Quilt Exhibit Challenge, Part 2

A few weeks ago Connie shared the quilt she made for the Quilt Exhibit Challenge. Today I'm here to share mine!

The second annual Quilt Exhibit will be held September 15-17th at the Holiday Inn in Fargo! Sponsored by Blow's Sew -N-Vac, this is a fun event filled with quilt displays, classes, your favorite vendors and more inspiration than you can imagine! The Quilt Exhibit Challenge will be part of this year's display. There's still time to participate! Grab a kit and submit your project by September 1st to be entered to win some amazing prizes and have your work displayed in the show. Find more details here and at TheQuiltExhibit.com. Just to remind you, the rules of the challenge are:

• Must use some of each of the four fabrics in the kit.
• Must contain at least one star block from Kaye England's Sourdough pattern (included with the kit)
• Must be a finished quilt - front, batting and backing.
• Can be bound or faced.
• Must be 36" square or smaller.

For my project I decided to just make one huge scrappy star block. I pulled a huge pile of fabrics and started piecing strips together...then scrapped that pile and started over! Getting just the right "scrappy" look takes a little time and editing. I was hoping for a dark, moody feel and quickly realized that any bits of white in my fabrics brightened it up more than I wanted. So I took out all the white and added in a few black prints. I sewed and cut and sewed back together again, shooting for some sort of visual flow that would help your eye move around the center block. Once I had the center block done I had enough scraps to make the points of the star. I love the Amber Bella Solidsas a background. I think it adds to the moody feel and makes the reds, greens and bright blues really pop. Once I had finished my main star block I had two issues to deal with. 1. I hadn't used the white fabric from the kit and 2. I still had a huge pile of leftover scraps. I decided to use up all the scraps and make a pieced border around the block. I really like how this turned out and it was a great feeling to make use of those tiny bits! To solve my other problem I decided to try something new (to me) and make a flange binding. (A flange binding is that extra flap of fabric in a binding that looks similar to piping.) This would add back in just the right amount of white so I could follow the rules, but not take away from the look I was going for. I used this tutorial to make my binding. It's easier than I thought it would be, but does take some extra time. I am really happy with how the binding turned out though, and wouldn't hesitate to do this on another project! I'm really happy with my final results and even though I am desperately trying to soak up what feels like the last few days of summer before school kicks in and makes it feel like fall - this quilt definitely has a fall feel to it and I think will be fun to display as we shift into that mindset. I am so excited to see the full display of Quilt Exhibit Challenge quilts and I really hope YOUR project is there! There's still time to join in - grab a kit HERE or stop in the shop and we'll help you get started. Don't forget to turn in your finished projects to Modern Textiles or Blow's Sew-N-Vac by September 1st to be part of the Challenge display and to be eligible to win some of our amazing prizes (a sewing machine, $100 gift card to MT, or a $50 gift card to Blow's!!)

TO DO:

• Get your tickets for the Friday night Gala and lecture.

• Sign up for my Heirloom Tomato class at the Quilt Exhibit!

• Get your kit for the challenge and get sewing!

Happy Sewing! Roxanne SaveSaveSave