The Challenges Revealed

I have been hard at work the last few weeks creating a piece for the Guild Challenge!

The Guild “Golden Scissors Challenge” is issued early in the year… in February, at which time you may register, pick up the fabric and rules for the exorbitant sum of a $1.

The rules were pretty simple.

• The theme is "Stars".
• The perimeter of the quilt should not exceed 200".
• You must use at least some of the challenge fabric 
• The quilt can be hand- or machine-pieced and/or appliquéd.
• The top must be completely finished and ready to be layered and quilted.
• There must be a label on the back that includes name of maker, name of quilt, and other relevant information. At least one star must appear on the quilt top.
• Quilts may have a secondary theme such as holidays, seasons, etc.
  

Categories for judging included:

• best interpretation of star theme
• greatest number of stars
• most traditional
• most unique use of stars
• best handwork
• best machine work
• best in show (viewers' choice)
  

There were 20 entries in the challenge, nearly half of the entire membership, which is an extraordinary turnout! The guild has a membership of 52… and just recently expanded to 54! I have posted pictures of the prize winners, mostly because many of the entries were original designs, and I did not ask permission and well the windows behind us made some of the pictures not as great as they could be…. All the attendees of the meeting were the judges by ballot, so the quilts were judged by quilters of all levels.

First up was Deb B’s…. and she won for “Most Traditional”. It was hand quilted. Her quilting depicted fire works, which is what the challenge fabric reminded her of.

Brenda A’s …. was a Hunters Star and won for ‘Best Machine Work’ every single point matched!!! (sorry for the picture… neither picture I had was good). I don’t think the camera liked the light and couldn’t figure out where to focus on the quilt.

Irene T’s was a stunning in it’s simplicity and workmanship. She won for ‘Best Handwork’ and “Best in Show”. While she didn’t use the smallest bit of  the challenge fabric…it was close. (“the comets tail”)

And lastly my quilt. The challenge fabric is her dress, the largest piece used… in any of the quilts (I think). She started life with the working title ‘snow queen’ because of her cape and hood, but since the theme was stars… that had to change. The title is Estrella del Cazador, translated The Star “Hunter”. The inspiration came from a Dover Design Coloring Book. All I saw was the star in her hands… I, of course,

took some liberties with the drawing and made much of it my own by coloring with fabric. I played with this… and had lots of fun and some frustration… in making it my vision. Some things worked and some didn’t quite go as planned.

One of the things that worked was the star in her hands. I used 2 pieces of wool behind it, but above the cotton batting, to make it seem round and appear to come off the quilt, like a globe. One of the things that didn’t go quite as planned was the fur on her cape. I really wanted it to look furry, but the thread just didn’t want to cooperate and the “maker” was a little frustrated that day… but I really like how the ‘holographic/flat iridescent’ thread on edges shines and gives sparkle. One of the other things that didn’t go as planned was her face… I used a bit of wool batting behind that too so I could add some dimension there as well, but all it did was make it wrinkle a bit, which in the end worked. I’m not sure it translates in the picture… I also didn’t have quite the right color thread to stitch in facial contours or wrinkles…. it is bad enough I had to give her chin a bit of a cleft! I built it as I went with very little thought as to how and when I was going to achieve each element. I wish in some cases I did a little more planning…

All in all she was fun to make, I am happy with it. The prizes she took were ‘Best Machine’, Most Stars (68-the globe, the appliqued stars, the quilted stars, the jewelry and 19 sequins on her dress) and ‘Most Unique use of the Theme’. Each prize was a small gift certificate to the LQS!!!

As Always… More Later!