Medallion Challenge

I have a few things on my "design wall" this week.

 

My quilt guild has started a new (optional) challenge for 2016: a medallion challenge. To participate, members had to make a center block (any size you want) and bring it to our sew-in last Saturday. Each month for 5 months, we will be adding a border to the quilt top, based on certain specifications.

I want to make an autumn wall-hanging, so I made this 12 X 12" center block:

I wanted to play with size, so I made the red maple leaf 6 X 6, the three orange leaves are 3 X 3, and the yellow one is 4.5 X 4.5. At first I considered making a white background, but I opted for Kona azure instead, to look like leaves tumbling in the sky.

At the meeting, everyone who was participating wrote out a quilt block or technique (9-patch, applique, etc), and put their papers into a bag. The challenge coordinator pulled out one paper, and that is what we must incorporate into the first border. She also pulled a crayon out of a separate bag, and that is a color we must use in the first border. So everyone has to include at least one snowball block and the color red-violet in border #1. The snowball block does not have to be red-violet, and you can use any other blocks/techniques and colors that you want.

I spent some time this yesterday planning out what my border will be. Based on the center blocks that women brought to the guild meeting, it's going to be really cool to see what everyone does with the first border.

We have to bring our quilt to the February meeting. Apparently, if you don't finish the 1st border, you will get some sort of "penalty" that you have to do for the 2nd border, in addition to what everyone has to do on border #2.

I recently heard about One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Red Letter Quilts, so my goal for February is to make the first border for my medallion challenge. If you're not familiar with One Monthly Goal, hop on over there and see what it's all about!

In other news, I finished another block for my Christmas Sampler:

 

While I'm not a fan of machine paper-piecing, I fell in love with this 12 X 12 "Lone Starburst" block at Six White Horses. Since it's only one block, I decided to give it a try. Don't pay attention to the fact that the centers don't all meet up perfectly! I haven't seen the quilt police show up at my house EVER, so I think I'm safe from quilt jail. Ha Ha!

 

I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday and Heidi's One Monthly Goal.

 

Happy stitching!