sometines you can only add 3 other fabrics and sometimes up to 7. We think the theme works best because the winner then gets all blocks (except 2nd & 3rd place, who may keep theirs) we think this makes a more pleasing quilt when completed.

smlaroc :
Our guild has experimented with both.
This year our theme is a "love song" with
just a size restriction. Everyone is
very excited. I think they like it
better.

Michelle from Vancouver BC :
Our challenge has always been with the worlds "ugliest" fabrics.Once a year every member donates a piece of the ugliest fabric that they have in their stash, then the fabric is cut up,packaged and given out to the members. We have to make a 12 inch block of our choice, but 75% of it has to be made from the ugly fabrics. Its alot of fun and makes you become very creative, because there is alot of uglies out there!!!

Willie :
In our guild last year we had a border
challenge,of which I was in charge.
Everyone started off with a 121/2 sq.in
the center and then every month I gave
them the next border to be added,ex.
triangles,rectangles etc.It was a lot of
fun.Everyone used their own fabric in
their own color choice.

Sharon Kohlman - Alberta Canada :
We have a small quild and a couple of years ago we held a "challenge" in conjunction with our annual quilt show. We chose a group of fabrics, but no theme. At the show (which runs for a week) we had the visitors vote for the best liked project and that girl received a prize. It was fun and most of the girls took part.

Cathy Calvo :
It depends on the challenge, whether or not you should have challenge fabric. My guild recently held a challenge with a theme of children's books, and the entries were donated to the local library. There were challenge fabrics, which I think is good because it tied all of the entries together, but frankly the fabrics were so awful I couldn't get inspired to participate. I could see not having challenge fabrics if everybody is taking their entry home afterwards. In fact, I think that would be nice because frequently challenge fabrics aren't something that works with your decor.

Jana from Wash. :
We exchange our ugliest fabrics and had
to make blocks out of them. It had to
be pieced, 12" finished and we could
incorporate black into it. The blocks
were a real challenge! They were
beautiful and set in black sashings. We
drew names to see who got the top. I
made a quilt tag for the back which
read. May you always have enough
blocks- May you always have enough
friends- Even if there ugly ones.

Vicki in Southwestern PA :
For our Christmas party our Guild had a
block challenge. We each made a 12 in block
that represented ourselves in someway, either
our interests, favorite colors, or block
design. (For instance, one of our members
was born in Ohio so she made the Ohio Rose
pattern, her name is Rosalyn so it tied in
in that way also.) Then we tried to guess
who made what and the one that guessed the
most got all the blocks. We found out a
lot more about each other with this challenge!

Sarah in Alabama :
My quilt guild, the Cotton Boll Quilt Guild has had a challenge almost every other year. We have done two-block challenges (had to use the specified pattern), template challenges (had to use certain templates),and charm square challenge (swapped 3" squares with all members of the guild and had to use 150 charms in the quilt). This past year we combined and had to use either an equilateral triange or half square triangle (quarter square triangle accepted) and the 1998 Hoffman challenge fabric. If you want to see some of the challenges look on our web page. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Woods/7581 There are photos of several challenges from 1998 and other years.

Marilyn Daly :
We had a very successful 'novel' challenge. Participants chose the title of a novel and interpreted it in their quilt. Two fabrics were supplied, both pretty indeterminate in that one was dark and moody, the other a self patterned creamy white. Wonderful creative expressive thoughtful quilts resulted.

Jan :
I love a challenge without challenge fabric!!! We made many different star blocks as a guild last year. Our challenge was to each come up with a star that we had not covered as a group. Worked great!!! The challenge stars could be used as a block in the star quilt that was the project for the year, or they might be for a completely different project. This way fabric purchase was not necessary. : )

Another year, we had a challenge fabric, with which we could make ANYTHING, not just a quilt or quilted project. Also fun.

Beverly King - Bend, OR :
A challenge is what you make it! The members of the challenge group can make the rules and then they should follow them - Sometimes this doesn't happen and there may be disappointed members.

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