Ideas for quilt group challenges
 

I am currently secretary for my quilt group and they have asked if I will take on the job of president early next year which I am very happy to do so.

I was hoping to come up with some interesting group challenges and I am thinking that this would be the best place to ask if anyone can help me come up with some different challenges.

One I had in mind was for the members to make an item of their choice - be it from a mug rug to a king size quilt - but the challenge is the main/focus fabric had to be a colour starting with the same letter as their christian name. ie Maureen would use mauve or maroon or she could be creative and use brown and call it mud or orange and call it marmalade. What would you think if you were presented with such a challenge - thumbs up /down.

I would be very grateful for any input from you very talented ladies. Thank you.

i was in a group challenge where we pulled two colors out of a hat full of crayons. this could be done with paint chips, too. your game sounds good, too.

We did the crayon thing, too....only we had to make a three color quilt by adding black and white to our crayon color!

We did a theme, too. The last one was "cats." we all had to make a quilt using at least one cat fabric. Last spring, we were each given a half yard of the same fabric. That was amazing to see how 30 people used the exact same fabric! We had 30 very different quilts!

we had a challenge where a member would put 3 fabrics in a paper bag. the bags were exchanged and the recipient had to make a mini quilt from the fabrics. the recipient could add one more fabric from her own stash if she wanted.

I've read about other groups that used the name/color challenge and they had a ball getting creative with color names to match their first names. It would make me glad my name isn't Zelda (well, lots of things make me glad my name isn't Zelda, but that's another one :o ), my J name would be hard enough. I think it's a great idea! Go for it!!

Yes, you can get pretty creative on the names ...... look at paint colours and how the "name" seldom has much to do with the colour, you could pretty much make it any colour you liked!

J .... Jasmine, Juniper, Jelly Bean, Jungle, Juice,


Z .... ?????????

Zinc white
Zaffre (a shade of blue)
Zucchini (green, obviously)
Zinnwaldite (a shade of pinkish brown/flesh)

Anything is possible with the internet! LOL

Funny enough, I was thinking Zucchini after I posted ... and thought it could be white for the inside or green for the outside! :)

I think that challenge is a great one. Since you could be very creative finding a color to match your initial it would no be difficult.
My guild had a challenge once called "my initial quilt". We had to make a quilt that contained a block whose name began with your first name's first letter. I made a Log cabin. Was a well participated in challenge.

Some challenges I've seen or participated in, a crayola challenge, an M&Ms challenge, Fire and Ice challenge, My State My State, my favorite book, what can you do with a panel, ugly fabric (everybody had a fat quarter of the same fabric), and one challenge where everybody drew a paper item out of a bag and then had to use the same colors in the same proportion. The paper things were greeting cards, food labels, paper napkins and that sort of thing.

I probably wouldn't participate in a color challenge based on the letter my name starts with.

Zebra black, Zebra white... I think the name idea is great! If a themed quilt is another idea maybe it could be expanded to allow for differing tastes such as instead of "cats" maybe "pick an animal" or holiday, flowers, movie titles (a child's dinosaur quilt for Jurassic Park, music themed fabrics for Music Man etc) something made from color wheel opposites or complementary colors, or something based on one of the seasons.

It seems people are hooked on the name game, so here's another suggestion.....how a color's translation into another language? White in English is Blanca in Spanish, so someone with a B name could get away with using white because it's Blanca! I like twists that encourage learning something new as well...

I'm responsible for the challenges for our guild. My current one is a Christmas one. Since were in Germany I picked houses since part of Germany's charm is the villages. The challenge was the nutcracker fabric in the kit that has to be in the topper. Max 24x24. Challenges are so fun!! Since your first one would be as new president I think I would include a fabric with presidential stuff on it and trust me it exists lol I think the name thing is fun! You could also have them pull out of the jar a color combo based on the first letter of their name. Good luck I'm having a blast with mine!!!

I wouldn't propose challenges with a mandatory fabric. Either the guild has to buy assigned fabric and charge members for it, or the members have to go buy it on their own. Either way, they are forced to pay something in order to participate and often have to create something out of fabric they dislike.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will have the position for 2 years so I can see that I will be keeping the group busy with those varied ideas .

BTW I forgot when thinking of the challenge that I have one of the hardest letters when it comes to colours - 'K" - the obvious is khaki but that is far from my favourite colour so I think I will have to get creative and go with "kelly green" .

Thank you again - they are all goodies.

Sounds like fun. I'd be doing Aqua and purple for mine. Maybe AZURE, too.

Do all of them,they sound great. How about a breast cancer block challenge. Have a fav dessert, then...make everyoe pass to the left or right. If you do a block like cat, dog, transportation....raffle it off or donate it.
Favorite candy other than chocolate.fav tv show, say big bang and it has to depict that 20/20 something visual
Kinda like the fav movie theme.

I saw challenge quilts at a quilt show. In addition to incorporating an assigned fabric into the top (it could be in any amount) the quilt had to include some words. There were some really creative takes on that.

How about a love song title, or something from a chidren's nursery rhyme. Or occupation -- what you wanted to be when you grew up.

You could call several colors JUICE. Apple juice colored, Orange juice colored, tomato juice colored, grape juice colored. Juice 1, Juice 3....................................

Jenga---------------for a wood tone like the Jenga blocks. (sp??)

Jackhammer gray,

Jack-o-lantern another orange

Jack in the pulpit (pinky purple??)

JADE

jackpot-------------a money colored green

jaguar--brown & tan---Or fire engine red if you meant the car

jalopy--rust colored

Jamaican----------pick any bright color--or all the colors the Jamaican bobsled team had on their uniforms and t-shirts.

Jasmine--------white

jay----------blue jay blue

Any variety of Jell-o or jelly or jelly beans

I'm cheating with THE WORD BOOK. I'll stop here--------------all sorts of names you can make up. And some of them like juice and jelly and Jell-o could be many colors.

Eons ago, Georgia Bonesteel had a Sun Bonnet Sue challenge. Each participant created a different scenario for the gal. (nursing, teaching, jogging, gardening...........) Then they made one quilt. They had some darling little Sues!

For a challenge, I think I could put up with most fabrics and most colors. Even pink! Specially if I had one assigned fabric and got to add at least one of my choice.

Too easy for me-------------Annie's Choice-----------my favorite to start with.

One that I would like to try is where you get a scenic photograph, cut it into fourths/eighthes or what ever fraction for the number of ladies involved. Give each lady one of the pieces of the photo,. they make a quilt block that matches their piece of the pie (everyone does same size block) then when all are done, you put them together to make one big quilt. No one will see the whole original photo until all the blocks are done. I have seen some amazing ones like this at quilt shows

Z

this takes some real loosely made up colors------

Zero---------black is the absence of all light Or white-----------if you see it as the absence of all color.

Zoo-----------greenish brown

zenith------I'm thinking sky blue-------a far up as I can see

Zeus----------tan colored

Zennia-------------red for first choice, purple and yellows for 2nd & 3rd

Zombie----------gray?

Zing--------a bright color of chartreuse, purple, hot pink, electric blue----or Lemon Yellow for a zingy taste.

zepher---------that's a wind-------so some blue gray???

What would be the most fun with that challenge is reading what fun names folks came up with for every day colors.

How about being creative with your fabric not your colors? Make a 9 patch with an even number of fabrics, like 6 or 10? Make a 10 minute block using 10 fabrics? Make a log cabin using 2 fabrics? Would you choose a stripe for one of them?