Results of the 2026 WELCA Quilt Challenge

Do you remember Vessel? Made for the Women of the ELCA 2026 Triennial Quilt Contest, the challenge required quilters to interpret the gathering's theme, I Am Worthy, using the pink and yellow colors from the event logo. Selected finalist quilts (including Vessel) were on display during the event, and were auctioned, with 50% of proceeds supporting WELCA and 50% going to Lutheran World Relief. According to the quilt challenge rules, "Final winners [would] be selected for originality, adherence to selected themes, workwomanship, creative use of materials and overall design execution."

Well, I just received a letter from Jennifer Hockenbery, Interim Executive Director of WELCA, that Vessel was awarded third prize at the gathering. Yay!

There was even a judges' statement:

"The idea taken from Japanese culture of mending broken crockery with gold is obvious in this quilt. Borrowing from another culture, this quilt shows the practice of kintsugi which reflects the concept of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect and uplifting the broken by mending it with gold. Using only the two colors of the Triennial logo makes for a striking presentation. The quilter is skilled in piecing small slivers of fabric and quilting evenly and intensely."

Photo by Janice Stepp; used by permission

Photo by Janice Stepp; used by permission

Well, that was nice to hear. The letter confirmed that my quilt was purchased by a "very happy quilt lover."

One of my followers, Janice Stepp, just happens to be the secretary of the local chapter of the WELCA organization, and was able to attend the gathering. She sent me photos of my quilt (up above), as well as other entries in the challenge, which I thought you might enjoy seeing. (Thank you Janice!!) From what I heard when the winners were announced, I think the two above were awarded first and second place, respectively. Below are more of the entries.

I'm grateful for the acknowledgement for Vessel, and also the chance to see other entries. I'll miss that little quilt, and know at least two other people in my life who would have gladly taken ownership of her. But I'm also glad to know Vessel found a good home, and contributed to good causes. 

The Rest of the Scrappy Grab&Piece Blocks

Gotta say, these grab&piece blocks aren't for the faint of heart. The crazy mix of shapes, sizes and colors from the scrap basket take some patience to press and then puzzle together. But I've made good progress!

Block #4, 19" x 22".

Block #5, 20" x 23".

At the end of each block, before I reached into the scrap basket again, I re-sorted the scraps I had left from the previous block. I liked to keep the smallest pieces next to my machine, as I always start a new block by piecing those together.

So then I add the new pull, all pressed and ready to sew before starting to compose the next block. Here's #6, 15" x 22".

Six blocks in, I took a photo and meant to share here, but got busy with other things. So I just kept making blocks. 

Block 7, 11" x 20".

Block 8, 20" x 24".

AND finally Block 9, 12" x 20". For this one, I tossed all the scraps left from Block 8 back in the scrap basket, mixed them up, than pulled a couple handfuls out for this final block.

And THEN, on Sunday, I managed to get them all sewn into a quilt top, 53" x 60". I very briefly considered rearranging the blocks for better distribution of color, but then I thought why? As random as the scrap pulls and blocks have been, why not just let the quilt be what it was? And so I left them alone.

Ocean + Light

Kitty @nightquilter got to choose the Bee Sewcial @beesewcial this month, and she asked us to make a block or blocks inspired by how Ocean or Water + Light play together. "Whether the sparkle of sunlight on ocean, or the view from below, with the sun beams coming down through the water. Colors are a range of blues you might find in an ocean, anywhere from dark true blue to turquoise, with white to yellow/gold as the base for the light."

Luckily, many of the blues  - and the white - I used in my block were part of the solid restock I told you about in my June Fabric Usage post. Improv-pieced, if I trimmed it 'square,' it would measure 17" x 19", but Kitty asked me to leave it untrimmed, so I'll do that. Though I was kind of overwhelmed at the thought of responding to this prompt, once I actually faced it, it flowed pretty well.

All the Courthouse Steps Blocks

It feels like much longer, but it's only been about six weeks since I gave my Bee Sewcial mates my latest prompt, improv Courthouse Steps blocks. I don't have them all quite yet, but I've seen photos of them all, and I'm pretty excited.

As a reminder, here's my block. Which honestly, I plan to make remake. I intentionally made mine quite simple, and once I have all of the other blocks up on the design wall, I'll evaluate colors etc., and see what I think. But for now, here it is, 18" square.

And here are the other blocks, makers noted beneath each photo....

Leanne @shecanquilt

Tia @tiacurtisquilts

Stephanie @spontaneousthreads

Felicity @felicityquilts

Kitty @nightquilter

Karen @capitolaquilter

M-R @quiltmatters

Émilie @mili.tran

Pretty cool, right? I have a few ideas about how to put them all together, but that, of course, needs to wait until I actually have them. So until then....

Gum Wall

At our recent Seattle MQG guild meeting, we heard about the guild's plans for our QuiltCon 2027 Community Outreach Challenge quilt. We're using the bold palette - Bella Eggplant, Wheat, Shocking Pink, Pond, and Periwinkle, and as you might already know, the design theme is Half-Square Triangles. I was amused - though not disappointed - that our quilt would be inspired by The Gum Wall at our city's historical Pike Place Market. (Click the link if you're not familiar with it. Brace yourself.)

We were each given three pieces of fabric to make HSTs in at least two sizes between 1.5" and 5" unfinished. We had the option to make some skinny HRTs, but I opted to stick with the HSTs.

So I've sent my 22 HSTs + that one little scrap back to our Community Outreach team. Seriously can't wait to see what they come up with!

Grab&Piece

So as I recently posted, I'm working on a scrap quilt in the 'grab & piece' method, and so far, so good. I'm using as much of each pull as I can in each block, before moving on to another. With the first block, which measured 15" x 21", I ended up with just a small pile of neutral strips, which I'll fold into the next pull, rather than return them to the basket.

The second block turned out much larger - 19" x 27" - and reminded me that I didn't have to take TOO big of a handful to make a reasonably sized block.

Block 3 was slightly smaller at 19" x 21". I've been surprised how much white was in my scrap basket!

As I've begun making these blocks, I've also made a few rules for myself:

1. Try to use up each scrap pull into a block, but if the block feels done before all the scraps are used, blend them in with the next scrap pull.
2. No purple, as I'd already been gathering that for a separate project.
3. Just use quilter's cotton; other substrates will be used elsewhere.

Here are my first three blocks up on the design wall. 

TBD what filler I might want or need later on. For now, I'm just making blocks. But let me know in the comments.... do you think a quilt like this is enhanced by added big swaths of color; or do you prefer just the chaotic scrappy blocks?

The Back As the Front

Let's review. In the last two months, I've made four scrap quilts, primarily from my very full solids scrap basket. 

Banded, where an entire yard of Kona Haze was used as background on the front. But other than that, every single bit - blocks, backing, and binding - was from the scrap basket. [47" x 55" x 47" x 58"]

Bonkers, my controlled crazy quilt, which was made entirely from scrap, except for the chunky binding. [48" x 58"]

Stackables, which used more stash yardage than the previous two, yet also used a lot of scraps - all those 'stripes' on the front were scraps; as were all the pieced blocks on the back. Even with the added stash, I consider it a good use of scraps. [45" x 48"]

And finally, there's Tangled Strings, which is much smaller than the others, but still made primarily from the scrap basket. Only the Kona Punch on the back and the black binding were from stash. [25" x 26"]

So the thing is....for each of these quilt finishes, I got so many comments that the back could be the front, or right out that the commenter liked the back over the front. So I figured why not? My next scrap quilt would be made, as much as possible, from the scrap basket in the style of my pieced quilt backs, but from the start, I'll consider it the front. IE. I think I'll do the 'grab and piece' method, just reaching in and pulling out a handful of scraps, and piecing them together. At some point, I'll probably need to pull from stash to fill in - maybe? I'm not sure, but I'm curious to see. Here's what my solid scrap basket looked like after the above four quilts....

So obviously, it's packed a lot looser now, but it obviously has another quilt's (or few?!) worth of scraps left to give. Let's see.

Tangled Strings

So I left off sharing the front and back of my scrappy strings quilt, and after a couple weeks of hand-quilting, I have a finish!

For quilting, I used two WonderFil threads - primarily Spagetti 12wt SP101 – Ecru, with SP35 – Coral for the occasional accent.

Even though I hand-quilted in my early quilting days, big-stitch quilting is still not my comfort zone, and I had trouble getting stitches straight or even the same size from one section to the next. 

Still, I persevered, and even though I can't say I really enjoyed it, I got 'er done. And honestly, the texture of the finished quilt is something special.

Here's the back, all quilted up!

Once quilted, I trimmed and bound the little (25" x 26") quilt in black, and am relieved to have finished it. I still love the palette, and am happy to have this fourth quilt made primarily from the scrap basket. That part feels especially good.