Friday, March 11, 2011

The No Prints Allowed Challenge

The second Thursday of every month is a special one......it means it's time again for the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild meeting! I drive about 40 minutes one way to get there...that's how much I enjoy attending. I know there are members who travel even farther, including our president. It's pretty inspiring to be there every month. A record breaking 91 quilters attended last night!

 This month our meeting was especially exciting as we unveiled our projects for the No Prints Allowed Challenge. A few months ago we were each given a charm pack of Kona solids, generously donated by Robert Kauffman, and our challenge was to make a quilt using a piece from every charm in the pack plus any other solid fabric we wanted to add. Here is the quilt top that I created using a pastel color way charm pack plus Kona charcoal and white.
The block is called the Exquisite Block from Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking II. As you can see, it is just the top only as I didn't give myself enough time to get it quilted before the meeting. I thought it appropriate to photograph my unfinished quilt on my husband's unfinished garden shed that he has been working on since Thanksgiving for awhile now! (To be fair it has been snowing a lot...good excuse for the barn, but not the quilt!)
The pastels got a little washed out in the crazy sunshine, but hopefully you can get the idea. I first became infatuated with making a quilt like this exactly one year ago when I saw this one that Ashley was making at FilmintheFridge. I may not be very original, but I know what I like!
I used a folded one inch wide strip of white to add the accent flange and some dimension to the quilt.  I'll do a How-To post on that soon, in case you would like to try it. Wait. Can you even SEE the white strip in these photos? Trust me, each triangle has one!


I thought that you might like to see some of the other quilts that were made for the challenge, so go pour yourself a Pepsi and maybe even pop some corn.....there are not a few pics to follow ...just so you know!  Enjoy the show.................... 

































Can you even believe all the talent in this group? And this is only part of what was shown! Now you can see why I never want to miss a meeting!

16 comments:

  1. Your quilt top is exquisite! (Yes, it's an intentional pun.) I love it. Is that solid a medium gray?

    Thanks for sharing what the KCMQG is doing. Those of us trying to organize the Des Moines MQG chapter are inspired. We've got 19 people interested in organizing!

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  2. Wow! I love your quilt top! Thanks for sharing all the pictures. What a fun group to be a part of!

    Jennifer :)

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  3. 91 in attendance!! Does that set a record? Someone said to me recently 'quilting is just about a lost art'. Boy, is that person sadly misinformed. Quilting is alive and well.

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  4. I love what you did!! What a great quilt. We get our Kaufman charms at our meeting on Monday night. Our challenge is to add only one other fabric. Our guild chose the bright color way. I have been dreaming patterns but until I get the fabric in my hands, I haven't totally decided what to do. Thanks for posting all the pics. Your quilt ranks 1st in my opinion!!

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  5. Wow, what great quilts! This is why I really love the look of solids... I especially like yours (the charcoal is my fav!) :)

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  6. Oh my - what fun! And so much talent! Would love to see our guild grow to nearly 100 people! And Carla - I'm obsessed with that quilt too. I've been staring at it in Gwen's book for a year - I WILL make it...

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  7. What an amazing talented group of quilt makers!
    I saw one and thought YES that is my favourite but then another came along and I was like NO that one is my favourite and then another and then another and I have so many favourites.

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  8. Carla, yay for you!! Great job. I liked so many of the other ones too!

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  9. I love your quilt top with the white flanges. And I totally echo Catherine's comment above about having so many favorites (with yours being at the top of the list!)

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  10. I am so hoping to get back to KC and the Guild! These are inspiring. I was literally holding my breath with each scroll and saying "Ooooooh"!

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  11. Oh my goodness, what a gorgeous collection of quilts, including yours! Thanks for sharing!

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  12. Wow! You guys had some great stuff!

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  13. I suggest a google search for the Hundertwasser house for inspiration for more quilts like these. The colors and unusual shapes used on his buildings in Vienna, Austria are so unique - I think you'll like it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundertwasserhaus

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  14. Wonderful quilts which are, in my eyes, great art!
    I adore the heart-full standing ovation you give to people showing their first finished quilt!
    The photos and inspiration is amazing, thank you so much for sharing these creations!
    ~Christina in Cleveland

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