Unconventional Materials Challenge
Posted in Guild Projects, News •

Our 2017 Fall Challenge was an unconventional materials challenge. We had 12 submissions that show the wide range of styles our members have. Voting has closed, but check out the winners! 1st place: Laura Cristelli, 2nd place: Carla White, and 3rd place: Michele Reiter
- “Of course it’s discontinued. Why wouldn’t it be discontinued?” by Adrian Garneau
- “Roughs” by Anya Byam
- by Laura Clements
- “Migration” by Carla White
- by Becky Wigg
- by Pauline Stevens
- “Chick Feed Bag” by Trista Dufresne
- “Chasing Pavements” by Michelle Reiter
- “Family” by Jess Lukas
- by Ellen Leff
- by Laura Cristelli
- by Christina Aftonomos
Challenge Quilt Guidelines
- You can use whatever material you want – except for quilting cotton, old t-shirts, old jeans, or other fabrics not uncommon to quilting.
- You can use as many (or as few) materials as you’d like.
- Use as much or as little color as you’d like.
- Feel free to use conventional thread, but it is not required. Dental floss, fishing wire, yarn, or other materials are great, too!
- Batting or no batting. It’s not a traditional quilt, and with some materials it may be difficult to include batting. Additionally, you are welcome to use something other than standard batting!
Cotton backing and binding are okay. It can be difficult to sew or make binding out of some slippery materials. However, going for the extra challenge and not using it is strongly encouraged. Traditional binding is not required, but the edges do need to be “finished” in some way. How you choose to interpret that is up to you! - Because this is a quilting challenge, stitching/sewing/quilting is required.
- Each quilt needs to be 18″ square, with binding. If your binding technique increases the size of your quilt, you need to take that into account so the finished size is 18″ square.
- Aside from the materials used and the size, anything else you do with the quilt is up to you. Feel free to explore minimalism, improv, modern traditionalism, hand quilting, machine quilting, applique, or even something more traditional…
- Quilts should have a sleeve and a label attached to the back.
- Any social media posts should include #unconventionalvtmqg
- That’s it! Have fun with this, and think outside of the quilt!
Check out more photos on Instagram!