QuiltCon 2025 Community Outreach Challenge

The Community Outreach Challenge is back for 2025 with a calming palette and the geometric theme of lines and bars. Just as in the past few years, guilds will have the opportunity to sell their quilts at QuiltCon, and the proceeds will benefit local non-profits. We raised $12,000 with this challenge at QuiltCon 2024 – can we beat that this year? 

We are excited to share that the beneficiary of all funds raised from our 2025 Community Outreach Challenge quilt sales will benefit Young Arts Arizona! Young Arts Arizona (YA) publicly exhibits art of at-risk children to help them build a positive self-concept and teaches art to children where there is a need or dearth of programming. YA uses art programs to teach children that, despite their differences, they are important people with a hopeful future.

Please visit the YA website to learn more about their work, and please consider placing your group’s Community Outreach quilt up for sale at QuiltCon to support this locally impactful organization.
Capacity has been reached. Join the Waitlist Here
Intersections by Kathy Mack
Solomon's Stripes by Ethylene Ziegler
Self Portrait 1988 by Jennifer Carlton Bailly
Crossway by Steph Skardal
Handloomed by Tara Glastonbury
Array by Ellen Meeker

Color Palette

This year’s color palette is shown below with its corresponding code for Moda Bella Solids fabrics. Be sure to use a total of at least four colors in your quilt. You do not have to use all of the colors shown, nor are you required to use Moda Bella solids for this project. Get creative with your use of solids and prints. Make it scrappy, or reuse bits from older projects. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Challenge Summary & Rules

Make the Quilt

  • Use 4-8 colors from the color palette to create your quilt. Solids or prints (or both!) are fine to use. No other colors may be used in the quilt top or binding. The quilt backing is your fabric of choice.
  • Please do not add neutrals, stick to the palette provided! 
  • Make sure the theme of LINES AND BARS is the focus of your project.
  • Size constraints of a maximum of 65”x85” and a minimum of 60”x80” must be adhered to. Quilts outside of these size guidelines will not be accepted. If the size is misrepresented on the entry form the quilt will not be hung at QuiltCon.
  • If your guild or team decides to use a pattern, be sure to get permission from the pattern designer and include that information when you submit the quilt to QuiltCon.

Work Together

  • This is not a solo project. Include as many people as you can from your active MQG guild or create a team of individual MQG members.
  • Groups eligible to enter a quilt in the Community Outreach Challenge are MQG local guilds, or teams made of Individual MQG members. The MQG cannot accommodate teams of people with various memberships in local MQGs. Quilts made by those groups should be entered in the Group or Bee category of the judged show, and are not subject to the challenge limitations of the Community Outreach Challenge.
  • Your active MQG guild or MQG member team will provide all the materials to complete the quilt.

Photograph & Enter Your Quilt

  • Due to space and personpower limitations, the Community Outreach Challenge will be capped at 80 quilts. Although the quilt does not need to be complete, a photo will be required to submit the entry. The entry system will be open October 15 at 12:00 a.m. EDT to December 15, 2024, or until 80 submissions are reached, whichever comes first. 
  • To submit your entry, a photo of the rendered quilt design is acceptable. By December 10, every group must upload a photo of the finished quilt top in order for the quilt to remain in the exhibit. Additionally, if your quilt will be offered for sale at QuiltCon, you will need to submit a high-quality image of the finished quilt by January 15, 2025.
  • A waitlist will open after the 80 quilt limit has been reached. If spots become available in mid-December, groups will be contacted off the waitlist. All groups on the waitlist will be contacted with a final result by December 15, 2024.
  • To subsidize the increasing shipping costs, there will be a $25 entry fee for each Community Outreach quilt. 
  • There is no prize in the Community Outreach Challenge.
  • There is no set pricing for the quilts, should you choose to list it for sale to benefit the selected non-profit organizations, each guild will set its own price. While every quilt is different, we recommend starting in the $250 – $350 range and increasing your price from there. Remember, this quilt has cost your guild time and money, and that should be factored into the amount that will be donated to the charities at QuiltCon. We see quilts listed anywhere from $200 – $5,000 at QuiltCon in any given year, so it’s wide open.