Borders On and a Guild Challenge

The borders are finally on this project. It's one of the more mundane, and - to me - boring tasks and I can procrastinate with the best of them. Now it gets moved to the "to quilt" pile.

This rather unpromising drawing is the jumping off point for our guild's quilt show challenge. This is the actual paper pattern and measures approximately 19" x 16". There are twelve of these patterns in the series and three series were made. This is the tip of a tree branch which extends across eleven other patterns, each one a bit different as you follow the branch back to the tree trunk. Each pattern has a different season and time of day. This one is Winter Night. Other than the finished size, which must meet the dimensions of the pattern, and the tree branch, which must also match the pattern, how the time of day and season are depicted is the choice of the individual challenge participant. 

You can depict a scene looking straight out at the horizon, up into the sky, or down at the ground. Anything can be placed in the background - landscape, sky, buildings, etc., or on the branch. I have figured out what I am going to do, so the hardest part (ha! famous last words?) is done. All that's left is the execution. The completed piece has to be a finished quilt, i.e., three layers quilted and bound. The deadline is January.

The background pieces I put together and posted here, went into the reject pile. What I envisioned as looking like African landscape turned out to be entirely too somber and muddy. The fabrics for the elephant either clashed terribly with the the background or dissolved into it. It was a disaster. Plan #2 is to use interesting subtle tan and beige prints. I used this to good effect several years ago in this quilt.

The background pieces look gray in this photo, but there are actually warm beige in color. The change in background pieces helped a lot, but there is going to be much trial and error cutting the pieces for the elephant body. I was pretty dejected a couple of days ago, but feel like tackling it again soon.