I’m excited to share my challenge quilt reveal with you today.
I belong to a group of art quilters, The Endeavourers. We challenge each other to create quilts based on a theme. The themes are given each quarter, and we have three months to complete it and reveal it on our group blog.
This quarter we changed it up a bit and sent inspiration pieces to each other, either an item mailed or something sent by email.
My inspiration piece was sent to me by mail and was a swatch of text fabric about 7″ square. We were to use the inspiration piece in our project. So I taped my fabric to my wall and gave it some thought. I got so absorbed in the planning I forgot to take a photo of the inspiration piece before it was cut up!
I decided to choose a phrase from the text and work with that. This phrase made me think of a favorite scene from the movie, You’ve Got Mail. As I started to plan my quilt, I gave myself the additional challenge that all the fabric used in the quilt had to come from my stash and had to have circles on it. The only polka dot-ish fabric was the background fabric. The only non-circle fabric used was the inspiration fabric.
Some close up views of the other fabrics:
The finished mini quilt measures 16.5″ square. The backing is a scrap piece of Grunge, and the binding is one of the circle fabrics.
I played around a bit with the quilting, using big stitching in the circles. Once the circles were quilted, I added some additional circles, again using big stitches. Most of the big stitching is done with 12 wt thread by Wonderfil. I have several variegated threads and it was fun to use them in this quilt. The edge stitching on the outer circles was done with 12 wt Aurifil thread. When I was satisfied with the big stitching, I finished quilting the corners by echo quilting by machine with 50 wt Aurifil thread in Dove Grey.
But Wait . . .
Even though I enjoyed working on that mini, I wasn’t sure it was an art quilt. So I started wondering what else I could do. Plus, I wanted to see if I could use up the remainder of the inspiration fabric. I started by cutting out little inspirational phrases from the scraps. I played around with them and came up with this:
The flower and leaves are raw-edge appliqué.
For the stem, I used 12 wt thread in my machine with 50 wt in the bobbin. I hadn’t ever done that before, so I wondered how it would go. It was such fun and made the stem stand out just a bit. The leaves are from a scrap of batik, so it was easy to bend one of the leaves for a little different effect. The quilting was simple straight lines in a matching thread.
The background fabric is Essex linen. I used another text print from my stash for the binding, and a scrap piece of Grunge for the back. This quilt measures 8″ x 20″.
I enjoyed the challenge of working with different thread weights in each quilt, and I’m pleased that I used up almost the entire piece of inspiration fabric.
Hope you enjoyed my Challenge Quilt Reveal! Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Wendy
Ooooh Wendy — it has been worth the wait. Your challenge quilts are both spectacular. I could not say which I like best because they are both ingenious.
The circle piece in my opinion is an art piece. I like both pieces! The use of the words in the flower was a terrific idea.
Ooo, I like both of these! All the big stitching on the first one for twirls is fantastic. And I love that movie, so the idea of skirts twirling around is so creative. Then the flower petals — oh my! I love all the little words and phrases. Looks like time well spent playing with your fabric.
I think they both qualify as an art quilt. But I think the flower is my favorite, so original!!! I like the bent leaf and have never thought of doing that before. The hand stitching on the circle quilt is really fun. Good job. What inspiration did you send to someone?
Wendy this is FAB! The flower petals with the inspiration is a wonderful addition.
love, Love, LOVE the surprise! I didn’t know that being an “art quilt” was a thing. It seems to me that all of them are art. And to know that it came from using up scraps… ahhh… makes it even better!
This was such a fun post to read this morning with it layers (literally) of challenges. The big stitching on the circle quilt has such a wonderful textural effect. I am in love with your second challenge piece. Everything totally works from the 12wt thread to the petals made out of text fabric to the bent leaf! Even the binding is genius! Great job, my friend! Hope you’re having an enjoyable morning, Mary.
Love Love Love the spin-off flower. Accidental Beauty! Job well done.
So creative, Wendy! They are both awesome!
I love both of them and all the hand stitching really accents that first piece – job well done
Very creative. I read your post on The Endeavourers. Love your big stitching.
Challenge Quilts Reveal is what it should say! I love them both. The circles with the big stitch quilting is so much fun and then the surprise flower on Essex linen is wonderful. I love the petals made from the words and the stitch with the 12 wt is fun isn’t it. Great job on both counts – double the fun with this challenge.
Both projects turned out beautifully, though the second is my favorite of the two. I think you pretty much nailed the challenge in both.
Personally, I think you nailed the challenge, with both pieces! I love them both; but I have to admit, the circle one is the one that captured me. What creativity, each art piece in its own! Thank you for sharing!
Great use of the challenge fabric; I really like how you used it to such different effects with both minis. The big hand stitching looks like it was fun to do!
Thank you, Yvonne. The big stitching is very relaxing and fun. Feels a bit like coloring outside the lines!
Do I say this every time you share a finish, Wendy? I love what you make! I also love text fabric, and have used that very same one in several projects. The drunkards path mini is a neat design, and I really like your big stitch quilting in the variegated thread. Did you use those curvelets to make these blocks? And the flower is a wonderful use for that text fabric, too! I think you did a lovely job on your challenge projects!
OMG Wendy these are both terrific!!! I love the flower… love words and the way you used them. So graphic. I like the circles especially the stitching by hand… great job and inspiration for us!
Creative and beautiful! I love both of them!
I’ve been waiting and waiting for these quilts as you have been talking about them for so long. Well, they were worth the wait!! They are two different but lovely art quilts and both so creative. Without a doubt, I love the flower best (my flower bed is full of those lovelies). You should give yourself and big pat on the back. Two thumbs up from me.
I love that you get to play in your sewing room and create such fabulous pieces. I love them both, but the flower made me say “YES!” when I saw it. What a great job!
WOW!!! I love BOTH of your creations!!! The first with you self-imposed limit of ‘circles’ was very clever, and very well done! But then the flower, oh that flower !!! LOVE it!
You are obviously VERY talented! and I LOVE watching the variety of projects you create!
🙂
WOW!!!🤩 You knocked it out of the park with these! I hope to one day develop even a smidge of your creativity. Splendid indeed!
I love that they both use the carefully curated word! The rainbow thread in the circle piece made me smile, but the shape and creativity of the flower made me gasp! That piece is truly inspired, Wendy!
Hi Wendy, Your challenge pieces are beautiful! I really like the cone flower.
I’ve never seen that movie. But I like all the circular motion going on in your first quilt! What color grunge for the back? The coneflower is adorbs! Very artsy!!!
I love them both. And the quilting on the circles is perfect. I have wondered about combining some hand quilting with machine quilting. Beautiful work.
Like everyone else I really like both quilts. If I had to pick a favourite I would pick the second one because my reaction was literally out loud “oh this is great!”And I’m walking Rocco right now LOL So probably got some strange looks. Terrific use of the challenge fabric. Well done and I love the big stitching and I also love the 12 weight thread. I’ve done a lot of quilting with Sulky 12 wt over the years and it gives great results as you have shown!
These are both beautiful beautiful pieces. I love them!
Hi Wendy! If you could see Addison, she would LOVE your twirling in circles piece. She takes that phrase quite literally and does just that. I truly adore your coneflower with all of phrases as petals! How clever and very, very cool. Both pieces are fab – you’ll enjoy them hanging where you can see them. ~smile~ Roseanne
I enjoy your circles and especially the big stitches, but I absolutely love your second piece with the flower!!!! Like, WOW! Such a great idea, and I love the color you used in the flower, and the stitching with different weights is really cool.
Wendy those two quilts are splendid. Your circles with big stitches is so fun, but the coneflower is a real show steeler.