An Idea

Each year, the Northwest Quilters have a Guild Challenge. Participants make small quilts, 24" x 24", and the quilts must be original designs. There's a new theme each year, and the 2013 theme is Flower Power. I thought that might be fun, but was having a hard time coming up with an idea that I could actually execute. Despite having a blue ribbon from Sisters, my sewing skills are still very modest.

My favorite Faconable boxer shorts have been in the scrap pile. There's a rip down the front along the escape hatch, but I love the fabric so much I wanted to save it. So I washed the shorts and tossed them in the bin with my other fabrics. Maybe I could make a quilt out of it.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep the garment whole. I like the idea of people knowing they were boxer shorts, my favorite boxer shorts. It should be pretty simple. I'll applique the shorts on to a background and go from there. I may remove the back of the shorts and trim the piece down just to give it the right shape. We'll see. I'm going to try this kitschy vintage fabric I found on eBay as the background.

The fabric is floral, with orange, avocado, pink and brown. Since it's a similar scale, I may try working with some larger floral applique elements. Splashy, raw edged double knit polyester flowers with decorative applique stitching might be fun. :) Will have to wait and see what it looks like when I lay the shorts on top of the fabric. There's 2 & 1/2 yards, so that should work well. I'm already considering echo quilting and pieced binding. Think I can pull it off?