Are You Up To A Challenge?

At our January guild meeting we announced a new challenge, quilts based on the theme “Modern in the City”. The rules for the challenge are that your quilt needs to be exactly 36 inches on ONE side and 36 inches or less on all other sides.  Your quilt also needs to have a hanging sleeve – here’s a tutorial by Jacquie that I use when making quilts for shows, although you can use another method if you prefer

We will be partnering with the International Quilt Festival (IQF) which meets in Rosemont in June as well as Naperville Modern Quilt Guild who will be doing the same challenge as us.  IQF will select a group of quilts, approximately 10-15 from each guild, to be displayed at their show.  The quilts will just be shown at the Rosemont show and will not be traveling to other shows, so you’ll get it back at the end of the show.  Of course, you can participate in the challenge without submitting your quilt to the show if you prefer.  

To be considered for inclusion in the show you’ll need to fill out their online form which includes information like your contact information, the title of your piece, an artist’s statement, a release allowing them to hang the quilt, insurance information, as well as two photos of your quilt (one of the whole quilt and a detail shot), etc.  The submission site is open and active, so you can submit at any point up until the final deadline for electronic submission to the IQF site, March 20, 2014.  We strongly suggest that you submit a few days early so that if you have problems you’ll have time to get assistance through the guild forum.  Unlike our challenges with the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo where the guild collected information and turned it over to the show, the responsibility for submission of your quilt is yours as an individual, although guild officers will try to help / troubleshoot if you have problems.

The link for the quilt submission to IQF is :  : http://specialexhibitsloanagreement.com/   – begin the form by clicking on the button that says “Proceed to Step One”.  Please make sure that you select Chicago / Naperville MQG in the dropdown menu for “Special Exhibit”.  You may only submit one quilt for inclusion in the show.  

Unrelated to the challenge, but relevant to IQF, Pokey Bolton also asked me to share that  there are opportunities at Chicago Quilt Festival for both Open Studios where quilt artists/designers can demonstrate for two hours  on the show floor, and Make It University! where quilt artists/designers can teach one-hour make-and-take style classes. These are unpaid positions but provide you with some PR / exposure to the quilting world and an opportunity to share your work.  Pokey is helping to select the artists for Open Studios and Make It University so if you’re interested in this opportunity you can email her at pokeyb@quilts.com with a low-resolution image of your work.