Calico County Challenge

The Calico County Quilt Guild has met in the afternoon on the second Saturday of the month for many years. I belonged before Chris was born, couldn't fit it into my schedule for perhaps 30 years, and have rejoined since I have been retired. It's a small group that now meets in the basement of Bethany Church in Montpelier. When I first joined, the group was large and had a number of well-experienced quilters in it. Sometimes, it was intimidating to a newer person. Now it is smaller and the range of skills and interests varies, but I enjoy the fellowship of the group.


This year, we decided to try a challenge. Each person was to bring a fat quarter of fabric that she loved and another that she didn't like at all. I brought a multi-colored Kaffe Fassett that I just didn't know what to do with along with the moth and dragonfly fabric that I used for the back of Vicki and Samantha's quilt. We put the likes and dislikes into separate paper bags, and each person pulled one from each. We can add only 2 other fabrics and the final piece should be no larger than 12" square. It's due in February.




Here's what I pulled out of the bags. I loved the blue swirly fabric, but that khaki with beige was definitely outside my comfort zone. The khaki fabric also had some deep red and black. I knew that the traditional patchwork block just wouldn't work for these two fabrics even though I am dying to try the Anita's Arrow block described in the most recent issue of Quiltmaker magazine.




We had a newcomer visiting the group who also got some challenging fabrics, and I sure hope we haven't turned her off from the group. Before we left, though, I realized that my final product, which needs to be no larger than 12" square, would have to be something non-traditional. Elaine said that the last time she participated in such a challenge she ended up making a little bag, with one fabric on the outside and the other (the ugly one, presumably) on the inside.



Not quickly defeated, I thought a landscape would be a possibility. The blue swirls looked like a very bright night sky. Who knows what the khaki looks like! I thought back to a landscape quilts workshop I took at VQF years ago, and I also decided that fusible applique, though not my favorite, would be OK here.


So here is my final product, and I really like it. I ended up appliqueing the swirly hills and stream by hand but the tree was fused. I ran up and down the trunk with rayon thread on my sewing machine to give it a little texture. I cut the blue swirls on the borders out with a rotary cutter and fused them on. I machine quilted the whole thing. This was a fun activity that I would love to do again.