Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Challenged by Challenges

I love challenges, but may have over-challenged myself a bit this year ... to give you an idea, here are some of the things on my plate.

I have previously participated in one of C&T Publishing's Creative Troupe challenges - to use their paper-based kraft•tex™  product in some new colors.  I received a sample of the new light gray called stone.  I wanted to take advantage of the leather-like stiff nature of the product and designed this cell phone wallet.

Cell Phone Wallet - Outside Cell Phone Wallet - Inside

You can see all the other projects made on C&T's kraft•tex™ Pinterest Board. 

For me, it was fun, functional and I always intended to make another for myself adding some fabric for my version ... but procrastinated while I thought about buying a new phone.  I mention it because that experience led me to sign up for another Creative Troupe callout–to use their TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) product in an interesting way ... the deadline is approaching and I am still creatively stuck.

I know that sometimes I am a little frozen by fear.  I've blogged about my scaredy cat ways in the past and you would think that by now I would have just gotten over it.

Another example is the current round of the Cotton Robin (which I cannot share until after the round robin quilts are finished and home again).  I love the idea I have for the quilt at my house, but ... I am afraid that I will not be able to accomplish it. That deadline is also coming soon ... so I will be forced to face that particular fear soon.

Preparing for the MQG Spring Fabric ChallengeI am curiously drawn to the Modern Quilt Guild's fabric challenges ... probably because making a quilt from a single fabric line is not the way I usually work and it is challenging for me to do so. I can't resist trying ...

I missed the announcement about the spring challenge, but when Marie offered to send me a package of the fat eighths of the challenge fabrics, I said yes, please.

Unfortunately, when I went to my local quilt shop, they had none of the Riley Blake Cottage Garden fabrics, nor coordinating solids ... fortunately, I found a layer cake and some yardage at fabric.com. Part of the challenge is to try something new ... I am planning to include some sashiko stitching–something I've long wanted to try, but never have.

The deadline for this one isn't until July, but some quilters already have finished quilts and a lot of others are much further than gathering fabrics.  You can find photos on instagram with the hashtag #mqgfabricchallenge

You'd think I have enough on plate ... but I have also signed up for the Poster mini-group at the guild (you create a piece of 6 quilts based on posters, with deadlines every 6 weeks).  I am also committed for the H2H challenge and haven't made much progress on that front ... and when Bridget sent email out last month about a scrap bag challenge for the Chicken River Modern Quilters and I had a conflict for that day, I promptly turned around and suggested it to our local Modern-ish mini-group.   The challenge comes from Victoria Findley Wolf's 15 minutes of Play.  The basics are you fill a quart-size ziplock bag with scraps, swap them, then make a quilt using ALL the fabrics in the bag you receive.

Here are the fabrics I pulled from my scraps.

The fabrics I put togetherIt's probably because I have packaged up and mailed fabrics, blocks and quilts so many times over the years, that I neatly pressed and stacked the fabrics in the ziplock I created.

It also helped me see the mix of fabrics that would be someone else's challenge.

The result was that my bag looked neat and flat (on the left) and most of the others looked like the one I received (on the right).

The bag of scraps I created The bag of scraps I received for the challenge

I came home Monday night with the idea of making some liberated basket blocks, probably because it's on my someday list, but woke up yesterday with a new idea.  I unpacked the fabrics, considered each one, pressed them, and lined them up on the table ... asking myself if they could work in a quilt now in my head.  So far, so good ... just have to meet a few other deadlines first so I can dive in.

All the fabrics I received

Add to the pile a couple of personal challenges–I heard last week that the owners of the house I rent will be putting it on the market and terminating our lease early–which will mean a lot of downsizing (I'll never find a sewing space like this one) and packing and moving a lot earlier than I planned–and well,  I am definitely feeling challenged by challenges–in quilting and in life–right now.

I am joining the lists for WIP Wednesday and Ester's WOW ... even though most of the projects listed here are just barely in-progresss ... the good news is that I should have lots of progress to share going forward ;-)

10 comments:

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

Boy, you held your nose and plunged right in, huh! The challenges are all exciting sounding, well except for the moving one.

I do hope you find a great quilting space!

CathieJ said...

Wow you have a whole lot of challenges in the works, including finding a new home and moving. I don't envy you.

Sewing Up A Storm said...

Wow you certainly are keeping busy with all those challenges. That is not a bad thing though. I am so sorry about your move. I do hope you find something else that will work well for you. Moving is hard work no matter what the reason.

Quiltdivajulie said...

I'm dizzy just reading about your challenges (especially the early termination of your lease).

Linda in Arkansas said...

Very interesting challenges - and I totally get the scaredy cat feeling as I get that way too. And how come I haven't worked that out either? I do not know how you deal with all these deadlines - they would stress me out way too much! I have plenty of that going on at work. I give my self deadlines for my sewing but they usually don't matter.

Marei said...

You've definitely got your hands (and head) full of challenges. I'm the queen of procrastination so challenges with deadlines actually work well for me. However early termination of a lease is not a deadline I'd want to be playing with. I wish you good luck on finding a place that fits your needs and feels like 'home' to you.

JanineMarie said...

I'm a little worn out after reading about everything you have to do, but they all sound so interesting. I really like the scrap bag you sent out. I didn't like the one you got--until you laid it out nice and neat. Now it think it's pretty. Good luck with the downsizing!

the zen quilter said...

I like challenges too! But I must admit I don't think I could be doing all that at once! I'm impressed and your scraps you pulled are awesome - love the colors! I love the MQG challenges, too. This time's fabric is fun - can't wait to get to it!

Terri said...

Oh my... you done did it, didn't you. I signed up for 4 challenges, and am really only keeping up on 2, sort of. You do what you can and don't fret about all the others. Life is about living, not driving yourself crazy.
On the down sizing... my sis used her large living room as a craft room when she had to downsize from a really big house. It was the entry to her home that only visitors used, she came into the house from the attached garage. Just a thought.
Hugs

Anonymous said...

You do have a lot of creativity to explore there. I like the scrap bag challenge. I had to laugh because my bag would have looked like yours, but I know most of my friends' would have looked like the one you received.

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