BAM Challenges 2012 Recap

By Ruth

Where did the year go?  It really flew by.  This was a huge year for Bay Area Modern, full TONS of activities and events. 

We started out the year with the Me, Me, Me (Echo) Challenge, a guild-sponsored selfish-sewing challenge using Lotta Jansdotters Echo line.  The projects were amazing!

My favorites were probably the Storm at Sea wall hanging that Marci made:

And the quilt that Adrianne made with some additional hoarded prints:

There were a lot of other amazing and creative projects, including sewing organizers, journal covers, bags, placemats, pillows, and of course more quilts!  Confession time guys... my Echo challenge project was a sewing machine cover that I ended up never using.  It looked kind of lumpy on my machine, and I use the machine so often that it was always off and sitting on the table (in my way) or on the floor (collecting dog hair).  I love the fabric and pattern, so last sew day I took it apart into quilted panels.  I think I'm going to turn it into a bag (thanks Adrianne for the suggestion!)

For the second challenge this year, we joined in the Modern Quilt Guild international challenge to make quilt blocks in the QuiltCon colors.  Plus, we each made a duplicate set of blocks in the local colors.  The designs were amazing and it was so fun to follow along with the submissions featured on the Modern Quilt Guild blog and pick out the ones from our local folks!  

Our QuiltCon blocks:

And our local submissions:

It's confession time again already???  The plan is to make a guild banner or quilt using the submitted blocks, but I haven't done anything yet.  Yeeep, sorry guys!


The last challenge of the year was a whole cloth challenge sponsored by Aurifil.  The quilts were AMAZING!

Ok, so you really can't appreciate it that well from the photo - people created amazing designs with their quilting that just have to be seen up close. 

Maybe if we get a little closer... like to Colleen's quilt (she quilted the Millennium falcon BY HAND): 

It's awesome, Colleen!

We also did a block challenge that ran the entire year... the ABC challenge.   At the December meeting we saw some quilts that are already being assembled, and there's more to come.  I'm really looking forward to seeing all the finished quilts! 


Wondering about our next guild challenge?  YES, we are planning to participate in the MQG Madrona Road challenge.  Fabric should be here in time for the January meeting.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody does!  Here's to another year of great challenges, guys!