Hoffman Challenge: Collection 2013 - Betty Johnson's Guest Post

 

I am very pleased to share with you two submissions to the 2013 Hoffman Challenge, by Betty Johnson of British Columbia.  Check here to see what the Hoffman Fabric Challenge is about.

http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/challenge2014.html  How fun to see two very different but equally beautiful wall hangings made including the same 

'challenge fabric'.  Both of these wall hangings are travelling for a year as part of a Trunk Show and they will in the quilt show at Yuma, AZ on January 17 & 18, 2014 at the Yuma Civic Centre. Enjoy Betty's guest post:



'Butterfly Whimsy'
Hoffman Challenge: Collection 2013
 by Betty Johnson from British Columbia

'Aerial Tropicana'
Hoffman Challenge: Collection 2013
 by Betty Johnson from British Columbia

Betty Johnson:

"The first one I called "Butterfly Whimsy".  The beautiful challenge fabric had large, colourful leaves which reminded me of butterfly wings so my goal was to use them it create butterflies.  Using my Electric Quilt 7 program, which has an excellent photo section, I took some photos of flowers that I had taken in my garden & created new, whimsical flowers which I appliqued onto the bottom third of the wall-hanging.  I took some of the smaller leaves from the challenge fabric & incorporated them in amongst the flowers.  I then took the lovely, large leaves & created butterflies.  The stitching was done in metallic thread & gold Sulky rayon.  I bound the sides & top edges of the wall-hanging & faced the bottom edge to get the effect I wanted.  My entry is travelling with one of their trunk shows for a year.  (Both entries are also published in their "The Hoffman Challenge Collection 2013" catalogue.)

 

My second entry is also travelling in the same trunk show.  I called it "Aerial Tropicana".  I had seen a quilt at Quilt Canada in Penticton that became my inspiration for this wall-hanging.  The bright blues in the challenge fabric reminded me of the tropics & I thought they would look wonderful overlapping background fabrics.  I drew my design on paper & chose the best areas to include the challenge fabric so that the leaves overlapped other sections of the background.  I created 1/4" bias strips from the co-ordinating fabrics & used them to separate & anchor each section.  Once I was finished, it looked like an aerial view of a tropical rainforest with a river running through it.  I was also told it looked like a dragon's head.  Interesting how we each interpret images differently."