Oops, my bad…did you feel the earth’s spin brake to an almost screeching halt today? That’s because I finished my challenge quilt and turned it in – A WHOLE DAY EARLY! I must be coming down with something…
One of our local museums is celebrating its 100 year anniversary and they decided to have a quilt challenge as part of their hoopla. We were given a fat quarter that had to be used in a recognizable size, the quilt had to be 30″X30″ and it had to showcase the flora and fauna of New Hampshire and the Lakes region. The quilts will be judged and the top three winners will receive a cash award, artwork by a local artist and a pewter piece.
Here is a photo of the label with the provided fabric used as the frame.
Since it’s a printed fabric I decided to further challenge myself and not use any batiks for my additional fabrics and only use stuff from my stash. For me, batiks readily lend themselves to landscape quilts. I don’t get to do challenges like this too often so might as well go for the brass ring! I did pretty good. I did end up using a hand-dyed piece for the grass because that was the only thing that was the right color. But, shhh, don’t tell anyone. It wasn’t a requirement, only my self-imposed rule and I don’t mind.
The vision in my head was a stylized version of the view in my front yard of several birch trees. Trouble was, no fabric in my stash read “birch bark.” Then I got the idea of using ACTUAL birch bark. The birch trees occasionally shed their bark and I pick up the prettier pieces and save them for….something – I don’t know, they’re just pretty. Anyway, some testing with fused bark turned out pretty good and off I went.
There are hidden tree trunks in the woods, 3D leaves, a camouflaged moose and a couple of other hidden surprises. Here is the final result.
And a close-up of one of the leaf sections.
My only regret is that the smaller birch trees looked a little more like birch trees and a little less like palm trees. I also regret doing the final trimming at O-dark-thirty. If I had been just a smidge more awake I would have thought to double check my mitred border to make sure the miters came out exactly in the corners. Next time, more caffeine!
If you are local to the lakes region, you can check out all the quilts entered at The Libby Museum in Wolfeboro NH. They will be on display the entire month of August. Here is a link to their website for hours or further info. http://wolfeboronh.us/Pages/WolfeboroNH_Museum/index