For the Modern Quilt Guild's QuiltCon East 2017, the QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge for member guilds was "to work collaboratively to create completed quilts
using a predetermined color palette while crafting a design that plays
with scale." Here's the palette:
We were delighted that this challenge was open to prints and other fabrics within this palette, and so inspired by the watercolor print below, we decided to set out on a process that involved painting our own textiles as a group.
Project managers Melissa Everett and Emily Doane began to develop a macro/micro pattern that proceeded from large stripes to smaller stripes, and then group members tinkered with the design to add color and movement.
After testing dyes to achieve the desired palette, Melissa and Emily led members through a fabric painting process at our September guild meeting.
We laid the fabric out in the sun to help speed up the drying process, and as it dried, the color variations and shades of the dye started to reveal themselves.
After the fabric was dry and the dye was set, guild members gathered at our November meeting to start piecing the stripes together. Each person was responsible for a different section of the quilt in order to keep all the strips and stripes straight according to the pattern.
Throughout the process, members remarked on how the colors played off of one another and expressed interest in more experimentation with fabric dyeing, so we're planning a workshop on fabric dyeing as part of our 2017 programming. We look forward to sharing our finished quilt with attendees at QuiltCon East 2017.