Show of 2021 Ombre Challenge Quilts
Ombre is a French word meaning shaded or graduated tone. Ombre may have more than one color, and it might be hand-dyed, printed, metallic, or a batik.
The quilt size was to be 20″ x 20″ and we had the option to add one additional piece of another fabric to our quilt top. The quilt backing and binding were to be made with the Ombre fabric only in order to see and appreciate the Ombre that was chosen as a whole before it was cut up for piecing.
These quilts were shown at our 2021 Ombre Quilt Challenge Reveal on November 23th, 2021.
Click on any photo for a larger view.
Heather Pool
The ombre ran from gold to orange, rust, to pink, all with metallic dots. The second fabric was black with gold medallions on it. I cut the wedges of the Dresden plate from the gold edge of the ombre, and the corners of the gold filigree medallions. The background is pieced from the black areas between the medallions. The center is a rust ring from the ombre, and a medallion center appliqued on. This is a mat for my bar cart.
Kim Toffel
I got the inspiration for this quilt from Pinterest. Unfortunately, I had to supplement with other fabric for the back as I ran out of ombré. I change out the mini quilts over my fireplace almost monthly, so this will work for January. I am hoping for a nice snowfall this winter, so hopefully this will inspire Mother Nature!
Nancy Watts
My quilt is called “Mystery Planets”. I cut the original ombré fabric into strips and offset the strips to create some background movement. The smaller circles are made using APPLIPOPS, a great tool for making turned edge fabric circles. The two larger circle patterns were made by drawing around a bowl and all circles are appliquéd. The quilting lines were drawn on by using one of my husband’s drafting tools for flexible curves. My inspiration came from browsing the internet for any design with circles, since I love circles. I’m so sorry not to be at the meeting tonight. We are camping in Northern California with my husband’s son and family, including two grandchildren 6 and 9 which will be such fun. I wish you all a very happy Happy Thanksgiving.
Ruthann Marquis
The idea for my 2021 quilt for the 20 x 20 challenge came to me very slowly and organically. I took Jennifer Sampou’s words to heart: Make the fabric do the work for you! I purchased a yard of Hoffman Waves and was delighted with the spread of patterns that made up the ombre. I left it intact to showcase its beauty. A special thank you goes out to Betsy Sayre for sharing her beautiful red cutwork that made a perfect capsule for this quilt titled Free At Last!
Dianne McDonnell
“Let’s Mingle” This quilt was inspired by the block called “Interlaced Ribbons” by Nancy Cabot in 1936. When I noticed this block, I thought it would make an interesting quilt for the Ombre challenge. I drafted the pattern to measure 20″ x 20″ and then used the draft to paper-piece the top. I chose to face the quilt rather than bind it. The fabric is “Opal” from Jennifer Sampou’s Sky collection. The dark blue is from her “Nightfall” ombre of the same collection.
Liz McElhinny
I purchased one yard of Jennifer Sampou’s Sky fabric in Haze this summer because I loved the gradation of color across the full width of fabric. My inspiration was the storms on the Oregon coast. I wanted to make the challenge quilt from this one piece of fabric and explored many ideas. This fabric needed larger pieces to showcase the ombré changes but the small quilt size of 20”x20 limited how to get enough contrast with just one fabric. I faced the quilt because a binding didn’t work for the final design. It is a wider facing than usual to show ombré and because I didn’t have enough to do a full backing. I named it “Neskowin Storm” and I am happy with the final quilt.
Jean Moore-Volmer
TITLE: Geese in Flight. Somewhere in the back of my memory I had seen this little quilt on the Internet. After some googling I found it at the Better Off Thread Store. It was the entire inspiration for the quilt and quilting. The fabric was harder to find as I needed an entire flow of the light spectrum. I found my fabric at Spoonflower and also bought the gray fabric from them. This is the first time I have ever done reverse appliqué and I found it quite the challenge especially as my points were very small in places.