Whisper Challenge

Over the past year, Sue's art quilt group participated in a challenge we called the Whisper Challenge.  Think of it as the quilted version of a game of "telephone" that you may have played as a child.  This is how it worked.  The first person in the challenge selected a photo and made a quilt based on that photo.  She then passed her quilt (not the photo) on to the second person.  The second person had a month to make a quilt based on the first quilt, which was then passed to the third person.  This process continued through 9 people, where each person saw only the previous quilt.  The only "rule" or guideline was size, which was 18x24 inches.  When all 9 quilts where completed, the results were revealed to the whole group. 

This photo of an individual from Tibet was the original photo chosen by Bobbie Dewees.

Her interpretation of the photo is shown in the quilt on the left above.  As you can see, she stayed pretty true to the original photo.  The second quilt (left to right) is by Willa Downes, who gave a Caribbean island twist to the original.  Third in the challenge was Barb Sherwood whose quilt takes on an African interpretation.  Fourth was Judy Albert, who selected a n Indonesian batik panel as the focal point of her quilt.  So far, we are taking a rather international tour!  Click on the photo for a closer look at all the quilts.

In the photo above, we again see the fourth quilt, followed by Anna Willard's interpretation.   She was inspired to create an African dancer, with a "Gee's Bend" style improvisational background.  The sixth quilt by Linda Cooper took the dance interpretation and focused on a gymnast (her daughter) on a balance beam.  Sue's quilt is the seventh; she found inspiration in the concept of  balance and the diagonal line of the balance beam so in turn screen printed these "birds on a branch" as her focal point.

Judy Grumbacher was the eighth participant and based on Sue's quilt, created this improvisational tree. And finally, Barbara Wise used the tree inspiration to create a whimsical tree of her own, but one that included birds. 

Here's a shot that shows the progression in all 9 quilts.  Quite a change from first to last!  But you can see how each quilter took some aspect of the previous quilt as inspiration for their creation.  We all enjoyed this concept, and are planning to start a new challenge this fall.  There will be more participants, so it will take a full year to complete.  We hope to exhibit this year's completed challenge in the 2019 Quilters Unlimited quilt show.  Members of the art quilt group are from Burke, Fairfax, and Vienna QU as well as the Norther Virginia SAQA pod.