QuiltCon 2023 Community Outreach Challenge
One of the MQG’s largest-scale charity projects is back and better than ever! This year, we are pleased to announce that participating active MQG guilds will have the opportunity to sell their Community Outreach quilts during QuiltCon to raise funds for the benefit of two charitable programs supported by the Brown Sugar Stitchers Guild of Atlanta: The Carrie Steele Pitts’ Home and the children’s sickle cell disease program at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Our goal is to make it easier than ever for participating groups to fundraise for nonprofit organizations with this challenge. Make sure to check out all the details below.
Theme: Color Shift
For this year’s Community Outreach Challenge, we are asking MQG members to make quilts that show a color shift, or gradient, in the piecing. We have selected two colorways for you to choose from, and hope you are as excited about them as we are!
What is a color shift or gradient?
A gradient or shift in color is a gradual blending from one color to another. This can be accomplished by using intensity, lightness/darkness, and color. The blending can occur in many ways, including within the same color (like baby blue to navy blue), between two unique colors (such as from purple to orange), or even between more than just two colors.
A color shift or gradient is an interesting way to create movement across a quilt, drawing your eye to different portions of the quilt in a dynamic fashion. The use of a gradient or color shift across a quilt also adds depth and texture to a quilt, before you add a single stitch of quilting.
Top Tips for a Smooth & Successful Color Shift:
- Use at least two or three color stops along the way between colors.
- It’s important to make your steps gradual. It can be hard to get from navy to baby blue if the only other color you chose is a darker slate blue.
- Play around with how you want to move the colors across your quilt – do you like vertical or horizontal linear movement? Or perhaps something a little more playful, like diagonal movement across your quilt?
Color Palettes
There are two gradients for your group to choose from for the 2023 QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge. We’ve shown many color stops along the way from one end to the other. Choose your starting point and be sure to use a total of at least three color stops on your gradient. You do not have to use all of the color stops shown, nor are you required to use 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.
Want to audition colors for your Community Outreach quilt? Follow a tutorial for creating gradient quilts in EQ8 and get a special discount for MQG members at this special link.
Challenge Summary
Design the Quilt
- Use at least three colors from one palette to create your quilt. Solids or prints (or both!) are fine to use.
- Please do not add neutrals, stick to the palettes provided!
- Make sure the theme of COLOR SHIFT is the focus of your project.
- Quilts must be twin size, which is approximately 65” x 85”.
- 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. Community is in the name for a reason. Include as many people as you can from your active MQG guild or create a team of MQG members.
- Your active MQG guild or MQG member team will provide batting, backing, binding, and the fabric to complete the quilt top.
Photograph & Enter Your Quilt
- Community Outreach quilt entries are open! Teams should use the link below to submit their quilt. An image of the quilt is required. If your quilt will be for sale at QuiltCon, you will need to submit a high quality image of the finished quilt. If your quilt will not be for sale at QuiltCon, but only for exhibit, a photo of the completed top will suffice. Submissions are open through December 15, 2022, until 11:59 p.m. EST. After that time, no other Community Outreach quilts will be accepted into QuiltCon 2023.
- There is no fee to enter a Community Outreach Challenge 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 their 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.
