It was several years ago our HGTV Quilting group had a Crayola Challenge. Each participant makes the quilt to the guidelines and mail it to the hostess. Raffle tickets are sold for all the quilts (and we are talking up to 50 quilts!) and all money collected goes to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. I have been the winner of several of these quilts over the years and so honored to have quilts made by my quilting "sisters".
Here is how the challenge works:
The hostess put a large box of crayons into a paper bag and for each person who signed up for the challenge she "drew" out three crayons. The challenge part is that you can only use those three colors and no other--even if you find a print, it must have only those three colors in it.
My three colors? Red, green and lavender. Ugh...the first two colors remind me of Christmas and to throw in the lavender? What was I going to do? No way was I going to find any prints with just those three colors in it. I even tried to hand dye fabric using those three colors, but it was too busy. My only choice was to use tone on tone prints (I'm not a big fan of solids).
Now, to find a suitable pattern. I had purchased "All About Me" by Atkinson Designs. It was really for novelty prints, but I wanted something less busy and with a more modern, clean look. Happily, this quilt really came out great and many of my quilting buddies loved it.
It was won by a friend of one of my quilting buddies--a 13-year-old girl who was thrilled with the color combination! Of all the quilts in the raffle, this is the only one she hoped she would win. I couldn't have been more delighted to know the winner of this randy group of colors found its true soul mate.
The reason I purchased this pattern originally was to make two matching bunk bed sized quilts for my nephews, Sam and Will.
Sam, at age five, was my shopping buddy and every time we stopped into a quilt shop, he got to pick out a black background novelty print to add to his quilt. At that time, his brother Will was just a baby so I knew I had plenty of time to get this project completed. After many "shop hops" with Sam, we had enough variety in fabric prints to make the quilts. The sashing fabric is from all the same fabric line in different colors at I purchased from Oxford Mill End store.
Several years ago, they got their new quilts and a load of matching pillowcases to share. I know I have finished photos somewhere and when I do find them, they will be posted here.
They were a big hit and I even had enough extra quilt squares left over for a charity quilt. Some little boy is going to be delighted with his new snuggler quilt!
The lesson? Keep an open mind when choosing your quilt patterns. Personally, when I purchase a pattern, I hope to use it more than once. Knowing that I already made four quilts (and have another cut and ready to sew) of this pattern makes me feel that I got my money's worth. Have some larger floral prints? Perhaps Oriental prints? This quilt comes together quickly with a great visual impact.
