2016 Quilt Block Contest

I entered the Quilt Block Contest this year (QBC) from Sisters, Oregon. It's part of the annual contest they have in conjunction with the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I received 5 fabrics and had to make a 9.5" unfinished quilt block. You can make any block you want, but you must use all 5 fabrics. You can embellish the block any way you want to using a variety of materials too.

Here is the block I came up with. I used machine stitches and hand embroidered French Knots, added a bit of yarn with metallic thread, sewed on buttons and added some crystals to the block. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

The teachers who will be teaching the entire week before the quilt show will vote on their 5 favorite blocks. Then they tally them up and the one with the most votes wins the best in show and receives $50 plus a number of blocks, including their own block back, and some fabric to use for borders and binding. The other winners will receive a number of the blocks, including their own and some fabric too, just no cash award. There are usually 5 top blocks chosen as winners, although that number can be more or less depending on how many entries they receive in the contest. I was lucky enough to win some blocks in 2 different years in the past, but I haven't won the best in show.

Here is my block for this year. I think it is the best one I have entered so far.

I added some orange crystals and some clear crystals in the center. 

A bird. Lots of French knots in a variegated floss.

I added a touch of metallic yarn next to the yellow machine embroidery stitches.

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My Block for the Quilt Block Contest

Several months ago I wrote about the annual QBC (Quilt Block Contest) where you receive some fabrics and create a quilt block and then the quilt blocks that are entered are judged by the teachers who are teaching during the week before the Sisters (Oregon) annual Outdoor Quilt Show. All of the quilt blocks are displayed at the quilt show and the winning blocks will have a ribbon pinned to them. This year's fabric line was designed by Tula Pink and Tula is also one of the teachers. You can see the 7 fabrics here.

I had a hard time trying to figure out what to create. These fabrics were a challenge to me because they were all nearly the same tone and nothing really popped. I decided to do something a bit abstract. I used a flexible curved ruler to draw some shapes and fused the shapes onto the gray background fabric. I thought it would be fun to use a lot of my decorative machine stitches. While I like these stitches, the only one that really showed up was the satin stitch design and in hind site I really should have used more dark colored embroidery threads to make the stitches pop more and to give the block some dark tones, which it lacked.

The deadline for turning in the blocks is today, June 15. The judging will be about 5 days before the quilt show in July. The top winner will receive $50, some fabric to complete the quilt top, and a number of the the non-winning blocks. There will be a few honorable mention winners, who will receive the same things, except no money. I am not sure how many blocks were entered this year, so the number of blocks the winners will receive will depend on the number of blocks received overall and then they divide up the non-winning blocks to give to the winners. Have to wait until July to see what top blocks won.

Here is the block I entered for this year's contest:

My block entry was abstract.

I used decorative machine stitches and some hand embroidery stitches too.

I added several buttons for embellishment.

The turquoise satin stitch pops the most because it's darker and a thicker stitch than the other stitches. I should have used more satin stitches like this one.

Using the alphabet on my sewing machine, I embroidered :Sisters" on one corner of the block.

On the opposite corner of the block, I machine embroidered "2015".

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Quilts Made From the 2013 QBC Winners

In yesterdays post I showed you the 2014 QBC (quilt block contest) blocks. Today I will show you the quilts that were made from the 2013 block winners and the blocks that they received. When someone wins best in show or an honorable mention for the block they created in the contest, they win their own block back plus several other blocks. How many depends on how many blocks were entered in the contest. The best of show winner receives a cash prize of $50 plus some fabric to use for a border and binding and sometimes if there is extra fabric they might get enough to make additional blocks if they desire to. The other winners are honorable mention winners and they receive blocks and fabric too, but no cash prize. Last year there were about 200 quilt blocks entered, and about 100 of those blocks were sewn all by hand and came all the way from Japan! Since they had so many blocks last year there were more winners. There were 6 quilts made from those who won the QBC last year that hung in this years show, including my quilt. 2 were sent from the Japanese winners and those quilts were quilted by hand.

This person created a bridge that leads to the Stitchin' Post Quilt Shop. 

This quilt was sewn into panels and the panels were attached at the top to keep it all together. The way it hangs gives it the look of a kimono.

This was one of the quilts that was made and sent from Japan. She added pretty diamond blocks in the 4 corners.

This was the other quilt made and sent from Japan. She added some colorful flowers with silhouetted people in 3 places across the quilt.

This quilt was made by a local woman and she added a colorful block in the lower right hand corner.

This is my quilt. I added the Sisters in the center of the quilt and added a border around the center. I used the blocks as an outer border. The block I made that allowed me to win is the 4th block down from the top left hand corner (in blue). I mailed this to my sister after the show. She said her new craft room is green and she hadn't hung up any pictures yet, so this was perfect.

That's me standing next to the quilt I made and wearing my volunteer tee-shirt from the show. I helped to hang these quilts and the QBC blocks for the show.

All 6 2013 QBC quilts hung on the side of a building. 

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Quilt Block Contest

I entered the annual Quilt Block Contest (QBC) again this year. This is a contest that goes along with the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, that is held the 2nd Saturday of July in Sisters, Oregon each year. Next year in 2015 they will celebrate the 40th anniversary of this fantastic quilt show. It's the largest outdoor quilt show in the world. I just love attending and helping to hang the quilts on quilt show day. I will have 4 quilts in the show this year, including the quilt that I made using the quilt blocks that I won (as one of the honorable mention winners) in last years QBC. I will be at the show this year and staying with my friend who lives nearby.

Okay back to the quilt block. We were given 5 fabrics to use and you can only use the fabrics that you receive, although you don't have to use all of the fabrics to create your block. They mix up the assortment of fabric that they give in each packet. There are actually 10 fabrics, although you only receive 5. You can embellish your block any way that you like. The quilt blocks are due June 15. The teachers of the Quilter's Affair (classes are taught all week before the one day quilt show by well known teachers) then vote for their favorite blocks. There is one best of show winner and the other top votes get honorable mentions .Westminster Fabrics donates the fabric each year for the contest. Here are the 2014 fabrics:

The 2014 fabrics for the QBC, sponsored by Westminster Fabrics.

I used all 5 fabrics that I received in creating my quilt block. I did all the embroidery by hand. Here is my block for the contest~

This is the quilt block that I entered for this year's contest.

I hand embroidered around the applique and added the dress hanger using a silver metallic embroidery thread. I added red sequins and blue beads too.

I love rickrack and I added French knots on top of the rickrack.

I found some trim in my trim box and this was the perfect color and size to add as a belt embellishment.

I even added a little swing tag, which is a metal charm, that reads Made with Love.

The teachers will vote on the blocks in July several days before the quilt show.Then all of the quilt blocks will be pinned to a large sheet and hung in the show. The winners will have ribbons attached to their blocks. Next to this years quilt blocks will be the quilts that have been made from the people who won blocks from previous years. I will have the quilt I made from the blocks I won last year hanging in this year's show. I will be posting photos of that quilt in the next week or 2. I finished the quilt I made from last year's block and this block months ago. I was waiting until after the quilt block deadline to show mine here on my blog. 

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