The Reveal

My small art quilt group, "Layers" had our 2nd challenge. There are 6 members in our group and everyone eventually will have a turn to create the challenge rules. This time the subject - :

"Everything Old Is New Again". The rules :

• Size:40"x40"
• Quilt must contain a square in the design
• Quilt must be a charm quilt with no solid fabric
• Quilt must have some form of applique
• Applique can be fused or hand done
• Quilt must contain the colors:pink,red,blue,yellow,brown,orange abd turquoise in any amount
• No whining or crying
• 3 months to complete the challenge

Coming up with a design was easier for some people. Some of us definitely broke the whining rule. (me being one of them.) Until I had my brainstorm for my idea, I had an issue with the size. I usually work on smaller wallhangings. I was on vacation for a month in Key West and had about 1 month left to go before the challenge was due and I did not have a plan yet. I was on my daily morning walk and looking in the window of one of the art galleries. I saw a print with peace signs on multi-colored backgrounds. Eureka! The peace sign - it's new again. Brightly colored batiks - Key West colors - 10" blocks - applique. It all worked and fit the rules. The result is my quilt titled: "Peace Comes In Many Colors". I embellished it with buttons and as many peace charms as I could find.


I sewed the buttons on with my sewing machine. I put the buttons in place, dropped the feed dogs and adjusted the zig zag stitch to the hole separation distance. I zigged and zagged 10 times. For the placement of the buttons for the peace sign, I drew the peace symbol with a Sharpie marker on a piece of water soluble stabilizer. I pinned the stabilizer to the quilt and sewed on the buttons. The solvy actually ripped off cleanly with having to resort to using water.

The members of my group agreed that I could introduce them and share some of their quilts. Kelly Meanix, in charge of the challenge, had the most difficult time. About a week before the challenge was due, she was inspired by her husband, Bob. Bob uses his creative material (wood) to make notes. So, Kelly decided she was going to use her creative material, fabric, to write on to voice her frustration with the challenge and to make her daily "To Do" list. You can see that the entire quilt is covered with her writing.

Christine Kamon tapped into her stash of rick rack, much of which she purchased on a road trip to the garment district in NYC. She used every size from a petite to the giant.

Jane Hamilton was lucky enough to work on her Bromeliad creation while visiting with her cousin in Tuscon. We had to go on a treasure hunt to find her square.








Lisa O'Neill and Terry Kramzar (www.TerryKramzar.com) were also participants. Wait until you see their creations.

What's exciting about this entire process is that we all worked from the same set of rules. It was amazing that the end results were so entirely different. Stay tuned for exhibit locations.