Wednesday, October 28, 2020

20th Anniversary Challenge for the Elgin Piecemakers


 I belong to a small quilt guild--the Elgin Piecemakers--that recently celebrated 20 years of getting together to share our love of all things quilting.  We have 20 members and we meet in each others homes. There is always a wonderful social/snack time at every meeting.  In late 2019, we decided that we should celebrate our 20 years as a guild in a significant way.  Someone proposed an anniversary quilt challenge--we would each make our own centre block and then each month for several months, we would be given instructions on what to add to the centre block to make a medallion quilt. Somewhere in our quilt, we had to add something to indicate 20--and I chose to make my centre block XX--20 in Roman numerals. 

I chose to use fabric I had in my stash.  I found a half yard of yellow paperweight Kaffe Fassett fabric and a fat quarter of the same fabric in green. The background is leftover from another project and I had about a yard of it. Then, I got out my green and yellow Kona solid scraps and added those to the mix. I also made the decision to make my blocks in a liberated fashion, like I had learned at the Beaver Island Quilt retreats with Gwen Marston several years ago. 

For the first border, we were told to add stars. I made 4 liberated/wonky stars and decided to just add them to two sides of the centre block. 


Next up was appliqué borders on two sides of the quilt.  I cut some of each of the two Kaffe fabrics on the bias and hand appliquéd them to the background fabric. 


For paper piecing, I made some string borders using various widths of my scraps and Kaffe fabrics.  You can see the string borders above. 

Curved piecing was the next prompt.  I stacked a solid with a Kaffe fabric and sliced through them on a curve before sewing them together again to make my units. 



The second to last border was to be made with HST's. By this time, I was running short of the background fabric so I figured this might be my last border.  I made some string pieced squares and cut them in half on the diagonal to make my HST's. 


The final border could be whatever we wanted it to be.  I chose to use the binding as my final border.  I had just enough of the yellow paperweight fabric to bind my quilt. 


I found a piece of bright green solid which I used for the backing.  I quilted my quilt on my domestic sewing machine with my walking foot using yellow thread. 


My husband took a picture of me with my completed quilt out in our backyard earlier this week. 


This was a great challenge for the members of our guild.  

I wonder what we will do for our next challenge.  I will just have to wait and see.  I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge crew on Saturday since this month's colour was yellow. 

16 comments:

  1. It turned out great! So sunny and bright :-).

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  2. What a wonderful commemoration of 20 years. This is a really creative quilt. I like the fabrics.

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  3. Very nice challenge for the celebration. And I love your quilt and how you played with the instructions. And I love the colors :-)

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  4. Beautifully done! Bravo! I'd be curious to see how the others interpreted the vague directions since everyone could go their own ways as they saw fit. I happen to have some of that orange paperweight Kaffe fabric. Loved it then and love yours now! Great job!

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  5. That is a very fun quilt! I love the bright, happy color with your great background fabric. It will be such a special commemoration of your group's 20 years!

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  6. What a fun challenge quilt. Such a fun way to mark your anniversary.

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  7. A great way to mark an anniversary. Following the prompts, I’ll bet there are 20 different takes on those suggestions! Fun!

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  8. What an unusual design. Really makes you want to look at every bit of it. Great idea to use the Roman numerals for 20. Like the colours you chose too. It would be interesting to see what the other members’s quilts look like! All very different from each other I guess.

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  9. That turned out great! I love how you improvised with the fabric running low on the last border. Genius!

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  10. LOVE how the finishing of your Challenge quilt aligned with the RSC Color of the Month. It looks like you had SEW much fun!

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  11. Where are the Elgin piece makers? Looks like a fun and very productive group!

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  12. What a terrific challenge for your group! I love how you interpreted the guidelines and made a fun and happy quilt... of course paperweight fabrics are my FAVOURITE!

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  13. Fun challenge and fun quilt. Congrats for meeting the challenge!

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  14. This is a fabulous quilt with lots of challenges to keep you busy. The fabrics you chose are filled with lovely colour choices and pattern. Love how you applique those Kaffe Fasset fabrics to the quilt. A fabulous quilt to commemorate such a great milestone.

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