ProjectQUILTING - Season 14.5 - Sew NOT a Square

SEW NOT A SQUARE

Welcome to The Joyful Quilter!!  And... Welcome to the wonderful world of Project QUILTING hosted by Kim Lapacek @ Persimon Dreams!!  This is my 3rd year of participation in the Challenge.  Trish Frankland @ QuiltChicken is the creator of the crazy challenges that participants will face during the next ?? weeks.

Sassy @ Farm Quilter got me started at the beginning of Season 11 by inviting her readers to join in the fun.  I accepted her invitation and the rest is history.  As I have for the past two years, I will be dragging along my friend LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color again this season, as she enjoys having a reason to stretch her creative wings.  Would YOU like to join me in this creative journey, too?  

FAIR WARNING:  It's a wild ride, but oh SEW rewarding!

Challenges are given and start to finish you have ONE WEEK to complete your project.  PQ 14.5 can be found at THIS LINK:

Step One...

Read the instructions to see what is required of the fifth challenge.  Here's what Trish had to say:

Every once in a while I like to make a challenge about exclusion. Remove one thing from the equation, and see what happens. That’s this week’s challenge: do anything in the whole wide world you can imagine – but use no square shapes in doing it, and don’t end up with a square. I already know you’re going to make me get all pedantic with this, so here it is:

square – (noun) /skwer/  a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles.

Trish goes on to say...

... this means you can work with rectangles, rows, hexagons, diamonds, equilateral triangles, circles, braids, and a universe full of irregular shapes. You could even make a landscape. But whatever you do, don’t make your project square. And don’t sew a square!

Step Two...

Pick my chin up off the floor, as my mouth has fallen open in shock!

Step Three...

Put on my thinking cap and gather supplies.  There was one particular option which came to mind that I was relatively certain I knew where to find.  The TRIANGLE scraps from my friend Maggie:

Step Four...

Review the rules:

Rule One: you may use no square shapes in your project. You have one week to meet the challenge.

Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline – that is, started on or after February 26, 2023, and posted by noon Central Time March 4, 2023.

Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes.

Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements: include patchwork, include appliqué, have 3 layers stitched together by hand or machine. Incomplete or unfinished does not qualify. Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline. Link up at the bottom of THIS POST by Sunday, March 4th at noon CST (here’s a link to time zone converter to calculate for Central Standard Time: www.thetimezoneconverter.com)

Step Five... Formulate a plan!

Once I recovered from my initial shock, my brain clicked through a number of non-square scraps that might be right for this project.  The challenge will be locating any of them in the (continued) disarray of my studio.

Step Six...PLAY!!!

I began laying out the triangles right away:

Here is a bit of my construction process...

(Scroll down to the bottom of the post NOW, if you don't care to see a blow by blow of the making of my quilt.)

But...

Am I up to the challenge of piecing these triangles into something non-square-ular?

Let's have a look...

After going through a variety of layouts, I settled on this one:

Once the sewing started, I kept at it...

And by dinner time, the triangles were sewn into rows:

This has to be some kind of record for me!!!

The prompt was released at noon (CST), I didn't check to see what it was until after 3 PM (EST), and by bedtime my quilt top was complete:

What happened next, Joyful???

The next morning I pressed the quilt top:

But...

I didn't stop there!  I took a few extra minutes before work to select a piece of scrap batting and search for what felt like the perfect backing option:

By the following afternoon, layering had taken place, but I neglected to get a photo, nor one of the quilting process!

AND THEN...  ALL PROGRESS SCREECHED TO A HALT!!!

Suddenly, there was only ONE DAY remaining, so I got back to work.  This is the fully quilted FRONT...

And BACK of my project:

There's SHOULD have been more...

Because as I was searching the files in my brain, I had another thought.  While I might like triangles, I really LOVE circles!

Can YOU guess where this is going???

I really meant to use a bowl or a plate to transform my parallelogram into a circular table mat.  Alas, none of my "templates" were the right size.

SEW...

I present my completed entry for PQ 14.5:

There is usually a reason that I participate in these challenges...

... And this time, it was because the prompt gave me the chance to USE some scraps that have been waiting for YEARS to become a quilt.  Thank you, @quiltchicken!!

There you have it...

Process, product, and the REAL reason for accepting this Challenge.

Follow THIS LINK to the Season 14 overview.  Check back on the Challenge release days (or sign-up to be notified automatically) and there may be one that YOU just can't resist.

It's a SHORT turnaround time!

Depending on the size and complexity of your project, that doesn't HAVE to be insurmountable.  With a little creativity and a few afternoons, you really CAN do this!  My project timeline???  I began this project on Sunday afternoon and got waylaid during the week.  It was completed on Saturday afternoon.  Just when I thought I would get my entry done well ahead to the deadline, I completed it with only 22 hours to spare.

Until next time...

Challenge accepted!!!

Remember:  If I can do this, YOU can do it, too!

(Plus, there's a spot to post your completed Project QUILTING inspired projects AFTER the deadline for any of the challenges.)

The outtakes which actually had me wishing that I had stopped at twin triangles...

Joining Cynthia

for

Oh, Scrap!