CCQ challenge 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part One

Clark County Quilters (CCQ) issued a challenge for 2026 to celebrate both the 50th year of the guild and the 250th anniversary of the USA.  The piece had to be done in red, white and blue with stars and stripes, plus gold.  It couldn't be wider than 24", and the length was not limited.  I immediately thought about doing a lady with striped bottoms, star sunglasses, and lots of glitz.  Here are my sketches of ideas:

I found a picture in my sketch book and used that to draw my design to scale.  In order to get the face the right size, I took a picture of it and resized it in Photoshop.  I also posterized it so that I would have the 4 values that I needed to make the face realistic.  Here is the sketch and face to scale.

I started working on the pants first (shown above and detail below).  I knew that I wanted them to be red and white striped, and I used my chop and drop method to make them.  (Actually, I forgot the first step and didn't add the blobs of fabric before adding all the trim!).  I think they turned out very cute.

The next thing that I made was the top and sleeves.  I used 3 shades of blue blobs and trims to give it some kind of shading.  I also added gold thread to add that spark of shiny gold.

I hope you like it so far!

Challenge piece for the Mod Quilt Squad - Lime Twist

The newest challenge for the mod squad group was announced.  The theme is "Lime Twist".  The pieces must have lime green in them, some gold, be improv pieced, be Kintsugi inspired, and be 24" W x 48-60" H.  I pulled out blue fabrics from the Marcia Derse collection, some dyed fabric, lime green and other shades of green fabric, and two gold fabrics for the color scheme that I envisioned.

I didn't start with a design, just the black lines of the space to fill on my design board.

Then I pulled out all of my books and blogs about making skinny lines and started making improv pieces.  This is a skinny line curved technique that I found in Irene Roderick's book.  I started with two pieces of 8" x 8" fabric, and 3/4" wide strips of the gold fabric.  It seems counterintuitive that you use straight pieces for the inset curved parts, but it works!  Well, with a little steam and starch and very skinny seams.  First, I free hand cut the first curve with both the blue and green fabrics stacked right side up.

Then, I took the 3/4" gold fabric and using an 1/8" seam, sewed this to the first curved piece.

This was pressed away from the skinny strip.  I trimmed 1/4" off the skinny strip and using a 1/8" seam and LINING UP THE PREVIOUS SEAM LINE, sewed the outside piece to the skinny strip.

I pressed the seam away from the skinny strip again.  Note that the sides won't match up anymore.

I decided that one more slice was needed, so I followed the same steps as with the first insert.  This time, though, I left a slightly larger piece of the gold, maybe a 3/16" width away from the first stitching.  After it was pressed, I trimmed the pieces to be even on the sides.  I ended up with two blocks with two inserts, one ended up being 6-1/2" x 7-1/2" and the other one was 7-1/4" x 8".   So, for future reference, I'll know that the final block is indeterminate until after pressing and trimming!  And that centering the pieces gives a little bit larger end piece.

That's all for now.  I'm going to try to write a couple of blogs about making skinny inserts so that I can share the techniques with my Mod Quilt Squad.

I hope you like the pieces so far!