The Making of Rainy Day Friends: TrendTex Challenge 2021

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

You may remember from last week that the 2021 Quilt Canada conference is coming up soon. This year's event is unique because, due to restrictions related to COVID-19, it is being held virtually.

This means that people from all across the world can attend the conference; browsing the vendors marketplace, attending classes, and enjoying the quilt show. If you'd like to participate, you can buy your ticket on the CQA/ACC website. Regular admission costs $10CAD and includes access to the opening and closing ceremonies, quilt show, and vendors marketplace. Registration closes at 3PM EDT on 15 June.

I'm excited for this particular year since this is the first quilt show I've managed to submit a quilt to! My quilt was made in response to the 2021 TrendTex sponsored quilt challenge, and today, I'll be sharing the making of my challenge submission, and releasing pictures for the first time!

Read on Friends, to learn more!

Challenge Guidelines

The premise behind the TrendTex challenge is simple; use the five prints provided to make a quilt that follows a given theme. This year's theme was Friendship, and the five prints are those shown below.

There are a few additional rules that help govern the challenge as well:

Upon registering for the challenge, participants will receive a bundle of TrendTex fabric, containing an 18"×22" cut of each of the five challenge prints, all five of these prints must be clearly visible on the front of the finished quilt, and participants may only use what has been provided (they may not seek out additional fabric in the same print)
Up to three additional prints may be included on the front of the finished quilt
The quilt may be of any style or design, and use any combination of techniques
The perimeter of the finished quilt may not exceed 120" regardless of shape, but with no minimum restriction
The quilt must be finished, including quilting, binding, and label
There must be a minimum 2" wide hanging sleeve on the quilt's back
There must be a label, including the title, artist, date completed, and any additional credits
Once submitted, entries become property of CQA/ACC, and will be auctioned as a fundraiser at a later date
The deadline for submission was 05 April 2021, the quilt must be received no later than that date

Full contest rules can be found here.

With all of that in mind, let's dive right in!

Planning the Design - January 2021

At a time when people are so far apart, Friendship is an interesting choice of theme. It reminds me of childhood; when friends could be made in an afternoon, and if no one came along, could be found in the frogs and the flowers, the wind and the rain.

Once my fabric arrived, I found that a lot of the prints in the bundle reminded me of rain as well. The blue print reminded me of colourful maritime homes on a drizzly morning, the spotted print like ripples from raindrops on water, and one red print had the texture of sunlight at the bottom of a pond.

Since so much of this challenge was pointing me towards a rainy day theme, I knew I needed to embrace that.

Some of my earlier designs followed much more traditional patterns, taking inspiration from characters like Sunbonnet Sue and the Colonial Lady. While I really appreciate the heritage and storytelling behind those patterns, and love seeing them used in quilting, that's not the style of quilt I prefer making.

I've found that I enjoy making quilts that are a little more abstract. I like to use symbolism and inference, allowing the viewer to take what I've given them and craft their own narrative based on their own experiences. In that way, the quilt becomes a conversation rather than a story, a sentiment which ties back to the theme of friendship.

Those thoughts pushed me towards a new design, shown above, which uses chevrons as an abstract background implying rain, and the image of an umbrella to solidify that. It felt really close to what I wanted, but didn't convey the right tone.

Though my intention was that someone had dropped their umbrella to rekindle a friendship with the rain, the sketch seemed to speak more of abandonment, sadness, and tragedy. Someone left that umbrella behind, but through the image alone, we don't know why.

I needed to give the umbrella more purpose, a reason for being there. And in accordance with the theme of friendship, what better reason than as a gift?

The addition of the frog as the recipient of the umbrella adds a certain ironic whimsy to the piece, eliminating the sadness and uncertainty of my earlier design. While planning these changes, I wrote myself a note which reads "I thought of a frog and the irony of a child offering an aquatic animal an umbrella in the rain."

With my design finalized, I needed to make a pattern for piecing together my quilt top. With a fairly limited supply of fabric, I thought it best to have a method, rather than just cutting straight into my fabric.

My first step was to draw a diagram at the actual size my quilt would finish. This would help inform my cutting, and ensure the dimensions fit within the challenge guidelines.

From the very beginning, I knew I would be using foundation paper piecing (FPP) for the frog, since it is a much more complicated design than the rest of the quilt. For that, I needed a proper template, with all the appropriate labels needed for that technique. If you're not familiar with FPP, check out Kitty Wilkin's tutorial on Night Quilter.

Pattern Testing - January 2021

Once my pattern was complete, I wanted to make a test version of the quilt. As I mentioned before, I was worried about having enough fabric to complete my pattern and didn't want to cut into the challenge fabric until I was sure.

I chose fabrics from my stash that sort of matched the colours and prints from the TrendTex challenge bundle, and which were of the same dimensions. I then followed the pattern I had made until my test quilt top was complete!

You can see that, in addition to the five prints, I used a solid black for a few parts of the umbrella. I also added some scraps to piece the part of the background hidden behind the umbrella's canopy since it quickly became obvious that I wouldn't have enough of the ivory fabric.

I'm really happy with how the test quilt came out, and I learned a few things while working on it that will help to make my challenge quilt even better! I'm also glad I'll have a version of this pattern to keep for myself after my challenge piece is sold.

Piecing the Challenge Quilt - February 2021

Once I knew my pattern would work with the fabric I had, I started piecing my challenge entry.

Rainy Chevron Background

To ensure that the chevrons in my background remained straight and parallel, I chose to use FPP here as well as for the frog. This was not something I had done in my test quilt, and had resulted in some of my many bias edges warping a little.

I drew my paper template onto lightweight grid paper based on the size and positioning of the chevrons from my pattern, repositioning some to account for changes made during my test.

I cut strips of fabric that matched the width of the chevrons in the template, plus seam allowance, then began assembling them.

Once I had finished piecing all of my chevron panels, I moved on to assembling the puddles in the foreground, using FPP for consistency.

The Frog

With the rest of the background pieced, I used the remnants to assemble the frog.

I specifically left the frog until last because it uses a lot of really tiny pieces, so the remnants from the other background panels would definitely be large enough. If I had chosen to do the frog earlier in the process, I might have accidentally cut the fabric into pieces too small to use for the chevron background.

I once again started by transferring my template onto lightweight paper. The frog has a lot of different pieces, so I triple checked that all the lines had been properly drawn before beginning to sew.

The frog includes three different fabrics; the back, tummy, and background. Each of these must be pieced into the correct place on the template in order for the finished block to look appropriately frog-like. The more complex a FPP pattern is, the more attention must be paid to proper colour placement.

Assembling the Background

With all the different panels pieced, I could finally assemble my background. I started by laying out the pieces into their proper placement, then sewing them together one seam at a time.

My design required that I use a few partial seams to get everything positioned correctly, so I had to keep those in mind as I went. There were some sections that took a few tries, but I managed to get the background pieced without too much trouble.

At this point, it was time to remove all the paper from the back of my piecing. I personally enjoy this process and find it very relaxing, although I've heard some people think it's tedious.

The Umbrella

The final step to complete my quilt top was to add the umbrella. My umbrella design was inspired by the lingering image of the Colonial Lady's parasol. It consists of three canopy panels, a handle piece, and a small piece extending out of the umbrella's top known as the ferrule.

Referencing my paper pattern, I drew templates for all the different components of the umbrella onto a thicker paper. Using the templates, I cut my fabric with an additional ¼" around all sides for seam allowance.

I pieced together the sections of the canopy using the English paper piecing method. If you're interested to learn more about that, check out this tutorial by Stacy Fisher on The Spruce Crafts. I used thread basting and left those stitches in place until after I had completed the applique.

I also chose to thread baste the edges of the handle and ferrule to prep them with applique. Once basting was done, I laid out all of the umbrella pieces onto the background, ensuring the canopy would completely cover the off-colour section of the background, while not obscuring the frog.

Since I needed to applique the handle first, I used a pencil to mark a dot under each of the umbrella's canopy points so I would be able to place it back into the correct spot later. I didn't need to mark the location of the ferrule since it's small enough to just use the shape of the canopy for reference.

I thread basted the handle in place using a contrasting thread colour, and long stitches that would be easy to remove later. Then, using a hand sewn slip stitch, sewed the applique piece to the background. A quilter at my local quilt store advised me to use a thread colour that matches the applique fabric since it will be less noticeable this way.

I repeated those steps with the canopy and ferrule. You can see in the picture above how visible the contrasting basting threads are and how subtle the matching applique thread is (on the handle).

With everything stitched down, my quilt top was complete!

Quilting - March 2021

With the top pieced, it was time to quilt! Even though I know that quilting is an important part of the quilt making process, I hadn't really considered what design I wanted to use.

My plan was to use a custom design to add to the narrative I had created in the piecing. I considered using free motion quilting to create something detailed and intricate, but I've never actually tried free motion quilting before, and decided the best time to learn was not while making a challenge entry.

I ended up deciding to use walking foot quilting since it's the only technique I had any experience with. I quilted random segments of diagonal lines across the background to further the illusion of falling rain, and used outline quilting around the umbrella canopy and frog to accent them. Everything was quilted in a light, silvery-grey thread that reminded me of the colour of rain.

I finished off the quilting by knotting and burying all the loose thread ends, then used a ruler to square off the edges of my quilt.

Finishing - March 2021

At this point, I only had a few steps left to complete my challenge quilt; labelling, binding, and the hanging sleeve. These are all very simple finishing steps that I was able to do over a couple of days.

Labelling

As per the challenge instructions, I was required to label my quilt on the back with the title, artist's name, date completed, and any additional credits.

The title I settled on is perhaps not very original, but I felt was appropriate to the content of the quilt: Rainy Day Friends. I like the duality of the title, both the literal friend made on a rainy day, and the more figurative friend who is there in times of need.

My label was hand painted on a remnant of ivory fabric from my stash using heat set textile ink. Since I have no printer and very limited experience with embroidery, I felt this was my best option.

I aligned the label with the bottom right corner of the quilt backing and thread basted it in place. I folded the top and left sides of the label under and hand stitched them to the backing using a slip stitch, being careful that my stitches wouldn't be visible from the front. The two basted edges will be secured when I add the binding.

Binding

On a large quilt, binding doesn't always have a lot of impact. In the context of the finished quilt, binding is very small and often not noticeable. However, when it comes to smaller quilts, the binding is proportionally much larger and more noticeable, sometimes creating just as much impact as a border would.

Unfortunately, I hadn't actually considered binding when designing this quilt. I hadn't planned the colour or print I would use, and forgot to think about how my choices might affect the feeling of my finished piece.

I ended up deciding to use the red print. It had only been featured in the umbrella canopy, but there were red accents in the blue background print that matched. It ended up tying the whole quilt together in a beautiful and unexpected way!

If you're interested in the method I used for binding, I followed something very similar to this process used by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter.

Hanging Sleeve

The final step to complete my TrendTex challenge quilt was attaching the hanging sleeve. A hanging sleeve is a strip of fabric sewn to the quilt back through which a dowel may be inserted. The dowel can be supported on either end by nails, or hung from string to display the quilt on a wall.

Since the quilts made for this challenge are specified in the guidelines as wall quilts, this is a very important feature. It is also important for display during the Quilt Canada show.

The method I used for attaching my hanging sleeve was not researched, I made guesses based on my past knowledge and experiences.

I first cut a rectangle at 18"×3 ½". It was 1 ½" wider than the specified 2" width to account for hemming and a little bit of slack since I was worried about the dowel warping the front of the quilt. The length of the rectangle was the width of the finished quilt, less a few inches on either side.

I finished all four sides of the rectangle with a ¼" double turn hem. With the top edge of the rectangle pinned 1" down from the edge of the binding, I used a hand sewn slip stitch to secure it in place, once again being careful it was not visible from the front.

To secure the bottom edge, I measured 2" down from the top edge and pinned it in place. Note that the haggling sleeve was not smoothed out to be flat against the quilt back, rather it had some gaping to account for the width of the dowel. I finished the sleeve by sewing the bottom edge with a hand slip stitch.

I have since learned other methods for attaching hanging sleeves which are not terribly different from the one that I used, so I feel justified.

The Completed Quilt

And with that, Friends, my entry is complete! I’m really happy with how everything turned out, and so proud of myself for finishing it in time for submission! Though I was aware when I sent it in that I wouldn’t win any prizes for technique (I still have a lot to learn) the challenge for me was making an entry, and submitting it to the show, and in that I have succeeded!

Here is the first look at my completed TrendTex quilt, Rainy Day Friends:

This quilt finished at 21”x14 ½”, it uses the five challenge fabrics and an additional black solid. The pattern was designed, pieced, and quilted by me, and submitted to the Canadian Quilters’ Association/Association Canadienne de la Courtepointe along with the following statement:

This quilt was inspired by my childhood friendship with the rain. The fabrics are reminiscent of the vibrant colours of children’s rain gear, the sombre silence of houses on a rainy hillside, and the spots on a frog. I chose to embrace the ironic innocence of a child’s mind, in offering an umbrella to a passing frog on a rainy day.

I love the texture of the quilting, I think it adds some great detail and depth to the piece. When viewed from the back, it has a really modern, minimalist effect, especially in the figure of the frog.

My favourite view is looking at it from the back with the light shining through. It creates some really dreamy, ethereal colours that remind me of stained glass. I’m so glad I opted for a light backing colour!

After so many months, it’s so exciting to look back on all the work I put into making this project, and to share it with all of you! It was great to try new techniques, and I loved challenging my creativity within the limits of the TrendTex guidelines. I learned so much and I'm looking forward to participating in more quilting challenges in the future!

With all the time I spent working on my piece, I’m looking forward to seeing how other participants interpreted the fabric and theme. I wonder if any others will have chosen the same topic as me?

If you’ve submitted a piece to the 2021 TrendTex challenge, let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear the story behind your quilt!

If you are interested in purchasing one of the TrendTex challenge quilts, they will be available for auction 23-26 September 2021. Check that out here!

As a final reminder Friends, if you’d like to attend this year’s Virtual Quilt Canada conference, you need to get your tickets on the CQA/ACC website before 3PM EDT on 15 June. I hope you can make it!