close up of the Barn Quilt at Lapacek’s Orchard 

Wow!  As I was typing up the title of this post I realized we’re half way through the 3rd season.  I don’t know about you but I’ve really enjoyed myself this far – can’t wait to see what the last three challenges bring us!
Sticking with tradition, before we get to the challenge – let’s go over all the

PRIZES

Prize 1 QuiltsbyBarb is giving a gift certificate for $20 off machine quilting. The coupon expires in 6 months from the date issued and is not transferable

Prize 2 Quilties is giving away an adorable ‘I Love Quilting’ Keychain!

Prize 3 Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting is offering a Gift Certificate of $30.00 off Quilting on a Baby size or larger. The Gift Certificate will be good for 60 days from the date of issue. The gift certificate is transferable so you can share it with a friend if you’d like.

Prize 4 The Fat Quarter Shop will be giving one lucky winner a layer cake of their choice!

Prize 5 LoveBugStudios is giving a Quiltspirations! Mystery Card Pack  from her latest venture, quiltspirations.com.

Prize 6 Dye Candy is donating one yard of stunning hand-dyed fabric.

Prize 7 Fabric Fascination is donating a Fabric Bundle: 6 Fat Quarters from Kathy Davis Happiness Collection for Free Spirit in Indigo - 1 1/2 YDs (ps. I have this collection in another color way – SPECTACULAR!

Prize 8 Quiltology is giving a coupon for her longarm quilting services for 20% off with a minimum $40 purchase. All of her patterns are online.

Prize 9 PennyFabricArt is donating pretty little mini quilts from for a prize!

Prize 10 OddStuffbyXanthe is giving a beautiful small, original collage on a wooden block and a fun pin with a print of her original art work. 

Prize 11 TheApple is donated $10 to be redeemed at her etsy store on her handmade jewelry.  (aka my other etsy shop)

AccuQuilt’s Barn Quilt

The Challenge – Barn Quilts

As many of you already know, we have a barn quilt at Lapacek's Orchard.  Last week, a new barn quilt went up a few miles for us on a barn that is being converted into a wedding venue. Since barn quilts are on my mind, this week's challenge is inspired by barn quilts.

1. Your inspiration for this week is Barn Quilts.
2. Your project must include at least one block that would make a great barn quilt. Official barn quilts are usually 8 feet square, but you can make yours any size you choose.
3. The block can be manipulated and/or incorporated into a larger project, or it can stand on its own. 
4. Both the block and the project must have a name.  It is OK for the name of each to be the same, but it is not necessary.
5. Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge.
6. POST your entries with a description of your creative process, including where you are (ie, I create in Madison, WI) and the size of your project by Sunday, February 26th, 2012, at noon, CDT, to this flickr group – Project QUILTING with KimsCraftyApple: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/ OR email a picture/description of your completed project to {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line.
7. If you wish to receive critiques on your piece – the good and critical – please add your photo’s to this group as well:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1628629@N24/
8. Are you stuck?  Need a little ‘Tim Gunn’ advice during the week?  Or are you just so excited on how things are going along and what to share your WIP?  We have a group for that!http://www.flickr.com/groups/1430386@N24/
9. If this is the first Project Quilting challenge you've participated in, please email Kim at {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line so that Kim can keep you updated on the behind the scenes going-ons.

Illinois barn Quilt – photo by wantadog 

EXTRA LINKS for this week!

If you want to see how our Barn Quilt was put together check out these blog posts:

• Barn Quilts
• How to Make a Barn Quilt
• Barn Quilt – Orange
• Barn Quilt – Time for Purple
• Barn Quilt – Poppy
• Barn Quilt – Last Color – Bumblebee
• How to Make a Barn Quilt – Hanging the Quilt

• Cre8tive Quilter from Wisconsin has a ‘Quilt Block son Barns’ Block of the Week Blog you should definitely check out!

Barn Quilt photo by burke_wicker

If you want your name to be entered into the drawing for the prizes your piece has to follow ALL the rules – including being a FINISHED quilt and completed within the allotted time.
Remember, these challenges are intended to help you “Think Outside the Square”. Be creative. Take a risk. DO SOMETHING NO ONE ELSE WILL THINK OF DOING and of course, HAVE SOME FUN!

View from the road of Lapacek’s Orchard’s Barn Quilt

1. Sewing Day, 2. Coat of Arms, 3. IMG_0164, 4. close up 'Quilter's Garden' Project QUILTING Season 3, Challenge 3, 5. A Quilter's Mug Rug, 6. tool-chatelaine, 7. Tools, Time, Talent close-up, 8. .CloseUp of the Featherweight, 9. Howdy girl, 10. Happy Times - Close up of spool, 11. Tools just wanna have fun!, 12. detail scissors, 13. mmmm PIE closeup, 14. Project quilting challenge 3, 15. Paths of Life Quilt, 16. Project Quilting Week 3- Tools, 17. Dream Big - Project Quilting challenge #3, 18. And Sew It Begins.., 19. projectquilting, 20. 021212 010 Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Happy Sunday everyone!  Hope you had an amazing week!  I’m super excited about the 17 quilts finished for this weeks challenge (and the one that was almost finished – I can’t wait to see new pictures of your puppy Virginia!).  I know I had a super busy week so I was happy to even get mine done – and then I was super happy to see how it turned out!  Okay – enough of that…I’m sure you are all anxious to see who won some prizes!
Prize 1

Quilties is sending Sharon H this adorable Valentine Style Teddy Bear!
Prize 2
Quiltology is giving SweetDreamsbySarah a coupon for her long arm quilting services for 20% off with a minimum $40 purchase. All of her patterns are online.
Prize 3
LoveBugStudios will be giving SewLizz three patterns from her Quilt Possible! site. The patterns have instructions for die & rotary cutting.
Prize 4
LoveBugStudios is also sending WayMooreFunQuilts a Quiltspirations! Mystery Card Pack from her latest venture, quiltspirations.com.
Prize 5
Dashasel was chosen to receive the yard of fabric from Dye Candy!
Prize 6
Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting is offering Dotty Jane a Gift Certificate of $30.00 off Quilting on a Baby size or larger. The Gift Certificate will be good for 60 days from the date of issue. The gift certificate is transferable so you can share it with a friend if you’d like.
Prize 7
The Fat Quarter Shop will be giving Becky’s Blabber a layer cake of their choice!
Prize 8
QuiltsbyBarb is giving Pat Denino a gift certificate for $20 off machine quilting. The coupon expires in 6 months from the date issued and is not transferable
Prize 9
Nancy’s Unique Boutique will be getting a scarf/arm warm set from ThePaintedDaisy.
Prize 10
Shout4Joy will be getting  pretty little mini quilts from PennyFabricArt!
Prize 11
OddStuffbyXanthe is giving a greeting card, patch and button with prints of her amazing original artwork to AllThingsBelle.

I will be emailing the winners and the sponsors later tonight/early tomorrow morning with more details on redeeming/sending prizes.  If you haven’t heard from me by Monday night please send me an email.

Well – you get a week off from Project QUILTING.  The next challenge goes up on Sunday, February 19th at NOON.  I’ll be posting ‘Closer Look’ Project QUILTING Posts all week AND two new Home Sweet Home Quilt Block Tutorials will be up on Tuesday and Thursday.  Please help spread the word about how much fun you’re having on my blog to your quilty friends!

The first off season challenge, It’s All in Your Initials, is concluded and we had six fantastic entries. Since there is no official voting or judging this post is just to show off the great work the quilters did.

Quilter: UniquelyNancy

Starry Starry Night Shoulder Bag

I am from Warren Ct. and I have a hard time coming up with ideas for these challenges. This one came to me in a dream after looking at the colors I found to fit my initials, my initials being N.V.S.T.
I chose Navy, violet,Siren red and topaz yellow.

The navy print looks like a night sky so I chose that for the background and then used the remaining colors to make three New York Beauty blocks which I cut as the front and back panels for my bag. Then I dug through my many button boxes and found some metallic stars to add for more interest.

The bright red lining and the large interior pocket were then added and voila!

Quilter: Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

"Marcia's Tiny Treasures Quilt"

It's all in your Initials - Project Quilting

Marcia Wachuta Boscobel, Wisconsin
Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting

Midnight Blue, Evening Blue and Wild Watermelon were my colors for MEW. I chose colors from the Crayola Crayon website. Using a variation of my Scattered Quilt Pattern, I constructed a small quilt. I quilted it with my name all over the quilt in a wavy design. You can see a video of the quilting at Work in Progress - The Quilting. The quilted wall hanging measures 30" X 32".

I attached the binding with an all machine embroidery binding and added a hanging sleeve on the top. I hung it on the wall behind my quilting machine, where I then added all my tiny treasures..... Pins from quilting events and pins from when I was a teacher. Pins from Relay for Life including a photo of my Dad who died of cancer in 1996. My Mom is currently battling cancer. I pinned up my tiny crocheted items that I made years ago. Then I added charms, pins, and necklaces from four generations of my family. They all have special meanings. As I was going thru' my treasures, I found the little beaded pins from the 90's! Can you see the American Flag and the Packer G? I decided to group the items, but I certainly could have just put them up in any order. What a delightful quilt project! The perfect spot for all the little memorabilia from the past. As I find more items, I will proudly display them on my quilted wall hanging.

Quilter: ForQuiltsSake

Celebrate Your Differences

Made by Pam Geisel of For Quilts Sake in Yellow Springs, Ohio, May 2011 for Project Quilting Off Season (Spring 2011), Challenge 1, It’s All In Your Initials

17” x 17”

My creative process and how I made it:

My initials are PKG so I used Purple, Green and Black. The purple and the green should be obvious, but why did I use black? My background is in graphic design and when designing something that will be printed in full-color, we use the color system CMYK which stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I can only assume they used “K” for black because using “B” would make people think blue. So black really was the first color I thought of to use with my “K”.

I thought it would be fun to use some of the fabrics that I won from Project Quilting last season. One of my prizes was a set of Hoffman Bali Batik bundles. I got the Grasshopper collection which conveniently was mostly greens, blues and purples. I picked out some of the greens and purples and then added some green hand dyed fabric that I also won.

I came up with a design that used fabric in 2.5” strips since that’s how wide the batiks were. I decided to use the black fabric as squares going from one corner to the other diagonally, but I wanted to add something special to them so to be different, one of the diagonal squares is a green/purple batik instead of the black. I knew I wanted to keep the connection so I planned on outlining that square with black.

My original quilting idea was much different than I ended up using. Once everything was pieced, I got out my threads and while I did have several greens threads, I only had one spool of purple and it was variegated. I like using variegated thread but with a small project that will be quilted with a straight stitch, it’s hard to see the colors change. And I didn’t have a variegated green so I thought that might look a little odd for one to be variegated and the other not.

I then thought I might do some seed stitching with needlework floss but found that I didn’t have much green and didn’t seem to have any purple. Where has all my purple gone?

Back to idea number one but instead of stitch-in-the-ditch or some random curves going from one side to the other, I thought it might be nice to sew a quarter inch from the seam and use purple thread on the green pieces and green thread on the purple pieces, so I took the black thread off the sewing machine and started to put on the purple when I noticed how well the black thread showed up against the fabrics and I quickly threaded the black back into the machine and did the quilting.

I used my favorite facing technique for the binding and then got out my large supply of beads and yarns and ribbons to decide how I wanted to embellish this quilt. None of the yarn or ribbons felt right so on to the beads. I did have several green and purple beads but most of them got lost in the colors.

I just couldn’t decide how to use the green and purple beads so I stared sewing some black seed beads around the special square to outline it. And since the beads were sitting out on the quilt waiting to be sewn, I noticed some had rolled onto the black quilting lines. I really liked how they looked placed at random intervals, they were small so they didn’t overpower the piece, but they were large enough to be noticed.

Quilter: KimsCraftyApple

The Tree

My colors for this challenge were:
(K)ohl
(A)sh
(L)ime

I decided to try out a few different appliqué techniques - reverse and raw edge.

I layered my lighter gray fabric (ash) below the darker gray fabric (kohl) and basted them together. I then took my tree template and sewed along the edge of it. Using my sewing lines I carefully cut the kohl fabric off in the pattern of the tree. Once this was done I realized I wanted a few more little branches off the sides and I added those as well.

For the leaves I used different lime fabrics and fused them onto the fabric. Once all pieces of the tree were complete I had some fun free motion quilting it.

Once this was done I realized it needed more. I loved that the rules of the challenge allowed us to use other colors to embellish. I knew right away that I had to add a tire swing. My girls have had HOURS of fun on Grandma and Grandpa's so it is definitely a must. The next thing I decided to add was a button lawn. I know I could have used my machine to stitch these down but I decided to do it by hand - it kept me busy and my mind off the fact that my new baby was content in my belly.

Approximate Dimensions: 14" x 20"

Created by Kim Lapacek
Madison, WI

Quilter: AllThingsBelle

"Garden Party"

This is my entry for Project Quilting's Off Season #1.

Our challenge was to create a quilted piece with color names from our initials. I'm Jennifer Jacqueline Rodriguez.
J - Jalapeño
J - Java
R - Raspberry

For this project, I wanted to work on piecing. I had been eying the Sprocket pillow tutorial and thought it would be a great starting point. I had never pieced a circle before this. It was not super easy, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

When I worked on this, I had just finished a different pillow and I wasn't really in the mood to make another. I thought this quilt top would be fabulous as modern expression as a flower. I made a matching fabric covered button for the flower center. I'm not huge on everything be symmetrical, so when I hooped it askew - I think it helps it look more flower-ish as well.

Quilter: Diane Lapacek

Pansy Fury

My initials are DML. I considered many color combos, but finally decided on daffodil, mango, lime. Wild!!! Not my usual range, but, hey, a challenge isn't supposed to be easy. I first thought of doing some kind of a bargello, then cutting it up and putting it back together to create a more interesting effect. That swam around in my head a bit then I thought, "Why not do it in a circle." So that's what I did. I flipped a few pieces to add interest, then cut the edges in curves instead of a circle because I thought it had the look of a pansy. I added an extra layer of mango in random spots, then went looking for a piece of lime green to appliqué it to. I couldn't find anything in my stash that suited me, so I dyed up a few pieces. I learned that it takes ALOT of yellow and a little blue to make a really great lime green.

I covered the raw edges of the appliqué with rickrack, DMC floss and other hand dyed and commercial fibers. I stitched the ends down, then twisted them all together and stitched them with a straight stitch. This allowed them to stay loose enough to give a 3D effect. Because these were embellishments, I added some gold and brown tones. I used two different combinations of fibers.

I added the squares and rectangles in the corner because I liked the contrast with the curves of the "pansy". Satin stitching added an additional design element. I added some mango bias tape to create a border effect.

I quilted the mango portion of the "flower' in lines from the center outward and the daffodil portion going around the circle. The background is a freehand fern effect and the "border" has a small pebble pattern. I left the squares and rectangles un-quilted.

The flower center was created by using "shreds" of hand dyed fabrics. Whenever I square up a piece of hand dyed fabric, I throw the "shreds" into a box. I took a few at a time and wrapped them around my fingers, then laid them flat and stitched through the center to tack them down. I fluffed them up and trimmed the wildest ends to create 3D loops that add great dimension. A lime stripe cut on the bias was used for the binding.

This is my first challenge. Up to now I've been a judge. I have always been amazed by the things the Project Quilting participants create in just one week. After completing this, my respect for all of you has only gone up. This is not easy. But it does feel great to finish a project I would never have envisioned without this challenge. And it was FUN. And I know it will make me a better quilter.

26" x 30".

Created by Diane Lapacek in Poynette, WI.

A new challenge will be posted this coming weekend – Stay TUNED!

Also, if any participants from Season 2 want to fill out their interviews and return them to me so I can post them I would LOVE it!

Here is a look back at the one’s I’ve posted so far:

• KimsCraftyApple
• ForQuiltsSake
• Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

1. Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom: detail, angle, 2. Mum-burst Medallion, 3. 6March 26 2011 085 (Medium), 4. koi 4, 5. Sugary Sweet Baby Quilt, 6. Piecing History Together, 7. Close up Kitty Window 2, 8. Miss California Poppy close up, 9. Funky Froggy Flowers - close up, 10. Spring is Here, 11. 024, 12. projectquilting, 13. Project QUILTING - Large Scale Print - Spring Converges, 14. crane improv quilt blocks, 15. Ready to Break Through - Finger Paint Depiction of My Project Quilting Week 6 Concept Created with fd's Flickr Toys

I am loving the pieces created for the final challenge of the season! Great job to everyone and thanks to all for your support and creativeness during the last 11 weeks! I hope everyone is happy with what they’ve created – I know that I’ve added six fabulous new pieces to my portfolia. Thanks again for everything!

With that said…we still have one more week for voting! Prizes to be one for the participants and the public!

Can’t remember last week’s challenge? http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2011/03/project-quilting-challenge-6-large.html

This week’s PRIZES!

The Public Choice winner will receive $10 to Fabrics N Quilts and $10 to SpiceBerryCottage.

The Judges Choice winner will win $15 to FabricFascination and a pdf of 2 maze quilt patterns from Lisa Penny.

FOUR randomly drawn participants will take home either $20 for Machine Quilting Services from QuiltsbyBarb, $10 to DyeCandy, Downloadable Quilter's Cookbook - Volume 2 from the QuiltingGallery, OR a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting

Voting closes at 7pm CST on Friday, April 1st.

This weeks’ JUDGES!

Diane Lapacek

Barb Raisbeck

Lisa Penny

Guest Judge: Ebony of LoveBugStudios (aka Season 1 Grand Prize Winner)

OTHER BONUSES:

Don't forget! Everyone that entered a piece for this challenge can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2011 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend.

I will also be sending everyone their rank (somewhere between 1 and 10 – be sure you’ve emailed me (lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com) your email address) and any critique’s the judges have about your creation. The top 3 scoring projects will be posted on my blog next weekend.

PUBLIC WINNERS: YES, you can win a prize too! You’ll find out how to WIN at the bottom of this post after you’ve checked out each of the quilt entries.

And now here are all the entries – in no particular order…

***Please note – I have left the images smaller to help the blog load a bit faster. I strongly URGE you to take closer looks at the projects before voting by checking out their submittals on the flickr group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/

THE ENTRIES:

Quilter: For Quilts Sake

“Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom”

Made by Pam Geisel of For Quilts Sake in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Mar. 2011 for Project Quilting Season 2, Challenge 6, Large Scale Print.

24” x 28.5”

My creative process and how I made it:

I don’t usually use a lot of large scale prints, but I did have half a yard of one with large overlapping yellow, orange, pink and burgundy flowers that I’d bought several years ago for a purpose that I don’t remember now. It’s just been sitting in my stash taunting me.

When this challenge was posted I knew I wanted to finally use that fabric and a layout came to me rather quickly, it was just the stripe that had me concerned. I’ve used striped fabric before (I like to use them for bindings) but when I’ve gone to buy them I usually haven’t liked the selection of striped fabric. Because of that concern I actually came up with a second layout using a different large scale print that went with a striped fabric I already had in my possession.

Off to the fabric store (the only one of the six challenges that I’ve had to buy fabric for). I wanted a stripe fabric with at least one of the colors in the large scale print but not something too formal or straight. The very first striped fabric I found was perfect, and how often does that happen? I did check out all the other options but went back to the first one, a yellow fabric with an orange stripe that looked like it was made with a crayon, so not too formal or straight! And it was a remnant, so I got it for half price.

I also purchased the burgundy background fabric because I wanted something that was mostly solid so it wouldn’t compete with the large scale print or the stripe but it had just enough color variation to provide some visual texture.

I pieced the background fabric to the stripes so the stripes are horizontal on the left and right inner borders and vertical on the top and bottom. Then to be a little different, I cut out one stripe and ran it the other direction going length-wise on the left side of the background (more obvious on the detail photos).

Then I pieced the corner blocks and added the large scale print fabric as borders. (Regarding the first part of this challenge: including the seams I used about one quarter of a yard of my large scale print fabric.)

Before I added the other elements, I quilted the burgundy background at this time with slightly-curved horizontal lines in both a dark burgundy and a pink thread to give it more visual depth (the dark burgundy thread is a little hard to see in the photos). I quilted stitch-in-the-ditch on both sides of the yellow stripe border then did the same slightly-curved horizontal lines in the borders, going all the way across the top and bottom borders and doing shorter waves on the side borders.

I wanted a visual element to go on the burgundy background that had the same energy that the large scale print had but at a smaller scale so I made the three “fabric mosaics.” I fused many small pieces of orange, pink and burgundy fabrics on a square orange background allowing the mosaic pieces to form unusual angles at where they stopped.

I covered them with netting (which provides the sparkle that shows in the photo) and quilted them together with a purple-y thread and also an orange thread. I folded the raw edges under then machine appliquéd the mosaics to the background, aligning the top and bottom blocks so they were centered on the yellow stripe.

To hold the yarn and ribbons in the center of the fabric mosaic blocks I considered at least 10 sets of items including shells, plastic rings and round paper clips but decided to use three square buttons from a blouse I bought about 18 years ago (I probably bought the blouse because I liked the buttons) and when it was time for it to become a rag I saved the buttons…and my husband even recognized that they were from a blouse that I used to have).

I twisted different yarns (including fun fur) horizontally across the quilt and added beads every few inches to hold them in place.

Because there are so many overlapping flower images, I titled this “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom.”

Quilter: Quilties

Mum-burst Medallion

This is my entry to Project Quilting 2:6. I recreated the designs from my inspiration fabric in 3-dimensions to make this circular wall quilt. I loved the white mums and elegant leaf sprays in the large scale print!! The mum stands out three dimensionally, but is also dramatically accented with the orange starbust below it, setting it off from the light background fabric. The designs in that background fabric were pretty subtle in color contrast, so I quilted around them in outlines to really make them more visible. The stripe called for in the challenge was also a very subtle contrasting fabric, but cut on the bias added just another little spin around the circle, similar to the spin of the orange star points. The piece was looking very circular and symmetrical, which I really love, but to break that up a little and add some interest, I added the branch of blue leaves.

The room photo shows how happy this piece looks in my studio in Urbandale, IA. It's 17" in diameter and very me!!
- Emma Thomas-McGinnis

Quilter: Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

Spinning Spiral Flower Bag and Reflection Bag

Marcia Wachuta Boscobel, Wisconsin of Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

I made one large bag and one small bag. I did the mosaic so you can see both sides of the bag. Left side - one side of the bag with the three flowers and the quilted reflection bag. Top Right - the large spinning flower and the quilted refection bag. Middle Right - close up of the large spinning spiral flower. Bottom Right - view of the bottom of the bag, so you can see the connection of the stem from one side of the bag to the other side of the bag.

For challenge six, I used two large scale print fabrics (more than 1/8th of a yard of each one) and some stripes and plaids. I cut them all up into skinny strips and made the four spinning spiral flowers - a large flower on one side and three smaller flowers on the other side.

So I took a large scale print fabric and cut it up and then turned it back into a large scale print fabric by raw edge appliquéing the flowers on the yellow fabric. Then I quilted it with swirls and wiggle lines and constructed a HUGE Bag from the quilted fabric. I also quilted some extra yellow fabric and made a "quilted reflection" of the large bag. There are no raw edges on the inside of the bag. I bound the seams with the yellow binding too.

Quilter: Moran Art and Quilts

“Koi Transformation”

Measurements: 25”x32”

This quilt gave me some real challenges this week. I found this koi fabric and knew it would be hard to work with considering the pink and turquoise. I cut it in two pieces, added a turquoise border and started to make another border using squares cut in two with strips down the middle of them. I got half way done with the border as the one picture shows and didn’t like it at all. It was just plain boring.

After sleeping on it (not the quilt) I almost scrapped it but decided to just cut it into four pieces and move them around to divide up the colors a little better. I sewed them back together and added borders between and around the whole piece. It still needed more so I drew the koi fish, bonded it on and used raw edge appliqué, marker and paint to finish it off. I really liked the look of the added koi fish and if I had more time I would have added another one in the upper right corner, too. I also would have quilted it a bit more with some free motion quilting on the fish for scales and texture.

I’m happy with how it turned out considering how frustrated I was with it on Thursday! I don’t think I could ever totally scrap a quilt and always find them salvageable in some way.

Catherine
Columbus, OH

Quilter: Springwater Designs

Sugary Sweet Baby Quilt

For my Big Print entry, I made a fun and funky baby quilt featuring a cool big print running slightly off centered across the quilt. The striped print is used on either side of the large scale print. The pink outer border fabric and bright yellow binding are also bigger prints.

To feature large scale prints in different ways I also used one cut up as the blue center of the tilted nine patch blocks, and I used the border fabric cut thin for sashings next to the striped print. The tilted nine patch blocks are something new that I tried and I like the feel of movement that they give to the quilt.

Since it's a quilt that will be washed, It's stabilized quilted in the ditch along all the borders and blocks, and all over quilted with a fun loop - loop in the big print and borders.

Quilt measures 30" x 42" and was made in Jessup MD

Dawn Stewart

Quilter: AllThingsBelle

Piecing History Together

I'm Jennifer Rodriguez, art quilting in West Jordan, UT.
My mini art quilt is a 18" square.

My final piece for Project Quilting was inspired by the devastation in Japan. Sadly in addition to the immediate loss of loved ones and homes, there is also the loss of historical artifacts and destruction to sacred land. My quilt is about Japan piecing their lives and history back together.

My required large print is a traditional Japanese scene of young women with umbrellas. I cut the print up and removed a few pieces. They were fused on to a striped fabric - the striped fabric included shades orange brown for land and blue for water. I also add irregular shaped pieces of additional orange brown and blue fabric to symbolize the earthquake and tsunami.

The piece was then quilted in numerous horizontal lines. These quilted lines helped create a cohesive look, bringing the pieces of the original print back together. When you stand back from the quilt, it is not immediately obvious that the fabric was cut. It is only when you get closer that you notice the cracks and separations.

It was bound in the same deep blue to symbolize the water surrounding Japan.

Quilter: Virginia Palmisano

Kitty Window

Here is my entry for this weeks challenge. I am calling it Kitty Window. The large print fabric is a piece full of kitties rolling around in a field of yarn. I got this remnant piece from a fabric store a few years ago. I liked the piece and didn't know when I would use it but had to have it. It reminded me of my sister in law who love cats and I wanted to make something for her with it. The piece measured about 18 inches by 16 inches. I cut it in 4 pieces and put it together with a brown fabric so it would look like a window looking into a room full of cats playing with yarn

Quilter: Dashasel

Miss California Poppy close up

The inspiration for my quilt's name comes from the following poem:

Miss California Poppy, gay
Is happy all the live-long day,
And though some poppies grow much taller,
She's brighter, she's brighter even though she's smaller.

(unknown 1930s children's book)

As soon as I saw this week's challenge, I knew I wanted to use some fabric with large poppies. I have also used this fabric for curtains and though bright and bold, I love it because it reminds me of California (poppies are California's state flower), which is where I grew up. With this California theme in mind, for the quilt top, I first cut my poppies so that I could layer them and make them appear abundant (this also ate up more than 1/8 yard, surprisingly!). It also gave me a chance to practice applique again. I also wanted the poppies to take on a framed look (or perhaps I was just itching to try another new technique), so I reverse appliqued my California template. Although I probably had enough poppies at this point, I love them so much that I appliqued a few more and did some light embroidery as well. Finally, since California is known as the Golden State and I typically think of it as being sunny (which it isn't, but I have a rosy view now that I am in the Midwest), I appliqued a sun to the quilt top as well. Since part of the challenge was to also use stripes or plaid, I used a herringbone background and emphasized the stripes by quilting down the horizontal lines.

I normally use plain quilt backs, but having researched California's state symbols, I decided to spice it up a bit. First, I discovered that California has a tartan! Ooh, how I really wanted to use this on the front, but the plaid was a bit too clashing for me. So I printed it onto fabric and decided to use it on the back. Next, California's colors are blue and gold. These colors are also in the tartan so I decided I would create a row using the tartan and blue and gold. Finally, California's state bird is the quail. How could I resist?! I found a quail image online and used that to create a quail applique.

For the quilting, I quilted around the appliqued poppies, California, and the sun. I was careful to avoid quilting on top of the quail because I like it better without the lines going through it. I also quilted following the horizontal lines of the herringbone to play up the stripes part of this challenge. Finally, because I liked the quail, I wanted the quilt to be able to hang from either direction. I like attaching the quilts to the wall directly, so I placed little triangle sleeves on both the front and the back of the quilt. I put them at the top and the bottom so that perhaps they would look a little like the corner tabs used to hold pictures in photo albums. Looking at the quilt now reminds me of a gigantic California postcard!

This quilt was made in Milwaukee, WI and is 18.5" X 22".

Quilter: Kathleen Quilts

Funky Froggy Flowers

My large scale print had lots of color and some frogs. It's a cute print but I didn't want it to be all about frogs. I wanted to really play with textures and that helped disguise the frogs a bit. One flower had petals that are very bumpy - created with texture magic. Another flower was quitled with batting before being appliqued. The circular flowers are similiar to yo-yos but I used heavy stabilizer in a circle that was a bit to big - this gave a gentle buckling wave to the circles. Buttons are in the center of the circle flowers. The stems for the large flowers are made from a braid of floss of several different shades of green.
The vase is a striped fabric that I pleated and stitched the other edges, then stitched the center the opposite direction to give it more interest and texture.
The quilting is diagonal wavy lines.
I originally intended to do the binding on the bias but with the diagonal quilting I preferred the straight stripes.
31" x 24"
Created in Cissna Park, IL

Quilter: Sally’s Angelworks

Spring is HERE!!!

Ohhh I went totally traditional and true to my simple aesthetic with simple squares and with the focus on the spring quote from Shelley:
"And Spring arose on the garden fair;
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;"
Had to add a bird and buttons to add to the vintagey feel of these Moda fabrics (3 sisters Faded Memories).

The flower petals were glued on with fabric glue in the shape of a bluebonnet (since I'm in TX and we're in that season now! yipeee!!) I free-motion quilted all around on the top and bottom and FMQ the grass/leaves/stem on the bottom of the flower. I know that I tend to not do things perfectly, but the wonderful thing that I've learned through this process is to keep creating with your heart! This always produces something that I love! Which is the point, right?

made in TX...22.5"x26"

Quilter: Gock’s Frocks

Grandma's Garden - modern table runner

Kristen Hallagan - Rochester NY

For the final challenge I used one of my favorite large prints - geranium from Martha Negley.

I also was inspired by the modern quilting movement and decided to use Kona white to highlight the print.

I started with a 12" block thinking I would use a series of 12" blocks to make the table runner. However, after completing the 2nd block I did not like it next to the 1st - scale was off...so I chopped it in 1/2 and decided to add random sized parts rather than 12" blocks...as I progressed if I thought a section needed more color, I would cut it apart and add another block of print. I added a patchwork wonky strip of greens and had one in shades of orange but cut that out as I decided to stay with the blues/greens.

this challenge also require us to use a stripe or plaid so I used a stripe cut on the bias for the binding and decided to use linear quilting stitched to create the impression of a stripes.

the final size ended up being about 12" x 55"

I added some print to the back and appliquéd one of the geranium blossoms on the back so that if you wanted, the table runner can be used on either side.

it was a lot of fun watching it grow .... rather than following a set pattern - kind of like a garden grows!

----------------------------- -------------------- -------------------------------------

These are not eligible for Public Voting Prize

Quilter: KimsCraftyApple

Spring Converges

I used some fun fabrics to create a converged wall hanging for this challenge. I chose to converge 'White Humming Birds' from Michael Miller, Laura Gunn's Big Poppy Spice fabric and a striped fabric.

If you've been watching my pieces through the seasons I've done convergence before - so I knew when I decided that this is what I wanted to do for this challenge I knew it would have to be above and beyond the past. I went with combining a few of Ricky Tim's techniques from his book Ricky Times Convergence Quilts: Mysterious, Magical, Easy and Fun- with Divide and Conquer Convergence with a touch of Grand Convergence. I think the convergence technique really appeals to me because you have to really trust your gut that your fabric choices are going to work. There’s not much ‘laying’ out prior to cutting to be able to ‘see’ what’s going to happen – it’s all about the gut. Once the convergence portion was done - I added the borders and appliquéd some flowers and birds to the quilt. As I stepped back and looked at I decided it wasn't enough yet...

So, made some yo-yo's and had them cascade across the quilt. To add the final touch - I found some tiny circular mirrors in my stash and glued them to the center of the yoyo flowers.

I really like all the movement this quilt creates.

Approximate Size: 34" x 21"

Created by Kim Lapacek
Poynette, WI

***Sometimes ‘life’ happens during the weeks of the Project QUILTING challenge. I love that some are still using these challenges as inspiration for future projects. Here are a couple of WIP quilts inspired by this weeks challenge:

Quilter:

Aunt Cindy’s Attic

Ready to Break Through - Finger Paint Depiction of My Project Quilting Week 6 Concept

This is as far as my entry got this week. I found some giant floral fabric on a brown background. Alone it was kind of ugly and looked a bit like fabric my mom had in her bedroom in the late 70s. I thought it looked a bit like the flowers were buried. Then I thought, "Sure they are, they just haven't come up yet!". I planned to piece a background of various browns and applique the flowers on top of those.

There is a bit of brown on the top of the piece. My 3 year old son (who has been sick this week) decided to help with my picture as well as paint his own.

It took far less time to create this *fine* piece of artwork than to make the actual quilted piece, though I still have the urge to make it.

Quilter: Kathleen P

crane improv quilt blocks

I'm sharing my WIP here, just because it's inspired by the challenge. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish this one since the person who makes my sewing possible was out of town taking care of his mother this week (cancer: keeping daughters-in-law from quilting since 1884!).

But I didn't want to do nothing, so I took the opportunity to slice into a Robert Kaufman crane print I've had sitting around. I fussy cut 7 crane images and then went at them improv-style. I started out thinking it was going to be something like a wonky log cabin, but the cranes seemed to want a straight setting and I happily diverged from log cabin.

I don't think I've ever improvised an entire project before! Which is crazy since I improvise pants and stuffed animals and muffins all the time. I'm having a lot of fun with these, not sure where I'll go next, but I thought I'd share since I wouldn't have cut into that piece of fabric at all if it weren't for Project Quilting. Thanks Kim and everyone!

Now for the PUBLIC Comment PRIZE!

Everyone is eligible to win this adorable Blue Striped Embroidered Teddy Bear from Quilties for this weeks Public Comment Prize!

ELEVEN Chances to WIN!

Entry 1: REQUIRED! Leave a comment on your favorite entry at the bottom of this blog post (you can also comment on twitter/flickr/facebook but that won’t get you an entry) (or at least that you voted) and vote for your favorite on the poll on the upper left hand side of the blog. -***MUST DO***

Optional/Additional Entries – please note – if you want to qualify for these additional entries you must leave a SEPERATE comment for each with your email address– if you already follow or are a fan, etc just leave comments saying each. If you write everything in ONE comment you only will have ONE entry…

Entry 2: Follow my blog.

Entry 3: Follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/kimscraftyapple

Entry 4: Tweet about this fantastic contest with hashtag #PQLarge (important or I won’t know you did it)

Entry 5: Like Project QUILTING on facebook

Entry 6: add my Project Quilting ‘Grab my Blinkie’ to your blog or blog about my giveaway (link your blog or post in your comment, please)

Entry 7: Head on over to Quilties on etsy and let me know your favorite item in the store!

Entry 8: Sign up for my newsletter in the upper right corner of this page!

Entry 9: Blog about Project QUILTING and leave a link here to what you wrote.

Entry 10: Like Quilties of Facebook.

Entry 11: Subscribe to Quilties blog.

***Participants, Judges, and Sponsors in project quilting ARE allowed to enter in the public poll/contest as well.***

This means you have ELEVEN chances to win! I need you to write each of these entries as different comments in order to qualify you for all eleven entries and include your email address. If you don’t include your email address I won’t be able to contact you when you win and I will have to choose a new winner. I will be picking the winner on Saturday, April 2nd.

***Changes to Prizes/Voting this season***

1. One person can no longer win both prizes. If this does happen (as it has), they will take home the ‘JUDGES Choice’ prize and the person in 2nd in the PUBLIC vote will take home the ‘PUBLIC’ prize. As before, each of these winners will not qualify for the random prizes. I’m doing this just to spread around all the amazing goodies so many great sponsors donated!
2. The second is, I will not be listing myself (KimsCraftyApple) on the Public Vote. Since this is my ‘creation’ I will never win any of the prizes – I don’t want to seem like this is biased towards me at all. I’m doing this merely for the fun, the challenge, and the camaraderie. I will still, however, be showing off my entry AND sending it to the judges for their score and critique.

Wow! I can’t believe this is the final challenge of season 2 of Project QUILTING. Is it just me or did that go by super fast!?

Don’t worry – it’s not too late to join in the fun – there are prizes for each individual challenges as well as for a Grand Prize winner.

To read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html

This week’s PRIZES!

The Public Choice winner will receive $10 to Fabrics N Quilts and $10 to SpiceBerryCottage.

The Judges Choice winner will win $15 to FabricFascination and a pdf of 2 maze quilt patterns from Lisa Penny.

FOUR randomly drawn participants will take home either $20 for Machine Quilting Services from QuiltsbyBarb, $10 to DyeCandy, Downloadable Quilter's Cookbook - Volume 2 from the QuiltingGallery, OR a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting

Everyone that enters a piece for this challenge can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2011 Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend. I was just informed that Barb wants to give TWO of these gift certificate’s away and we’re going to give our guest judges the option of adding their names.

This weeks’ JUDGES!

Diane Lapacek

Barb Raisbeck

Lisa Penny

Guest Judge: Ebony of LoveBugStudios (aka Season 1 Grand Prize Winner)

The Challenge: Large Scale Prints

1. You must use at least 1/8 yard of a single large scale print on the front side of your project. It can be a regular eighth (4 1/2" x 44") or a fat eighth (11" x 18") or anything in between, but the total needs to add up to 1/8 yard. It can be used as 1 piece or cut into smaller pieces and used.

2. You must also use at least 1 stripe or plaid fabric. No restriction on quantity.

3. Add any other fabrics or materials you wish.

4. Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge.

5. POST your entries with a description of your creative process, including where you are (ie, I create in Madison, WI) and the size of your project by Sunday, March 27, 2011, at noon, CDT, to this flickr group – Project QUILTING with KimsCraftyApple: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/ OR email a picture/description of your completed project to {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line.

6. If this is the first Project Quilting challenge you've participated in, please email Kim at {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line so that Kim can send you feedback from the judges and keep you updated on the behind the scenes going-ons.

Remember, these challenges are intended to help you “Think Outside the Square”. Be creative. Take a risk. DO SOMETHING NO ONE ELSE WILL THINK OF DOING.

Once again, I have a wonderfully talented guest judge for this week – Ryan Walsh of ‘I’m Just a Guy Who Quilts’. I discovered Ryan on twitter and have enjoyed his blog for quite awhile. Here’s a little bio that Ryan sent me so you can all learn a little more about him:

“Ryan Walsh is a self taught quilter and quilt designer who enjoys taking classic quilt designs and updating them with a modern twist. He’s employed full time as a NYS Licensed Funeral Director and manages a funeral establishment in his hometown. A busy dad, the majority of his quilting adventures occur in the late hours of the night after his kids are in bed!

Ryan uses quilting as a vehicle to satisfy his never ending need to be creative. His work is based around combining traditional piecing methods with free-style construction techniques. As a way to challenge his ability, Ryan participates in several online bees and quilt related swaps every year. When he’s not quilting, Ryan also enjoys photography, embroidery, collage, crocheting, sightseeing and spending time with his family.

Co-owner of the quilt design company, Patchwork Squared (www.patchworksquared.com), Ryan currently resides in the Catskill Mountain region of Upstate New York with his wife and children. To see more of Ryan’s work you can visit his blog at: www.ryanwalshquilts.com.”

I just want to thank Ryan right now for taking the time to critique the projects and support this fun little venture. I can’t wait to see all the entries that he’ll have to judge! I also had to laugh when I saw that Diane had made the challenge Flying Geese as Ryan is a block designer for the Blogger’s Block A Palooza Quilt Along (his block will be posted on his blog this Thursday) that has been all about Flying Geese and Nine Patches! Too ironic!

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the beginning of your weekend. I know you’re all anxious to hear the winners of the Hardware Store Challenge so I’ll get right to it!

I’ll switch it up just a bit and go for the Judges Choice Winner first.

Starting with 3rd place, an average score of 8.425 is…

QUILTIES!

Here’s what the judges thought:

Judge 1: I love all your colors and the paint chips. I, too, love to pick up those strips. I love to pick up the folders that have all the different pallets of colors in them!

Your piece is not straight on the edges. Maybe blocking your piece after it is completed would help with this.

Judge 2: Great job of depicting the spray paint aisle. I like the look of the paint chips in their pocket. If the paint chips had been pieced from fabric, they would have made this piece into something more universal, and also more saleable. I like the paint tape inner border and the multi-colored outer border with the great corners.

The edges don’t appear quite straight. Blocking might help.

Judge 3: Love the paint concept. Great Job!

Judge 4: I so totally agree with you on the concept of fabric being more expressive than flat paint colors. So did Matisse, by the way, as he adored textiles and celebrated them in his work. I love the way you used color gradations and print variations in your progressive border. And your use of the blacks added great contrast in almost a graffiti style across the center. Placing the chips in the plastic sleeve really enhanced the contrast of the flat paint next to the textured fabrics, giving the piece visual depth and thoughtfulness. One silly but easily changeable thought: I'd reverse the order of the paint swatches, so the cool paint colors start in the left side by the warm fabric colors, and go in the opposite direction, to give contrasting energy.

Next, taking home 2nd place with an average score of 8.88 is….

ForQuiltsSake!

Here’s what the Judges had to say:

Judge 1: It is amazing some of the ideas the participants from Project Quilting come up with. I love all your embellishing on this quilt and would love to have it hanging in my home. Good job.

Judge 2: Nice piece. It has a nighttime feel. I like the way you threaded the cord through the drain and the effect of the yarns and ribbon. The rain chain batik is great.

I feel like you’re apologizing for not using the actual items on your piece. Absolutely not necessary. The items are intended to inspire and that inspiration can manifest itself in many ways.

Judge 3: Love the look of the quilt & the concept of it. Very well done.

Judge 4: It's interesting how your inspiration grew out of your materials, rather than the idea dictating the materials. Your design has a very pleasing balance, the way the visual horizontal line bisects the vertical free-flowing line, and in the placement of the circular elements. I'm glad you left the open space in the left side, enhancing the focal point of the fibers and giving depth in the absence of lighting. Perhaps a little mimicking of the circular reference in the stitching within that open space would give a nice balance of thirds, but that's a subjective idea. Some of the curves in the free-motion stitching could be smoother to reflect better on the circles, but I like the pattern.

And taking home this week’s 1st place from the judges scores with an average score of 9.125 is….

Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting!

Marcia will be receiving $10 to FabricsNQuilts and $10 do Dye Candy. (I did switch the public and judges prizes here since I don’t think Marcia should be giving herself a prize…)

Here’s what the judges had to say about this piece:

Judge 1: I really like this piece. I am so glad you went with the black binding. I think I read that you considered orange but the black really draws the piece together. I love the back of this quilt. It looks awesome!

Judge 2: I love the story. Great thought process. As usual your quilting is outstanding.

Love the color and movement.

Judge 3: I really like the look of your quilt and your concept behind it. It also reminds me of a windsock which you see handing outside at old fashion hardware stores.

Judge 4: Your conceptual idea is a wonderfully meaningful representation of the universal community of quilting. Across cultures, quilting and textile arts draw people together, and your interpretation demonstrates this within the unique theme of this challenge. I love the flow of the design with the colors across the piece. Your quilting skills are impeccable, with such perfection in the background quilting and a smart contrast of style in the wires. You've done a great job of mixing the theme of the global community of quilting, with excellent skills.

It is now time to announce the Public Choice Winner. All week a poll was up on my blog and it was up to YOU to choose your favorite. Getting 48 of the 178 (or approximately 27%) of the votes is…

Quilties!

Quilties will be receiving a Pattern & Notecards from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting and $15 to FabricFascination!

And now, I’m off to get the names in the hat for my kids to draw the random prizes. Stop by later today to see more winners!