The Big Reveal: Philadelphia MQG Shares Habitat Challenge Winners
the GenQ Crew • August 05, 2011 • 7 Comments

Want to know what “nervous” is? It’s submitting a block to a new-fabric challenge to be judged by the high profile designer of the very fabric line you’re exploring. And for members of the Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild who participated in the ongoing nationwide Modern Quilt Guild challenge using Jay McCarroll’s Habitat collection by FreeSpirit, that meant Jay himself would be casting his practiced eye over your creation. Argh!

But Philly MQG members came through in fine stitchin’ style. The winners of this chapter’s Habitat challenge are: Monica Cuartero, Karen Dever, Susan McKey, Candi Weinrick and Anna Ziegner. Styles included paperpieced creations, appliqué and improvisational blocks.

The Habitat Challenge started earlier this summer, with almost 50 individual MQG chapters participating and setting their own rules. Because Jay’s a hometown boy, the Phillie chapter asked Jay to kick their challenge off and judge the results. The guild members’ original 12-inch  blocks will eventually be worked into quilts that will be donated to the Quilts for Japan quilt drive, a project near and dear to Jay’s heart.

The Philly MQGers kindly let Generation Q share in the fun by letting us reveal their Habitat Challenge winners to the quilty world, including the directions and diagrams for these kick-ass blocks. We’ve scheduled that fun for our regular daily post on Aug. 19, but for now, here’s the 411 on the winning designers and their blessed-by-Jay blocks:

 

Monica Cuartero
Sicklerville, NJ
http://fussycutquilts.blogspot.com

Classically trained as a painter, Monica has been quilting and working with fiber for the past 10 years. She confesses that for a long time she made her own “blocks,” but was afraid to sew them into quilts. (That fear is vanishing!) She likes to bring a modern painterly approach to traditional quilting. The “Pollen” print in Habitat “struck an asthmatic chord” with her, she says, and that fabric is featured heavily in appliqué in her block.

What Jay had to say: “I chose this one because it is seriously one of the wildest blocks I think I have ever seen! It conjures up a feeling of outer space and psychedelica for me. I love that the creator experimented with many different techniques.”

 

Karen Dever
Moorestown, NJ
www.karendever.com

This teacher, designer, certified AQS appraiser and newly published author (Soldier’s Pride & More, a book about 18 WWII documented blocks) created what she calls the Phillie Dazzler, a paper pieced block based on a variation of a historic Signal Light block from 1942 that symbolizes air raid warnings used on the European war front.

 

What Jay had to say: “I like how this block uses many different smaller pieces to create a bigger picture that, at first glance, feels traditional, but upon looking closer reminds me of tie dye or a kaleidoscope.”

 

Susan McKey
Elkins Park, PA
http://stitchywitchysisters.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/smckey

This professional theatre actor and teaching artist has worked in the Philadelphia area for more than 20 years, but she’s worked fabric all her life. She is a self-professed fabric addict, workaholic, bad sleeper and chicken raiser. She actually made three blocks with Jay’s fabric, but this improvised block was the first, inspired by the idea of literally making a home from Habitat. “There is sky, and roofing, and interior, and exterior. There is architecture, and there is the organic patterning of nature,” she says.

 

What Jay had to say: “I love this block. I feel like I can identify with this block because if I were to be doing this challenge, my block would look exactly like this!”

 

Candi Weinrick
Logan Township, NJ
www.raccooncreekquilts.blogspot.com

This mom, wife and blogger has a day job in finance, and quilting is a major stress reliever. She says she used to tell her husband that quilting is cheaper than therapy, but they both realize that’s probably not the case anymore! She’s been quilting for 10 years, and blogging for two. “Because of blogging I have met some awesome people and have had many incredible opportunities come my way,” she says.

 

What Jay had to say: “I think this block is very balanced and well thought out. Although it feels traditional, I find it to be very exciting and youthful

 

Anna Ziegner
Glenside, PA

This German fraulein is now a wife and mother in the Philadelphia suburbs. During the day, she teaches Eurythmy (a kind of movement) in a small private school, and when she comes home, she likes to surround herself with beautiful yarn and fabric. Her very geometric block was designed so each fabric could “breathe and stand on its own,” she says.


What Jay had to say: “This block really shows off the different prints in the Habitat collection in a really focused way. The play between positive and negative, between prints and solids invokes curiosity for the eye.”

(Thank you, Philly MQG, for letting us debut your winners on our stage! )

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7 Comments

  • Becky M • 13 years ago
    COMMENT #1

    YAY! Congrats to the winners. The blocks look awesome!

  • quiltzyx/sue • 13 years ago
    COMMENT #2

    This was a very nice way to start the day – 5 original quilt blocks to look at!

    AND learning there’s going to be another day of Q-mag too!!! :^)

  • Deborah • 13 years ago
    COMMENT #3

    Love both the fabric and the blocks! Good job to the quilters and to Jay!

  • Thea S • 13 years ago
    COMMENT #4

    Well I liked all the blocks – the fabric certainly made them! Very well done. Congrats to all the winners.

  • Penny • 13 years ago
    COMMENT #5

    I’m so late on this I love Monica’s block! My blocks are never straight either but randomly placed ..the quilt police would have a fit. The fabrics are awesome!

  • Ziegner • 11 years ago
    COMMENT #6

    Anna hast Du schön gemacht!Danke für das Platzdeckchen.

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