Each year Quilt NSW ( formerly known as the Quilters Guild of NSW) has a suitcase challenge where members are invited to submit mini quilts of 40 x 40cms (16 x 16 inches) in a set theme. 

Some of you may remember that I made some quilts for the Mini Modern theme last year. To jog your memory you can pop over to the post about my Trio of Quilts here.

This year the set theme was Colour Collision. A chance to play with colour- yes please!! And the idea of "collision" immediately sparked ideas. Just like last year I got carried away on an inspiration wave and ended up making three quilts.

I decided to continue the recipe of steel coloured linen combined with solids and a few patterns thrown in. The use of negative space features strongly too.  Oh and they have to have rhyming names too, coming up with titles is half the fun! I've made a few now and I like that they work as a series.

The first quilt I made for this years challenge was Collision Vision- a square of half inch wide strips. It reminds me of those sprinkles used on cakes, or a game I used to play when I was a little girl called Pick Up Sticks. Is that still around anymore?

I used different coloured perle8 thread to sew the strips. It took a while to make because I sewed a layer or two and put it aside for a month or so. When I came back to it I added more strips, and got distracted again but eventually came back to it and added more strips. I really like how dense the square of colour ended up, but that you can still see glimpses of the background linen which adds an airy look to it.

On to the next quilt I made - I've named this one Collision Indecision because I'm not sure it really works. I was going for the clashing colourful fiesta look but I don't think the randomly mixed colours do the idea any favours. I can't help but wonder how it would look if I'd used cool colours for the circles and warm colours for the ribbons, but then maybe that would look too controlled? I guess I'll just have to try it one day to find out.

Asterix Tricks is a fun one - My idea was that the ribbons come together, or collide, to create colourful sparks. 

I also played with colour with my quilting stitches.

and the mixed coloured threads tied through each star.

It was a toss up whether to send Asterix Tricks or Collision Vision... 

but in the end it was Collision Vision that was sent off the Quilt NSW head office. 

When I sat down to write an artist statement it came out as a poem - it's funny how my brain works sometimes with things just popping into my head. Could I really just write a poem?? I'm not even a poet!! I decided to go with it and this is what I wrote: 

Colour collision. Following a vision,
Fabrics I choose. Pink, orange, green, yellow, blues
Cut and stitched. Fingers bewitched
Layer upon layer. Colour, the player
Soon what is there. Becomes a square.


A few weeks later I received a call from Quilt NSW. I'd forgotten about the challenge and had no idea why they were calling but when I returned their call it was the exciting news is that my little quilt had received a Judges Commendation award! Woohoo!! I couldn't make it to the meeting to receive my ribbon in person but I'm thrilled with the award. 

So what happens next? All the quilts entered into the Suitcase Challenge are packed into a suitcase and travel to several shows for the next 2 years or so. In the mean time you can have a look at all the entries here at the Quilt NSW website.  It's always wonderful to see how different people interpret a the same theme. 

Does it make you wonder what you would make for Colour Collision?