The third Saturday in March is Worldwide Quilting Day, and our local guild always celebrates it with a challenge show. Our members are given a challenge theme and purchase a fat quarter of the challenge fabric we have to use. This year, the challenge was “Looking Out My Back Door”, and we were admonished not to take it literally. It is taken from the Creedence Clearwater Revival song about imagination. Some of the lyrics were given to us at a meeting last fall. Like these:

There’s a giant doing cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn
A dinosaur Victrola listening to Buck Owens
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door

Tambourines and elephants are playin’ in the band
Won’t you take a ride on the flyin’ spoon? Doo, doo-doo

Here is the challenge- “Your vision from any back door may be real, a dream of what you want to see or a vision from your past. Your vision does not need to be realistic. Quilts may be your own design or a pattern from your favorite designer. Your designs may include traditional or modern techniques or a combination of both. Have fun! Create something that sparks a dream, a vision from your heart, or something from your past/future.”

So we were challenged to let our imaginations run wild, and create a wall hanging in a rectangular shape with a total perimeter of no more than 144 inches.

The challenge fabric was this acid green background with what looks like flowers, seaweed, and corals.

Oh, heavens, what to do with this. I went to my stash to just pick through hoping for inspiration. I found this piece, picked up from the re-home table that I had thought to use to make a Project Linus quilt. But pairing it with the challenge fabric gave me a whimsical idea.

On the challenge fabric, I created walking paths as if it was a garden with cotton welting. I fused seed packets to the fabric around the garden paths.

Using a raw edge overlap, I fused the two sections together, then topstitched the joining line. Now I have a garden on the mountain with hot air balloons floating over the valley below.

I layered the top with batting and backing to quilt it. I did a freeform quilting, following the lines on the print.

I quilted around the houses and balloons, just following the outlines as I could.

On the challenge fabric, I did wavy lines between the motifs.

I stitched around the inside lines on the seed packets on my domestic machine.

Next was binding. I wanted to use the challenge fabric for binding, but I didn’t have enough to go all the way around. So, I found another green that was compatible with the balloon fabric.

I joined the binding strips together placing the seam at the point on the quilt where the fabrics met.

I got close on the other side.

Then, I embellished it. I used a bunch of veggie buttons, sewing them along the path. I added flowers and butterflies in the garden area.

At the bottom, I appliqued a large, lace rabbit. I didn’t stitch it down all the way around, only on the bottom, the head and part of the ears.

Then I stuffed it with batting to make it three dimensional.

When I had it embellished, I added a dry brush of diamond dust around the balloons and leading down to the garden. This gave it a lot of sparkle, but was impossible to photograph. I used a spray fixative to keep the dust in place, but some inevitably will rub off.

As part of the entry, we had to give the piece a name that evoked what we saw out our back door. I called mine My Magic Garden.

We had to also write a description, and I was happy about that. I don’t think this project makes sense without it. So, here is the story –

Looking out my back door, I see a magical garden where flowers grow freely, and vegetables are always ready to be picked for a meal. Anything you want is within reach along the garden paths, always ripe and ready to eat. No weeds grow in this magic garden, and no pests are there either because the garden elves flying over in hot air balloons sprinkle magic dust to keep the garden neat and tidy, as they do for all the gardens in town. There is plenty for everyone, including the giant rabbit that lives nearby. Birds sing in abundant sunshine that is never too hot to enjoy being outside, while wispy clouds float overhead. Butterflies and bees flit lazily between the flowers, gathering bountiful pollen and nectar. Here and there are benches to sit and read, or eat a fresh tomato. Walking along the paths, the air is sweet with fresh herbs and floral scents.

Next time, I’ll share some of the other entries in the show. We won’t know who won a prize until the April guild meeting.

What do you see out your back door? Did your guild have a special exhibit for Worldwide Quilting Day?

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