The Red and White Make It Challenge

Ruby Shadow, Make It Challenge

 At the beginning of the year, I noticed that SewCalGal was hosting a Year of Red and White Quilt Challenges. This intrigued me, as I like red but feel like I don't use it as much as other colors when making quilts. She has several parts to this challenge and I accepted the challenge to Design It! You were to design a quilt using reds and whites. You had to add the fabric requirements as there was a fabric prize from Island Batik. I played around with one basic design with a few variations for Ruby Red 1, Ruby Red 2 and Ruby Shadow.

The next phase of the challenge was to Make It! 

Click on this link to go to the linky party for the Make It Challenge

The Make It! Challenge is all about making your own red and white quilt!  You can use your own design, a purchased design, or a free pattern of your choice.  And, of course, make your quilt in any size, using fabrics from any fabric manufacturer. You may even have enough red/white fabrics (includes reds of any shades and whites/tans/creams commonly thought of as neutrals).  And you have until September 30th to enter.

 You are also entered in a drawing for great prizes every time you participate in the challenge. You have until Sept. 30, 2014 to enter the Make It Challenge. You still have time to make your own gorgeous red and white quilt.

I decided to make Ruby Shadow, though I really like the others and might make them at some point as well. I went to my favorite quilt shop, Cut Up and Quilt in Council Bluffs, IA to find just the right selection of reds. I needed four different shades/prints that would look good together, but still be red and not orange. I think that is harder to do with red than other colors. You can always find lighter and darker shades of blues, greens, purples...but what is a light shade of red? orange? pink? Is there a lighter shade of red? This might be partly why I don't find myself using red as much!

 There is a lot of white background, so I decided on a white solid instead of a tone on tone...I wanted it to be really white! So I started making it back in April on a retreat sewing day with friends. Then life caught up with me and I didn't work on it again until almost summer. I had to figure out what I had done and what still needed to be done. When I begin making a new design, I figure out what pieces I need to cut,  write down everything as I make a quilt, then write the pattern from those notes. So they are important. Skipping a few months in the process means going back and figuring out what I had already cut, sewed...you get the idea. I don't like to make new designs like this, but I guess I was so excited to see it coming to life, that I started it even though I knew I wouldn't be able to work on it much because of my work and teaching schedule.

I quilted it in June on my APQS EZQ...it's an industrial machine with a smaller throat (no stitch regulator either) than many of the newest models but it gets the job done.  I like to take lots of pictures as it comes off of the quilting machine. Since many of mine get hung on display for the classes I teach, it's easy to forget to take pictures of the finished quilt. I used the Drift panto by Keryn Emmerson. Here's the red print I used on the back.

The next phase of the challenge is Show It! in October. There will be a week to show off red and white quilts you designed and made this year and a week to show off the red and white quilts you made from a free or purchased pattern this year.

I will be teaching Ruby Shadow on Sat. Oct. 4 at Cut Up and Quilt. I'm glad I took this challenge as it's been fun and hopefully I will be encouraged to use red more often in future quilts. Thanks SewCalGal for the inspiration!

Red and White Challenge

SewCalGal is hosting a Year of Red and White Quilt Challenges throughout 2014. There are several different phases of the challenge. She began with a virtual quilt show of red and white quilts. The next phase is a design challenge which I decided to enter because I rarely use red and I like the idea of a two color quilt. I'm not sure why I don't use red as much as other colors, but maybe making this quilt will encourage me to use it more! 

I started out playing around with several blocks I drew in EQ6. I purposely drew an odd block, one that didn't look that exciting as one, but would become more interesting when putting 2 - 4 of them together. That's the great thing about having a design program like EQ...you can draw it, redraw it, color it, turn it and play with it until you like it. I won't post all the layouts I came up with for different versions of this block, but this was the first one I really liked. I liked the way there was beauty in the randomness of the finished squares as well as a lightness to the design as a whole. For the first design, I used three different red fabrics.

Ruby Red 1 (68" x 80")
White: 4.25 yd. Red 1: .75 yd, Red 2: .75 yd,  Red 3: 1.5 yd.

 I used a slightly different version of the same block, and different 

color placement for the second version below. I also used four different fabrics. By turning the blocks, I made a more organized  design, with a full block in each row, with partial blocks framing them. I really loved this design, but thought maybe it needed a cleaner, more definite line.....

Ruby Red 2 (68" x 80")
White: 4.25 yd, Red 1: .75 yd, Red 2: .625 yd, Red 3: .25 yd. Red 4: 1.5 yd.

So I redrew the block and used the same setting to come up with this design. I'm still torn between the last two, as I like them both. I like that the 3rd version has a more definite line, but still like the 2nd one too. This design uses 4 different reds as well.

Ruby Shadow (68" x 80")
White: 4 yd, Red 1: 2.25 yd, Red 2: .25 yd, Red 3: .25 yd, Red 4: .75 yd.

Now I'm excited about making this quilt for the Make It Challenge, which begins next week, and have been choosing fabrics! There are a lot of pretty reds out there, as well as a lot of different red tones, so I'm not sure I will be able to limit myself to three or four reds!

You can participate in the Make It Challenge even if you didn't design your own quilt...there are two categories to this portion of the challenge. You can make your own design, or you can make a quilt using a purchased or free pattern. There will be virtual quilt shows of each category of "made" quilts. There are also prizes to win along the way. All quilts have to be made in 2014 to qualify for the challenge.

Which one do you like best? I'd love to hear your opinion and why!