Sunday, 22 January 2012

January IMQG 2012 challenge

It was a happy day a month or so ago when I stumbled upon The India Modern Quilt Guild. Wasted absolutely no time in signing up. Was the 26th member and was sooooo glad to find there were 25 other crazy people who found messing with fabric absolutely normal. Lack of supplies didn't seem to be too great an obstacle to these brave (and crazy!) women and I was in la-la land to be part of this group :-).

When Shruti, the founder-member of IMQG and a fab quilter-blogger proposed a monthly challenge, all of us jumped at it. Here was our chance to do what we loved to do, not all alone, not all by ourselves, but with a group of yes, thats right, with a group of brave and crazy women (56 at last count) who spoke the same language. True, its just a virtual group right now; true, the members are from varied backgrounds/ cultures/ countries, but what a sense of belonging! I haven't had this much fun since school! :-)

Anyways, the rules for the January challenge were simple and straighforward - Use only warm coloured solids. I added another straighforward but not-so-simple rule for myself - NO fabric buying. Determined to work only from my stash of scraps, I pulled out all warm coloured solids, threw in some neutrals and unsheathed the rotary cutter.

Didn't plan much, just cut out as many 5.5" and  3" squares as I could from the available scraps. One look at the no. of pieces and I knew I'd have to scale down the project from a double bed spread to single. Not sure what these blocks are called, but 3 days of piecing them and I'm ready to scale it down to a tablecloth!

So thats what I made. A tablecloth. Though it still beats me why I bothered to add the batting if it was going to be a tablecloth!


Started with a darker centre and progressed outwards with lighter colours..Browns, maroons, reds, hot pinks, oranges, yellows. Alternated light and dark neutrals.


Quilted straight lines through the block centres. Lesson learnt : Do NOT use variegated thread when quilting straight lines. Its no point. Unless the lines are very close together I guess.

Backed it with blinding red fabric. Yes, from my stash :-). And hand bound it. A first for me.

(Oh, I did further scale it down to an octagon coz I was a bit strapped for time, heh heh!)

So that's my entry for the Jan IMQG 2012 challenge. Best part? The leftovers :-)...


So waiting for the Feb challenge. Bring it on I say!

One last look?

Did I say one last look?

When did I say one last look?

:-). Happy quilting!

16 comments:

  1. wow!!!That is a great write up Tina!!!!!!Looks awesome

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  2. Again, gorgeous tablecloth!! it's always nice to read your blog.I can feel your excitement when joining all those scraps:)

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  3. Really love the color gradation! I think you're no longer a quilter wannabe :)

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  4. Wow, I just love this....the colours are wonderful. So glad you found a group.

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  5. That is a very clever use of colours and fabric, and fantastic you could do it from stash. Your table cloth is gorgeous. Well done!

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  6. Beautiful Quilt! Cheers
    Shruti

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  7. wow...Tina...it's such an awesome piece of work

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  8. Just lovely! Your color combinations and pattern are fantastic!

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  9. It is absolutely stunning. You can write up a pattern for this work. So simple ye looks so complicated.

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  10. Tina. I am in awe of what you have produced. Such a wonderfully creative bit of work and how well you have written it up for the blog! I really am so delighted that we are all going to meet! So much inspiration and so much to share!

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  11. Love your quilt, Tina! And how generous of you to share your technique with us. Your choice of colours makes the whole quilt look so happy :)

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  12. good work Tina. quilt looking awesome.

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  13. Tina, I see stars in this table topper! Please link this in to this week’s theme of Star Quilts!

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