30 Quilt Designs Challenge on Instagram

For the second year, I ran #30quiltdesignschallenge on Instagram and this year we doubled the number of participants! Wow, were there ever a lot of gorgeous and ingenious quilt designs! There are three drawings, just like last year, with the first two, gift certificates to Melody's quilt shop, already drawn, and happily enjoyed.

So first of all, I'd like to offer my sincerest thanks to my two sponsors for this event.
1. Melody at The Red Hen Shop,

The Red Hen Shop

2. Darla at Clinton Modern Creative.

Clinton Modern Creative

Melody offered three prizes: two $15 gift certificates, for the 1/3 and 2/3 marks of the challenge, which was 70 days in length, and a final grand prize for $50. Karen @twotinymakes has won this prize! Darla is offering a second final prize for $25. Michelle @creativeblonde66 has won this prize! Interesting that both are located in the United Kingdom!

3. I hinted that I'd also offer a third grand prize. It will be a copy of my pattern Blue Skies & Sunny Days, and a charm pack of Dutch Garden by Boundless Fabrics. I used these to make my aunt's quilt, Sunshine on My Shoulders. I will ship it anywhere. Leanne @devotedquilter has won this prize! All three have been contacted.

We had 15 designers complete 20 of 30 designs, back on March 22. We currently have ?? (I will have to check on Instagram, and verify this with linkups below!) update: there were 9 completed all 30! It works out to about three designs per week to keep on track. Several finished quite a bit ahead of the deadline.

Here's how to enter the draw. Simply link up a blog post or an IG post of your last few designs, so #28-30 or #25-30, whatever you like!
Note! Do not link three designs up separately; use the 'Multiple Image' icon at the lower right of the photo screen to put them together in one post. That's it! I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner on Thursday morning, and announce it on IG on Thursday, and here on the blog on my post on Friday.

Here is a little collage of the last five designs of mine, since I won't be entering the draw. The first two make my design #30, and use the same block in two different layouts, both traditional settings. I could play for hours in EQ! I need to, truthfully, to learn more aspects of it; it's like an onion and I feel I've only peeled the first crackly layer off.

Please let me know down the road, by tagging me @mmmquilts when you decide to make one of your designs, or when one gets published, either in a magazine or in a pattern release! I know of lots of this sort of thing happening already; it's SO exciting!

And thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating. I've met lots of new quilters, got to know several better, discovered more Canadian as well as United Kingdom quilters/designers, and I know we all have been enriched by the experience. So here is a big 'MWAH' from me to each one of you. I reserve those for peeps who I really really like, just so y'know.😘

An InLinkz Link-up

30 Quilt Designs Challenge Second Draw

I did the second draw last night. Each person that had submitted any number of designs from 11-20 got that many numbers and then I did the Random Number Generator on the total. Velda of Freckled Fox Quiltery was the winner! There are 16 participating this year, wow! A few have not quite kept up, and a few have joined in just within the last week or two!  The final draw is April 15 for 30 designs, so if you have fallen a wee bit behind (I, myself only have 19) it's not too late to catch up. All those who complete 30 will be entered. Remember to add colour, and to design a quilt, not just a block, so we see what it would look like as part of a quilt. 😉

Here are four collages of recent designs. I've included the Instagram name of each quilter, in case you want to follow her!

Aren't they all just so very fabulous?!
Thanks so very much to Melody of The Red Hen Shop for being my main sponsor this year. She has donated three prizes, two $15 gift cards for draws 1 and 2, and a $50 one for the final draw!

Darla is my second sponsor for the challenge this year! She contacted me, wanting to offer a prize, and I said, "Sure!" She is offering a $25 gift card to her shop, Clinton Modern Creative, which will also go out to someone in the 30 completed designs category!

And, finally, I have a Craftsy's Dutch Garden charm pack that I am going to send out, with a copy from my Craftsy store (affiliate link--remember to check out their fabulous SALE; I wouldn't steer you wrong) of my Blue Skies & Sunny Days pattern to a third winner in the final draw! One of these days I will get oh, the other four patterns all typed up, just needing EQ diagrams, and into my Craftsy and Etsy shops... A huge thank you to all those who are participating; it means a ton. 😍 Now I'm off to write the post on my done and dusted aunt's quilt! If you want to see what Dutch Garden looks like, check back in a couple of hours for that finish post.

Dutch Garden Quilt OMG

My One Monthly Goal is done! I haven't met my goal in the past couple of months so I am really pleased that I finally have succeeded.

I had to get a photo of the top by the water. This is looking north on Bird Key. You can see Lido Key on the top left, and Sarasota on the top right. This is the intracoastal water, which is between the barrier islands, or keys and the mainland. This quilt is for my aunt's 80th birthday, which was, um, April last year. In 2016 I brought her and my mum here to Florida for a lovely week, so I think it most fitting that I finished assembling the top here in Florida!

I just love how it turned out. I agonized for a few days with rearranging the stars to evenly distribute all the prints and the colours. The border is a 1-yard kit that came with the original kit. I didn't make the pattern that the kit was for though, but one out of a Pam and Nicky Lintott book, Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts. This was the kit:

I was pretty disappointed at first, because there was no indication that the yardage consisted of only one yard and 5 charm packs! However, this quilt pattern is perfect for it, and yielded a 54X72" quilt using just 4 of the charm packs and the yard for the border! Sweet! That extra charm pack will be a prize... You can still get this fabric, (affiliate link) though the kit I bought is no longer in stock. Hmm, I see there are no more charm packs, so I've got a rarity for a prize! Getting the quilt totally finished is one of my Q1 goals.

I made this quilt once before, as part of the Desire to Inspire Henry Glass Challenge back in June 2015, just slightly smaller, and without a border:

On the beach of Lake Erie

It's one of my favourite quilts.

So, that extra charm pack? It is destined as a prize in my #30quiltdesignschallenge I'm hosting on Instagram. There are also some sweet prizes from The Red Hen Shop and Clinton Modern Creative. Click the hashtag link for some pretty fabulous quilt designs! There are quite a few of us participating this year, and once again I am, and I think we all are, having fun, being pushed a little, and being amazed and inspired by the creativity in each of us.  Here is a little collage of three of my designs. The one in EQ8 (really liking this programme, no affiliation) is what evolved from a 'homework' quilt, playing with symmetry.

We have chatted about all the places that seem to inspire us with design; the yellow quilt just zipped into my head when I spied that well-known phrase on a billboard that week. Interestingly, the hexagon design of Feb. 19 gave me a 'frisson' of incredulity. No less than four of us played with hexagons on that day, unbeknownst to each other. Isn't that amazing? I know authors, poets, musicians, artists, speak of sometimes tapping into a stream of creativity where designs/works/words just flow, and they feel that they are just the vehicle. I fully believe in that, and perhaps this was a glimpse of tapping into that stream, just being in sync with each other.  Feel free to hop in anytime; the first draw for the first 10 designs, or however many you have come up with, is February 26.

Also not too late is joining in with my Postcard from Sweden quilt along.

My stack of 35 fabrics in colour order (Mulberry is missing, sigh), not 36, pointed out by Kathy, a reader and an observant one, just prior to cutting. I'm half way through the cutting.

There are some exceedingly sweet prizes available; click the link in my sidebar to check out the main post, or click on the Quilt Alongs tab at the top of this page. Kits are still available, with free shipping within each respective country of the shop's location. Please check out that Quilt Alongs tab for details. The following links will take you directly to the Postcard from Sweden kit at each shop:

Stitch Stash Diva
Mad About Patchwork (free shipping code: MMMQAL)
The Tartan Reel

If you love rainbow quilts, please visit Kelly's shop, Jeli Quilts. She is the designer of this FREE pattern, what a darling she is, to have it as a free download, and you will find she has a ton of rainbow quilts and blocks. 😍

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Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication
Elm Street Quilts

30 Quilt Designs Challenge

Yay! The second annual quilt design challenge begins today, hosted by me, on Instagram.

A little history: Rachel of Stitched in Color was the one who I first saw hosting this on Instagram. I noticed it part way through and did not join in, too shy, but privately thought that it would be a good learning curve and push to get more designs out of my head and onto paper. So, near the end of 2016, I asked Rachel if she would be okay with me hosting a similar challenge for the first part of 2017. Yup. In conversation with Lisa of Sunlight in Winter Quilts, we realized we both had wanted to join in with Rachel, and so I asked if she'd like to co-host with me, yup, and so we did. It was small but successful. What do I mean? Read on!

My very first design which I called "Plus Surrounded" with a couple of  layouts of the block...

....led to my first publication in an e-zine.

Another design from that first challenge was just featured in the newest edition of Modern by the Yard, Playtime Plus.

Leanne of Devoted Quilter has made four of the quilts she designed, one a gift and three that have either been sold to a website or published in magazines, Modern Patchwork and Make Modern (that will take you to her blog post on it), with a fifth being published later this year.

Abigail of Cut & Alter made three of her designs, one was given as a gift, and two were entered in shows, both winning second in their category.

Cindy of Stitchin' at Home has made a couple of her designs, and is currently making a variation on another of hers which is going to be published in a magazine! AND, she is using the fabric she won from Melody at The Red Hen Shop, my sponsor last year and one of two again this year, to make it!

It's interesting that I said in last year's post that the best prize, because I had no sponsor when I wrote the info post, and then Melody contacted me😁; anyhow the best prize was "the designs that are yours and yours alone, and that you've challenged yourself, and realized growth." So true! I hope you will consider joining us this year; it really is fun, and a terrific exercise to make yourself sit down and doodle/draw/colour/play in your quilt design software. I admit I was a bit scared to put my drawings out there, but what a wonderful group we had, and I think the creativity flowed off each other and wound around us like those gymnastic dancers with the ribbons, and we got such good vibes from our friends who cheered us on.

Here's the skinny:

Who:  Anyone!

What: 

• Design a quilt block or an entire quilt.  If you draw a quilt block, please put a few together to see what an overall pattern might look like.  Add some colour.  **Just as Rachel said in her challenge, you can use non-original blocks, but re-invent them by changing up colour or value, or put two non-original different ones together and see what magic can occur!
• You may submit hand-drawn designs or digital designs.  Personally I find there is something relaxing and Zen-like in getting out the old Crayola pencil crayons and notebook...
• No construction directions needed.
• The goal is to create 30 quilt designs by April 17. Figure on doing a design every other day.

Where:

• Take a photo of your design, number it, (see the first photo in this post for how I did mine) and post it on Instagram using the following hashtag:

#30quiltdesignschallenge2018

• Please tag each photo @mmmquilts so I can see your designs!
• Be sure to number and date each design. 
• To be eligible for prizes, be sure to follow @mmmquilts and I'd love it if you'd also follow my blog

When: 

• Today, February 3 - April 17, 2018
• Draw #1 for the first 10 designs is Feb. 26
• Draw #2 for designs 11-20 is March 22
• Final draw for designs 21-30 is April 17

Why:

• Because...as Henri Matisse said, "Creativity takes courage."
• And, as Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all." 
• And a new one for this year from a Seth Godin, whose thoughtful and thought-provoking messages are deposited into my inbox each day, "If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try."

My main sponsor is once again...

Melody's store has been on Etsy for 5 years. She has yardage and bundles, designers such as Amanda Murphy and Malka Dubrawsky, and Moda, Benartex, Quilting Treasures, and Windham Fabrics to name but a few of the companies she carries. The best part? Her prices for new fabric are $10US/yard! And I like that she cuts what she calls a "true yard", as well as "hefty fat quarters", 2-3' larger than the standard measurements. Melody is again offering multiple prizes: two $15 gift certificates to be drawn at the 10 and 20 drawings mark, and a grand prize of $50 to one winner who completes all 30 designs. Cool fact of note is that Cindy of Stitchin' at Home is using fabric she won from Melody last year to sew up one of her designs from last year, which is going to be published in a magazine!

I am so pleased to announce that I have a second sponsor this year, Darla of Clinton Modern Creative:

Darla's store has been online for just 6 months, hard to believe when you take a stroll through her website and see the professional flair, and drool over the latest modern fabrics, with designers the likes of Carolyn Friedlander, Tula Pink, and Alison Glass, lots of Kona solids, and companies such as Art Gallery Fabrics, Robert Kaufman, Andover and RJR to name a few She has half yard and fat quarter bundles, as well as yardage, all at reasonable prices. She felt there was "a need in the Canadian marketplace for more modern fabrics, patterns and supplies" and boy, has she delivered! Darla is offering a second prize which is a $25 gift certificate to one winner who completes all 30 designs. Anja of Anja Quilts told me that "the service is great," and also said that she put in a group order which came in lower than the quoted price, so she gave them the lower rate AND a great shipping rate and included a small freebie because the order was over $100! Darla also has brought in the new Kona colour cards.

I might just be offering a third prize to one winner who completes all 30 designs. Prizes are for anyone around the world.

See you on Instagram! Oh - if you don't have Instagram, or your account is private, consider opening a public account for this challenge or contact me and we can arrange for you to email me your design photos and I can post them for you. Feel free to grab the button and post it on your blog if you are joining in.

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