Central Florida MQG Quilt Challenge

While it seems like I haven't been doing much sewing or quilting, in fact I have, but just haven't been able to share it. That's the downside of participating in a quilt challenge when a reveal date is set and other quilters are voting on their anonymous favorite. There's no sharing on social media.

The upside of participating in a quilt challenge is pushing oneself to design and implement an original creation. That's certainly not my strong suit! But I keep banging my head against a brick wall...  Err. Trying.

For the latest Central Florida Modern Quilt Guild challenge, we were to first bring to a meeting any non-quilting magazine. Well that was a tough one to begin with as I don't subscribe to any magazines! But happily, members brought along several different ones to share. I chose this, the April 2017 issue of Real Simple. 

Then, we were to look at pages 48 through 52, and choose a page from which to take inspiration to make a quilt. Our quilt design concept could be gleaned from any of the page's elements - colors, shapes, and such - and the quilt could be made any size we wished.


This L'Oreal ad for Wrinkle Expert cream on page 49 spoke to me. I mean, the topic was wrinkles for goodness sake! The second was the colors - royal blue, fuchsia and purple. I also liked how the curved colors darkened and lightened.

My last bit of inspiration was from the Wayward Transparency Quilt made by Yvonne Fuchs (QuiltingJetGirl). I've been long-enchanted with transparency quilts, and at the time I started this challenge I was choosing fabrics for Yvonne's Wayward Transparency Quilt Along. I applied Yvonne's color/value lesson to choosing values for my challenge quilt.

I made the curved pieces using the Quick Curve Ruler, and was happily surprised that the design went together rather quickly. Guess that's what comes of creating minimalistic. Here's a black and white photo of the quilt so you can see the values.

I positioned the colors to match the ad. 

As I've said, my skill is not in designing, and I continued to question my choices. I decided to email the above picture to a long-distance friend (I've never met her in person) who I implicitly trust when it comes to anything quilting related. After all, she's a past QuiltCon award winner, among other talents! Paige (QuiltedBlooms) replied with several helpful suggestions.

Mentioning that artists give weight to color, she suggested I rotate the quilt 180-degrees to position the darkest values at the bottom. Then, she drew on the picture I'd sent and returned it drawn with simple quilting lines. I modified it only slightly.

Wrinkles Fade Away

Paige also suggested the name that I immediately latched onto. Thank you for all your help, Paige!

Batting is Quilter's Dream Wool which I love for the dimension it gives to quilting which is entirely walking foot quilting done on my Bernina. 

Whatever colors of thread I had on hand that came close to each color and value - Aurifil, Mettler and Prescencia - were used for quilting.

Binding is pieced to match the color changes that happen on the quilt front. I used my No Tails Binding method, of course!

"Wrinkles Fade Away"

Finished October 2017

30-1/2" wide X 39-1/2"

Fabrics: mostly Painter's Palette solids, and some Kona solid

Batting: Quilter's Dream Wool 

Threads: Aurifil, Mettler and Prescencia.

Quilt label has a photo of the magazine page.

Wrinkles Fade Away was revealed at the Central Florida MQG meeting on Monday evening, November 13. Eleven modern quilts were shown and members voted for their three favorites. I placed second, and I'm feelin' pretty happy about that!

First place on right; third place on left.

Linda