Pantone Quilt Challenge 2019 – Living Coral

Hey guys and gals! The Pantone Quilt Challenge is upon us, and this year we’re celebrating LIVING CORAL(!!!) We may be slightly biased, but who doesn’t love a good, thriving marine invertebrate?!

Today, Sarah of no hats in the house and I are pleased to announce the details for the 2019 Pantone Quilt Challenge contest!

SO, straight to the good stuff.

THE JUDGES

We couldn’t be happier to announce our three guest judges: Erika Bea, Lucy Tiffney, and Tula Pink.

These powerhouses are pure inspiration on so many different levels (and in so many mediums!). From original surface pattern design to masterful murals to pie-baking artistry, our judges, together, are truly masters of all trades.

Erika Bea loves many things, not the least of which are snow, sewing, growing dahlias, and making pies.  She has a particular affinity for baking ridiculous numbers of pies at one time. (Imagine 17 pies in one Thanksgiving spread, and you’ve basically pulled up a seat to Erika’s holiday table.)

Lucy Tiffney has an inherent need to create, and an ambition to make fresh, happy, and colorful designs for all. Lucy’s original large-scale murals and beautiful, bold wallpapers showcase her signature hand-painterly style and unique interpretation of the natural world.

Tula Pink is an illustrator, fabric designer, quilter, author, maker, and proud member of the “more is more” school of thought. She lives for fabric design, and is known for her bold use of color and pattern, and a unique flair for hidden animals in her designs.

THE COLOR

For this year’s Pantone Quilt Challenge we are playing with Living Coral. Let’s see the official color swatch:

THE RULES:

For those of you familiar with the Annual Pantone Quilt Challenge, this year’s rules are generally the same as in years past, with a select few tweaks. In the interest of keeping things fair, we’ll be keeping an eye on entries and enforcing the rules by removing any entries that don’t meet the requirements. Please let us know if you have any questions or need clarifications!

1. Seeing how this is the Living Coral pantone challenge, your project must contain at least *some* Living Coral (or similar shade).

But what shades of coral count as living coral, you ask? Whatever comes close! Read: no one will be whipping out an official Pantone swatch alongside each entry photo to check for a perfect match. Just try to get as close as you can, and follow along with us here or on social media for some fabric suggestions throughout the challenge!

Remember, you can also use any other colors or neutrals you like, and as many (and as much) as you like. That said, we would like to see Living Coral as the feature color of your quilt, and we will be asking the judges to take your use of Living Coral into account when making their decisions.

2. Your quilt must fit into one of the following categories. There will be three judged categories (minis, quilts, just-the-top) and one participation-only category (“for exhibit only”):

• Minis: Shortest side under 30” (pillows, table runners, place mats, mug rugs, etc. all count as minis!)
• Quilts: Any size completed quilt from baby to bed (shortest side must be at least 30”)
• Just-the-Top: Any size quilt top from baby to bed (shortest side must be at least 30”)
• (Tweak for 2019!) For Exhibit Only (formerly known as the non-judged category): Any Living Coral project that doesn’t quite fit in one of the above categories but you’d like to share all the same! Or you just want to play along without the judgy pressure.

The contest will run from March 21 until June 14, 2019 with the link party open during the last 10 days (June 5 – June 14). Winners will be announced the following week (or thereabouts).

3. You can submit one entry per judged category (i.e., up to three entries). Entries for quilts and minis should be completed projects, including quilting and binding. All items in judged categories must have been completed in 2019 to be eligible.

4. By entering the contest, you agree that your project picture may be used in follow-up posts about the Pantone Challenge.

5. All items in judged categories must have been completed in 2019 to be eligible.

HOW TO ENTER:

1. A link party/gallery will be hosted at Bryan House Quilts and no hats in the house. Entries will be open from June 5 – June 14, 2019. Entries will close at on June 14 at 11:59pm EST.

*Sarah and I will not be able to help you submit after the deadline. It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s the system and we cannot reconfigure it.*

2. Each entry should link to a blog post, Flickr page, or Instagram post.

3. Each entry should include the project title, quilt dimensions, and your country of residence.  (Don’t worry, we’ll remind you again when we officially open up the link.)

the PRIZES!

Note: just as in last year, in the interest of keeping things open to everyone (from everywhere), there are domestic and international prizes. (We made some tweaks after taking on some rather exorbitant *cough* shipping in 2017. Thanks in advance for understanding.)  

How winners will be chosen

Judges’ Picks

We’re asking judges to pick a top U.S. and a top global (non-U.S.) pick. To restate, each judge will pick two top winners – one from the US entries and one from the international entries. Judges will also choose a 2nd place winner (from anywhere).

Viewers’ Choice

While the judges are deliberating, the community will vote for viewers’ choice from each category.

Just as in previous years, we’ve kept the viewer participation element of this challenge so that there is a viewer’s choice award for each category. We know you’ll have fun looking at all the entries and voting for your favorite in each one (us too!)!

For Exhibit Only

Door prizes for entries in the Exhibit Only will be chosen at random through a random number generator.

To Sum Up

So in each category, four prizes are up for grabs:

• Judge’s 1st Choice (US)
• Judge’s 1st Choice (International)
• Judge’s 2nd Choice
• Viewers’ Choice

Thank you!

Before getting to the prizes we want to take a moment for thanking our wonderful sponsors. Without the support of sponsors this contest thang wouldn’t be so great! Our sponsors have been so generous! Scroll down to see what we mean…

QUILTS (Tula Pink)

• Judge’s 1st:
  • Global: 1 Large Collection Aurifil ($140) + Pantone Box
  • US: Daylight Slimline 3 Table Lamp ($215)
• Judge’s 2nd: 1 Small Collection Aurifil ($50) and Crimson Tate Liberty fabric stack
• Viewer’s Choice: 1 Aurifil cone ($50) and digital LP&Q subscription

MINIS  (Erika Bea)

• Judge’s 1st:
  • Global: 1 Large Collection Aurifil ($140) + Pantone Box
  • US: Daylight Travel Lamp + LP&Q print subscription
• Judge’s 2nd: 1 Small Collection Aurifil ($50) and Crimson Tate African wax print fabric stack
• Viewer’s Choice: 1 Aurifil cone ($50) and digital LP&Q subscription

JUST-THE-TOP (Lucy Tiffney)

• Judge’s 1st –
  • Global: 1 Large Collection Aurifil ($140) + Pantone Box
  • U.S.: Daylight Wafer 1 Lightbox with Cutting Mat ($194)
• Judge’s 2nd: 1 Small Collection Aurifil ($50) and Me + You fabric stack
• Viewer’s Choice: 1 Aurifil cone ($50) and digital LP&Q subscription

FOR EXHIBITION ONLY

Finally, we would really (really) love to see an entry from absolutely everyone who feels the slightest bit inspired by Living Coral, regardless of skill level or the year completed, so several entries that haven’t already won a prize will be drawn at random for one of our “door prizes”, which we’ll be announcing later in the competition!

Note: New this year, entries in the For Exhibition Only category will also be eligible for a door prize.

We thought it would be fun to provide a place for people to share quilts that feature Living Coral but don’t necessarily comply with all the challenge rules—e.g., because they were not finished in 2019—or, perhaps, because the makers would rather share them in a non-judged forum. We will be providing a separate link-up for people to share these quilts. However, outside of random winners selected for door prizes, they will not be eligible for judging, voting, or to win other prizes.

STAY CONNECTED

We’ll be sharing more information and behind-the-scenes-other-stuff over on social media. First up is an Instagram Live with yours truly (…and Sarah, if she can figure out Instagram Live) discussing the details and prizes.

We also welcome (and encourage!) you to share your creations while you’re working on them and connect with other Pantone Quilt Challenge makers across the globe on Social Media. On Instagram, be sure to tag your posts using the hashtags #pantonequilt and #pantonequilt2019. We can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

(New for 2019!) STAY ON TRACK with Tracking Goals and Weekly Photo Prompts

This year we’re adding photo prompts for Instagram (stories or feed!) to help us all stay on track… Note: This is 100% *for fun* and participation is in no way a prerequisite to entering the challenge!

For your posting pleasure, here are the weekly-ish photo prompts:

• Week 1 (March 24th): I’m *so* in! (Repost our Insta image or post your own! Tell us why you decided to join in, and help spread the word by inviting friends to play along!)
• Week 2 (March 31st): Inspiration (What’s your inspiration for the challenge?)
• Week 3 (April 7th): Color palette / fabric pull (Are you improvising with fabric from your stash, or have you broken out your color cards for a special order? Whatever your pull process, share how you’re building your Living Coral (and friends) palette.)
• Week 4 (April 14th): Sketch (Are you the planning type or do you prefer to make things up as you go? Give us a glimpse to let us in on your process!)
• Week 5 (April 21st): Cutting table (Have a pretty stack of cut fabrics? What else is on your cutting table? Time to get choppin’!)
• Week 6 (April 28th): (Halfway!) Fun fact! (Have some fun and interesting fact that has everything to do with you but nothing to do with the challenge? We wanna know!)
• Week 7 (May 5th): Progress (Share a stack of pieced fabric, blocks, or something similar)
• Week 8 (May 12th): Details (Or for the latecomers (and procrastinators), one month to go!)
• Week 9 (May 19th): Behind the scenes of your sewing space (What do you do while you sew?)
• Week 10 (May 26th): Texture (Have some quilting texture to share? Piecing texture? Textile texture? Show any and all!)
• Week 11 (June 2nd): Last minute hustle (No explanation necessary 🙂 One week to go!)
• Week 12 (June 9th): THE BIG REVEAL! (The link party will be open from June 5th through June 14th, so now is the time to show your stuff.)

One logistical note: We probably won’t always post the same day each week (because, life). We invite your posts on the prompts any day during a given week, and if you join late, we welcome everyone’s participation (tardy or otherwise) all the same!

PAST CHALLENGES AND WINNERS

If you’re new to the Pantone Quilt Challenge, welcome! You might want to check out the winners from past Pantone Quilt Challenges:

• 2014 (Radiant Orchid)
• 2015 (Marsala)
• 2017 (Greenery)
• 2018 (Ultra Violet)

Color Resources

Need help with color? Try these resources:

• Top 10 Tips for Playful Color Download (Click here.)
• Playful Color Quick Start (free mini course)
• Playful Color Month (a series of articles I wrote last September)