"Clue" challenge (from the board game "clue")

You will need the clue cards (or representatives - See below)
Each person picks one card from each of the three clue decks ("who", "what", and "where")

They will need to employ an element from all three of the cards. (Depending on the number of people in your guild that participate, they will be re-using at least some of the cards they draw - so have the members write their drawn cards down then replace the card in the hat for the next person. While it's possible for two quilters to have 3 identical cards, it's not likely given the number of possibilities, and even if there are duplicates, they will probably interpret them differently).

The quilter can be very creative with their interpretation of the who, the what and the where!! For example, Professor Plum can be the color purple, or fabric with plums on it. Mrs White can be the color white, or images of the White House. The Rope can be cowboy fabric with pictures of lasso's or a rope quilting motif. The billiard room can use the color billiard green or a block with circles.

If you want to make it easier ... have the quilters choose all three cards, but they only need to employ two of the cards in their quilt.

Some examples ...

* Mrs Peacock in the Conservatory with the Lead Pipe ... A Blue lattice quilt with a grey border (purple represents Mrs Peacock, Lattic represents the conservatory, and grey represents the grey in the lead pipe).

* Mrs White in the Study with the rope .... A bookshelf quilt (represents "study"), use book names that represent "white" (ie Moby Dick, White Fang - etc), and use a rope motif to quilt the line of the shelf.


The "Who"
Miss Scarlett
Colonel Mustard
Mrs White
Mr Green
Mrs Peacock
Professor Plum

The "What"
Revolver
Lead Pipe
Rope
Candle Stick
Wrench
Knife

The "Where"
Kitchen
Ballroom
Dining Room
Lounge
Hall
Conservatory
Billiard Room
Library
Study

We had one where you take a favorite book and describe it in an 8 1/2 x 11 mini quilt. You could not do the front of the book or the title in it. Everyone gave the name of the book to one person so there were no duplicates. It was a game at the quilt show to see who could match the quilt with the book title. No prizes awarded but the smart lady who thought of the idea put all of them in a large quilt and it tours the local libraries.

Our guild had a challenge to use up scraps. People would bag up scraps from a completed quilt in a large ziploc bag and bring it to guild. They would turn their bag in and receive another person's bag of scraps. You could add in other fabrics, but you needed to use scraps from the bag you got. When the quilts were shown at guild, first the original quilt was shown, then the one using scraps was shown. It was amazing how different the quilts were and also how beautiful!

At a quilt show I attended last year, the local guild had a mini quilt challenge that was fun to see.

This year our guild is celebrating its 35th anniversary so one of the members looked up the colors for this anniversary--they are jade, coral and emerald. We have to use two or three of these colors to make anything we want-- a quilt (no size specifics) table runner, jacket, bag etc. whatever we want so long as it's quilted. Other colors may be added as long as the anniversary colors are featured. I'm anxious to see what we all come up with. They will all be presented at our quilt show in April.

How about putting a bunch of gift bags in a larger bag and each member picks ( no peeking) one out and makes something matching the colors in the bag they picked out. Or put different songs that mention colors like "Pink Houses" , "Yellow Submarine" in hat and each member draws one and makes something with that color.

These ideas sound like such fun...I miss being in a guild :( .

Have everyone bring a magazine, have a few extras on hand for those who forget, and without telling them why, have them rip out one page. They can use either side of the page but must make a quilt of a size determined by guild using the colors on that page. For some it may be black and white and for others it may be a sunset or the Grand Cayon. Picture is to be kept and displayed with the finished quilt.

Similar to the paint chip idea, but a tad different. Our guild bought a large box of crayons. Each person who wanted to participate drew three crayons out of a bag. They then will have to make their challenge quilt with those colors. The paper on the crayons is a lighter shade than the tip of the crayon, so it was decided the fabric could match either the paper or tip of the crayon. Have fun choosing for your guild.

Past themes from our guild included making 25" squares or no larger than 25" in any one direction: With these hands, Winter,Spring, Summer, Fall, this is my favorite time of all. For our 25th anniversary, our pres. handed out a piece of silver sparkly fabric and we had to use it somewhere. Our guild page shows some examples. herringrunquiltguild.com scroll down to previous challenges. Some of these ladies have been together for over 25 years and have had some great ideas.

Our group was told to pick a quilt magazine out of their box and turn to page 47. Our challenge was to make something from that page. It sometimes was a large quilt and sometimes an advertisement. We've had some really creative ideas.