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Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Central Florida MQG Challenge Revealed

Monday evening at the Central Florida MQG meeting, quilts made for the chapter's Initials in Solids Challenge were revealed. Mine was among them.

For the challenge we were to:
1) use solids that begin with the same letter of our three initials - first, middle, and last
2) add one of any neutral
3) make a small quilt no larger than a total perimeter of 98"

The solids I chose were solids color chips from:

American Made Brand: lime for Linda
Kaufman Kona: daffodil for Darlene
Kaufman Kona: hyacinth hibiscus for my last name - Oh my gosh! In writing this blog post, I just realized... I actually used hibiscus for the solid.... and WROTE hyacinth in the quilting! I'm such a ditz.

Still stuck on a fascination with improv - and still not being able to do it successfully! - I started like this.

I definitely didn't know where I was heading with all this, but once I had some good-sized chunks, I used a ruler to cut them into more structured shapes - triangles.

Using my Janome 1600P to free-motion quilt, I used spools of new-to-me Glide thread. It's 100 percent polyester that's inexpensive compared to other brands.

I did a little ruler work play too.

Since I had watched a recent MQG webinar - "Quilting Words with Free Motion," by Jessica Skultety (free to view if you're a MQG member) - I was influenced to FMQ the names of the fabric colors on those colors. Here you can see "hyacinth" which should have been hibiscus! and "daffodil."

"Lime" is in the upper left of this photo.

On the rest of the quilt, I had fun filling in different designs in different areas, including quilting "LDH" in several places.

The quilt back looks pretty traditional because it is! An old fabric. But, the colors seemed right. (And the quilt is actually more square than this photo indicates.) The quilt is faced rather than bound because I ran out of fabric for binding!

I took a photo of the three fabric chips and used the photo to make a quilt label. 


I really like this photo, taken in the outside front entryway of our house. The colors work together.
LDH - 21-1/2" X 19"
And there you go. Another quilt that I have no idea what I'll do with. That's what comes of quilting for more than 30 years; saturating family members with quilts; having walls already covered with quilts; and making a quilt so personalized that no one else will want it, including the quilt writing mistake! (sigh) Linda

11 comments:

  1. You made me smile this morning 😘 I'd say it was successful even with the glitch.

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  2. I think it looks great. So what about the oops with the name -- it shows that you are human! Love the colors. No matter how many quilts you make, you are too talented and love it too much to stop. You go, Linda!

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  3. What a lovely piece! I so struggle with improv! I really like how you quilted each fabric in the sections differently. And I especially like how the quilting really shows up in the hyacinth, I mean hibiscus :) fabric And just look at that label! Great job all the way around!

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  4. Wow! You packed about as many different techniques of quilting into that little quilt as possible! It sounds like the process was a lot of fun. Did you enjoy it? Would you do it again?

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  5. I would so make a 'mistake' like that but no matter! I love this little quilt. What a fun challenge to match with your name.

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  6. It looks good hanging there. Keep,it in your sewing Room?
    I recognise the urge to create but then what to do with it.
    Luckily I've been selling some of mine at our local quilt show.

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    1. Chris, you're a no-reply commenter, so I hope you read my response to you here. I sure appreciate your encouragement, but if you could only see my sewing room... with its three quilts on the walls already, and three other small quilts (including my special "Florida" quilt) laying on a table for want of wall space to hang them. No, this challenge quilt will go into a pillowcase, and put on the top shelf of the master bedroom closet where it will never been seen again. Yes, I have tried to sell my quilts at the past two local quilt shows. While I have sold a total of 15 of them, the price I sold them at was ridiculously low. With the guild taking 10 percent, and the state taking 7 percent, it's almost like giving them away. I've been trying to give quilts to family and am now at the point of giving them to cousins, and cousins' children. And I still have at least 60 quilts in my possession. I wish I didn't have such a strong creative urge!

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  7. It does look very striking hanging in your entrance way! Maybe you should leave it there!?

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  8. Don't laugh, but when I saw this quilt on IG I was looking for the letters L and H (didn't know your middle name) and was wondering where they were hiding. Of course now it all makes sense ;)!!! I think this improv business isn't as easy as it might seem. I like your quilt and I especially like your colour combination. Bravo!

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  9. Linda, it came out great! I struggle with improv, too, and have been playing from my little scrap basket in the leader/ended mode. I don't think it's easy! I really liked the quilting you did on it, mistake and all! That's something I would have done! Glad I'm not the only one who does 'stuff' like that! I haven't tried writing words.....oh, boy, something new to play at! Enjoy your day! XO

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  10. I think you did an amazing job on your improv quilt. I know that the color palette were not your usual 'go to colors', but they look good together. At first I thought you were thinking of me with the daffodil color reference until it clicked that it was YOUR middle name. I was feeling very honored! :) How in the world does the state take a percentage of these kinds of sales? That's unbelievable. I've never heard of that before. What about donating some of the bigger ones to a charitable organization (after getting it appraised) and using it as a tax credit. A lot of ladies do that here in our area. They choose 501c charities and say it helps with their itemized contributions. Another idea would be an online blog auction of some kind. You need to find a home for the excess so you can keep on creating such awesome work.

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