Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Silk and sows

This year I decided to take part in one of my guild's president's challenge. Here's what the rules were:


"The theme is “Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s
Ear”. We will provide packages of 8 to 10 charm squares
of less-than-gorgeous material and you are invited to
incorporate them all in a quilted project (e.g. wall
hanging, wearable or other) of no more than 80 inches 
in perimeter. You are challenged to produce something 
lovely from materials that would easily be considered less-than-
lovely. The projects will be presented at the May 2014
Annual General Meeting where we will vote for a “Viewer’s
Choice” winner. So, let your imaginations soar and let’s
see what “silk purses” we can come up with!"

 Originally, I was just going to make the challenge piece a pieced quilt. I got lucky because one of the charm squares I was given had two full cardinals that I could cut out and applique.

 This is the quilt that I ended up making. It turned out much nicer than it started out. The dark green tree trunk and branches just happened to be a scrap of fabric that was sitting on my cutting table when I was laying out the blocks.
The finished piece - The Cardinals, measures 13" X 17," well within the 80" perimeter stated in the rules and it was machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Now, I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network and with Esther's WOW (Works in Progress Wednesday). Pop on over to see what other people are up to this week.

15 comments:

  1. Love what you did with those uglies! It truly turned out to be a 'silk'.

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  2. Princess Dolores has kissed the frog! This is great, I can see birches and some other trees in winter here, and the beautiful dots of colour just like our bull finches.

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  3. This is great, Dolores, and I love the dimension you have given it. Very creative! Good luck in the challenge. :D

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  4. It doesn't look ugly at all, lovely cardinals on the tree trunk, great placing and good thinking to create a "silken" goody. Cheers, Jean.

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  5. Amazing , it sure doesn't show any uglies :-) fantastic job !

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  6. Very creative Dolores! I love it!

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  7. Your "purse" came out quite nice. Nice job.

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  8. Nothing sows ear-ish about this! I'm hopeful that there will be another of your wonderful quilt 'shows' so we can see what else got created!

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  9. Beautiful! I really like your quilt. What a fun challenge - good luck!

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  10. OH I LOVE THIS!!! Stunning and to think these were considered ugly fabrics!! Good luck! You have my vote!

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  11. I love the "forest" and the cardinals are the perfect touch. Well done!

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  12. what a great creative approach to the challenge. I just love to do challenge quilts, so I think I've found a fellow artist!
    The ugly fabrics disappear into texture and color. Well done
    LeeAnna Paylor
    Not Afraid of Color!
    lapaylor.blogspot.com

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  13. You created something amazing...beautiful:)

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  14. I too think you have a silk, it is beautiful! love your idea!

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Thank you for commenting. I appreciate your thoughts.