The Hoffman Challenge has been around for 30 years, but I just learned of it this year at my local quilt shop. As I posted before, I've challenged myself to put myself and my work "out there" more, so I decided to enter. And I got in just barely...submitting my entry at the deadline by a minute or two. Yep, serial procrastinator, deadline crammer here. Hoffman announced after judging for this year's challenge that 2018 was the final year of the Challenge in the current format. I'm glad I entered and interested to see the next iteration!
I decided to enter without knowing the background of the event, the typical number of entries, the "look" of past winners, the judging criteria, etc. I just decided to go for it - play with the challenge fabric and see what happens. It was a fun, creative, learning process. There were around 350 total entries. My quilt made it to second round, in-person judging. It did not win any awards but will be one of 250 or so entries in the traveling trunk shows. I'm happy with that outcome and hope I can see one of the trunk shows around me! I listened to a podcast recently about the history of Hoffman and really love the family and traditions focus of the company!!
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| Nice letter, and a few gifts! |
This year's fabric is from the Shine On collection, a digital print of rainbow-colored jewels, on both a white and black background. I used both the white and black background fabrics along with a diamond print from the collection and a Radiant Gradient for the background.
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| The challenge fabric (L) and another print from the Shine On collection (R). |
In the end, I used all Hoffman fabrics from my local quilt shop (Stitches in Glendale, Ohio) including for the backing, faced binding and hanging sleeve.
My design idea actually started forming last year. For a local mini quilt challenge, I planned to create a mini inspired by the Rose Window on Cincinnati's Music Hall. [I didn't follow through on that idea, or enter that challenge, so I've bettered my follow-through this year!] What I love most about quilting and sewing is choosing fabrics and colors and shape, so this challenge let me exercise all those aspects!
I hand drew my English Paper Piecing pattern for the rosette, with an initial plan of making only a half-rosette with radiating negative space. That idea morphed over time into a full rosette on a gradient, gridded background. It was a fun process to try (at least) 1000 different ideas and be satisfied with the end result. I took plenty of pictures to remember how the design progressed, and am glad to be able to look back later.
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| Old School Curves, pencil and a string. |
I played with the rosette layout quite a bit along the way and for some reason was really stumped on what to do after the blue round. I kicked around a few ideas with scraps, some that seemed "too much" (the one below) and settled on a simple thin border of the purple gems on black background that echoes the pink/black inner border.
Once I finished the rosette, the next challenge was background. After thinking over several ideas, I landed on the gridded layout of Radiant Gradient fabric, playing with value. The rosette is fussy enough, so I wanted the background to add some harder lines and contrats. Thank goodness for iphone photography. Instant pictures are so great to help with the design decisions.
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| The winner! |
For the quilting, I added straight line quilting with variegated black/grey thread on portions of the grid to mimic the gradient effect of the fabric and add some dimension between the quilted and unquilted grid portions. Before applying the rosette, I did some tiny hand-stitching with metallic thread to echo each gem in the rosette. Under the rosette, I used an extra layer (or two?) of batting to add a trapunto effect. It's definitely not a flat quilt!
