2020 Challenge Quilts

Beginning in January, rules for the 2020 Challenge Quilt will be on sale at guild meetings for $ 5.  The theme is ‘Jazz it Up.’  The challenge is open to all QU members who purchase the rules.  Quilts must be completed by late summer (exact deadline TBA).  This year, two-person team quilts will be allowed (both team members must purchase the rules).

2019 Challenge Quilts

2018 Challenge Quilts: Out of the Blue

Come to the show at the Museum of Florida History to see them in person and read their stories!

2018 Challenge Quilts

2017 Challenge Quilts

The quilts and their descriptions shown below were revealed at the July 2017 guild meeting.  Members voted and ribbons were awarded.  To see the beautiful details in these quilts visit the 2017 Annual Capital City Quilt Show at the Museum of Florida History between August 3 and September 24.

Precious Memories

by Martha Tilden

Award: 2nd Place Embellishments

The theme, “Sentimental Journey”, reminded me of the gospel song “Precious Memories” (words on back of quilt). My precious memories were displayed on a batik background of the State of Florida. Tallahassee and Gainesville were sites of the most memories. Memories were depicted with appliqués, buttons and charms.

Tropical Travels

by Barbara Hoagland

Award: 2nd Place in Color and Design

Continuing on my series of quilts representing our boating journeys, this represents time in Southern Florida, but also brings to mind prior trips to tropical countries. In a nod to tradition, I selected hexagons and English hand piecing technique for the water and hand embroidery for some of the details.

Forever Young

by Terri Smith

Theme Award: 2nd Place Art

The QU Challenge Theme for 2017 was the impetus to learn more about portrait quilts. I wanted to share the beauty of a 20 year old WWII bride. The original photo of my mother was taken 73 years ago. The blouse is made from one of the many handkerchiefs tatted by my aunt for my mother.

Reminisce

Darlene Pricher

Theme Award: 2nd Place Traditional

Reminisce … to journey back in one’s mind and remember with pleasure. Each quilt block represents a family member from my childhood. Gone, but not forgotten, each unique in pattern and color with their own story of God, Fishing, Cuban coffee, Canada, Firefighter, and Star Trek fan.

 An Engaging Bridge

by Barbara Ward

Award: 1st Place for Color and Design

It was a sentimental journey.
To complete her Masters in International Affairs, my daughter traveled to Spain. Her gentleman friend visited and together they journeyed to Florence, Italy. While crossing the Ponte Vecchio Bridge he knelt to ask for her hand in marriage, placing a diamond ring on her finger.

 When We Were Kids

by Hattie Pennie

Award: Viewer’s Choice

Saturdays were the best day of the week. When were kids I can remember the first load of clothes Was ready to come out of that old wringer type washer at 7:00a.m. My mom would call out that we should “wake up and see”. We would have breakfast, and clean the house between loads of clothes coming out of the washer. Around noon, all clothes would be washed and hung on the clothes lines, dishes washed and the house clean. We would then be allowed to meet our friends and play the rest of the day. I remember the neighborhood kids playing all day.

 Sisters Viewing the Northern Lights

by Diane Satterfield

This bargello/applique quilt has been in the planning stage for a few years. The bench and sisters were drawn (by me) using Bernina V8 software. I found clipart trees and digitized them using the same software and used it to applique as well.

 Night-Blooming Cereus Connection

by Marsha Walper

Theme Award: 1st place Art

“Night-Blooming Cereus Connection” helps recall happy memories of my grandparent’s house on Sarasota Bay. After US-41 was rerouted along the bay, a tall condominium replaced their house in 1972.  The oak tree and night-blooming cereus, once in their front yard, remain, surrounded by a stone wall, in the condominium’s parking lot.

Sunbonnet Grandma

by Sue Skornia

My grandmother made her sunbonnets on her treadle sewing machine. My journey is back in time to hanging clothes on the line together with her. One “Sue” has come back from a journey to find her spot taken by a 1973 photo of Grandma Alta. I inherited her last bonnet.

What Was She Thinking?

by Shelley Woodyard

Award: Sentimental Favorite

As a child, my only exposure to quilting was the double wedding ring quilt from my grandmother who placed my mother, with her brothers, into an orphanage in 1921. In 2008, this photo — the day the children left home — was found. The woman looking on is my grandmother. What was she thinking?

 Bell Bottom Blues

by Leslie Cohen

Award: 1st Place Embellishments

In the 1960’s, bellbottoms jeans became an icon for hippies. Women purchased straight leg jeans from thrift/surplus stores and added wide inserts to make them flared. Then they customized the jeans with hand embroidery and patches. 50 years later I have made similar jeans with a timeless banner.

Romance Revisited

by Lyn Geariety

When I was challenged to take a Sentimental Journey, I began by looking through my UFOs and orphan blocks for inspiration. I found these miniature blocks using romantic florals and pastels from my early years and decided it was time to revisit them. So here is “Romance Revisited.”

 My Grandmother’s Garden

by Karen Kunz

Theme Award: 1st Place Traditional

When I was a child, I spent two weeks with my grandmother. We would sit in her garden and she would read to me and tell me life stories. Her garden had amazing flowers, and a blue birdhouse with a red roof that we repainted each year.

 My Florida Lighthouse Journey

by Kerry Cohen

Mission: Visit All 30 Florida Lighthouses
First Stop: Sanibel Island, 1988
Latest Stop: Gasparilla Island, 2017
The buttons represent our amazing Florida lighthouses. Each lighthouse visited, I add a crystal “light” to the button. This quilt is “in progress,” until I complete my sentimental journey to all the Florida lighthouses!

Three Sisters, One Quilt

by Barbara Springthorpe

Two of my late sisters were quilters, and both left many unfinished quilting projects at the times of their deaths. I decided to combine some of their works into one quilt for my Sentimental Journey.
One sister was a traditional quilter, loved applique, and designed her own art quilts. she often incorporated photographs into her art quilts that are significant to our family, such as the “Honora’s Trees” piece, a photograph of the land on which our great-great grandmother’s house once stood in County Letrim, Ireland.
The other sister learned Hawaiian quilting while she lived there during the 1980-90’s, and she generously shared her quilts with friends and family. It is impossible to know what my sisters had envisioned as the end results while working on these individual pieces. That is not for me to know. What is left to me, however, is to remove these works from storage so other will see their creative works, and to combine them into one beautiful Sentimental Journey.

 Growing Up in Florida

by Wanda Bess Crowe

My inspiration was a black and white picture my mother took when my sister and I were feeding the chickens in our backyard. Memories are very vivid of she and I, even though we were 8 years apart in age. She wanted to do everything I did. Now we are best friends.

2016 QU Challenge Quilts

Twelve beautiful quilts were entered in the QU Quilt Challenge for 2016 and aren’t they glorious! Everyone was great about keeping secrets and following lots of rules – even using the pebble fabric. The Museum has done a splendid job of showing them off – gotta go see ‘em! Winners of the 2016 Competition are:
Best of Show: Florida’s Beautiful Blue, by Marsha Walper
Catch of the Day: Beacon of Hope: An Ode to Florida Lighthouses, by Kerrie Cohen
1st Place Theme: Last Light, St. Marks, Florida, by Martha Tilden
1st Place Creativity: Florida Snowbird, by Leslie Cohen
1st Place Workmanship: Brown Pelican: Gulf County, Florida, by Barbara Hoagland
2nd Place Theme: Florida Wetland: A Pond Gathering, by Hattie Pennie
2nd Place Creativity: A Florida Pond, by Linda Stright
2nd Place Workmanship: Florida Friends, by Mary Catherine Scott

A great big thank you to all who participated and also a thank you to all those who purchased the rules. The more rules purchased, the bigger the monetary prizes and the more we can put in the QU cash reserves. Lots of thanks to Leslie Cohen for making the very creative prize ribbons and Rosie Patterson for helping to count the votes. Laura and Stephanie enjoyed co-chairing this committee. Two heads were definitely better than one and it certainly reduced the work and stress levels!