Quilt Guild Challenge

My local quilt guild does a small challenge every year and I always try to participate. We are given 3 fat quarters which you can see above.  We can add as many or as few fabrics as we wish, as long as at least one piece of each of the challenge fabrics is included on the front.  It has to be quilted and be less than 100" in perimeter so that they can easily be hung in the local library.  

I had quite a big hate on for these particular fabrics as all I could envision was a baby quilt, but that was too big to fit the challenge.  I was staring at the fabric with rows of dots when an idea hit me,  I dug into my stash to get a bit of a visual.  That is what you see below.

And here is this final project.  

At our guild meeting, everyone one gets a ballot and votes for their favorite.  This prize is $25 cash and the "honour" of picking the challenge fabric for the coming year.  I was the lucky winner this year!!!

All of the candies were cut from the floral fabric.  I only added 4 fabrics - a snow dyed piece for the sky, the solid white, the brown for the gingerbread which was another hand dye, and a piece of green gradient for the tree and windows.

All of the applique was fused down and the edges were secured with a zig-zag stitch and Superior Monopoly thread.  I used a layer of Quilter's Dream Puff over a layer of Quilter's Dream Blend and quilted the entire thing with Superior Monopoly.  I just did enough quilting to online the main items and keep everything else nice and flat.

I was very pleased with how the binding detail came together.  Originally I thought I would just bind it with the stripe, but it was too overpowering as the whole binding.  As a piping detail it was just right.

I always like to put the challenge fabrics on the back if I can so that I remember what they looked like.  If you want to check out all the other projects, visit the Crocus Quilter's Guild blog here.