Asian Secrets
Not to be confused with the Asian Secret quilt entry to the National Qrchid Society. This quilt was Jennifer's quilt entry into the 2006 Hoffman Quilt Challenge.
Jennifer worked on both quilts at the same time & will be the first to tell you not to expect the same results just because you are creating the "same" quilt at the same time with the same patterns. Jennifer used a clip art from the Design Source Books series as the starting point for both of these quilts. These books are a haven to those who can not draw and a great way to create a pattern for the basic shapes for those who can but want to take a short-cut! There are numerous free clips that can be reproduced and re-sized for your needs. The fabric for the Hoffman Challenge was a brightly colored jumble of bamboo leaves. Since she had already planned to do the geishia for the American Orchid Society, Jennifer thought it would be interesting to see how different the quilts would be when created with different fabrics.
Everything except the design itself was different. As easy as the Orchid-Society's Asian Secret quilt came together is how difficult Asian Secrets was to complete!
"I had very few problems with the orchid quilt. But, everything I did on the Hoffman quilt had to be done twice. I don't really know why, but it was frustrating. I even had to send my Viking in for servicing and didn't get it back for 2 weeks because of a delay in a part replacement! I had to finish this quilt on my beginner sewing machine & that was quite a challenge! (No pun intended!) In the end all was well. But, I don't think I will try that experiment again!"
Jennifer chose purple as the focal color on this quilt with the intention of toning down the required fabric. She also digitized more of her sketches using Embroidery Magic2 for the quilting and the border. And she created the peacock for the center of the fan. She stitched the main body of the bird in two parts right onto the required fabric. She then stitched out the feathers she digitized onto tulle and sewed them down creating the tail of the peacock.
"The one thing I found fascinating was how differnt the borders became just by making a couple of small changes and stitching in different colored threads."
Even though it was a struggle to complete, this quilt demonstrates how working through problems is the reward in the end. It did not take a prize in the 2006 Hoffman Challenge, but it did travel around the country with the winners!
$5000.00
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