Picchu Boo

Almost a year ago I took a trip of a lifetime to Peru to celebrate graduating from graduate school. One of the most memorable parts of the trip was when I visited Machu Picchu. I took thousands of photos during the ten day trip, but this photo was one of my favorites.

I knew it had to be turned into a quilt, so when we announced the solids challenge in the Boston Modern Quilt Guild, I decided this was my opportunity to make this into a quilt.

Not wanting to do an exact interpretation or make an art quilt, I started cutting a ton of 1" strips out of five different brown fabrics and sewed them together. I ended up making three different groups of these brown strips, one with the strips horizontal, one vertical and one on the diagonal. I varied the width and length of all three as part of my interpretation of the photo.

I decided on a teal background instead of a more natural green that's found in nature. Again, this was my way of modernizing the quilt and avoid looking too much like an art quilt. When it came time to quilt it, I knew I wanted to quilt straight lines opposite the direction of the brown strips. It took me a little while to settle on echoing the brown sections, which ended up giving the quilt a 3-D look.

I used an Art Gallery print from my stash on the backing that I thought went well with the top. I quilted it using gold and teal Aurifil threads. The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton Select. The solids are Michael Miller Cotton Couture.

Overall, I'm pleased with this quilt and it will definitely remind me of my trip to Peru every time I look at it.

Riley Blake Challenge Quilt

Like most people that I talked to, I struggled to find inspiration for this challenge. The fabrics were difficult for me, but I dug deep into my sketches of quilt ideas and pulled out a quilt design that I thought would work well. I have to say, I'm pleased with the results. Sometimes it takes a challenge to get you to push your boundaries. 

I'm calling this quilt, "Shootin' the Breeze" because the pinwheels look like they're spinning in the wind. 

I designed this paper pieced pattern a while ago and pulled it out for this challenge. I struggled with how to quilt it. Originally I wanted to quilt each pinwheel individually, either with custom quilting or with a spiral around each to emphasize the movement. My swirls aren't the greatest, so after I unpicked my first attempt, I went back and did some wavy lines to make it look like the wind was blowing. 

This quilt finishes at 35" square and will make a nice wall hanging or table topper. I used So Fine! thread for the quilting and Quilter's Dream Cotton for the batting. 

Lowell Quilt Festival Mini Quilt Challenge

For the mini quilt challenge this year, members had to make a mini quilt using an inspired color palette of gray, soft blue and a brick red-ish color.

This was the quilt I made.

Here are some of the other great quilts.

This was Karen's mini.

I *think* this one was Julie's. I had all of the names written down, but I can't find it anywhere, so I'm writing this post by memory. If I mislabel one of your quilts, please correct me.

Steph made this fun mini. I love this paper pieced pattern that she used.

Hema made this one, which I am guessing was inspired by Elizabeth Hartman's quilt.

Janis made this quilt and even included some of her own hand dyed fabrics.

Sam made this fun, improv quilt.

Zuzka hand pieced this mini quilt.

Alice found inspiration from bottle of Grey Goose (get it, flying geese) for her mini.

Check out those tiny triangles in Trish's awesome mini.

I love the random dresden petals in Natalie's mini.

I really like the way Alexis quilted her mini quilt featuring some great nine patches.

I don't know if I can pick a favorite, they're all awesome in their own right. Do you have a favorite?

Sticks and Stones

Before I left for Costa Rica, I put the finishing touches on my Lowell Quilt Festival Challenge Quilt - Sticks and stones.

This quilt was inspired by Jackie Gering's Craftsy class. I've enjoyed making more improvisational quilts these days, although I'll never shy away from designing my own paper pieced patterns.

I don't know what it is about this quilt, but it was very difficult to photograph. I tried a whole bunch of locations, but so many of the photos turned out blue, even when I used my really nice SLR. It's a reminder that I really need to invest in some editing software. I just always prefer to spend my money on fabric.

This block was made as four different blocks. I started with a bunch of strips of fabrics based on the inspirational color palette.

I quilted this, offsetting a handful of straight lines, horizontal and vertical. Once I had a handful of straight lines, I quilted out from the intersection.

Here you can really see what I did for the quilting. I think it gave the quilt a really cool effect.

Quilt Stats:
Sticks & Stones
20" x 20"
Fabric: STASH!!!
Thread: Aurifil #50 #2610

WIP Wednesday: LQF Challenge Quilt

Over the past few weeks, I've been slowly working on my challenge quilt for the Lowell Quilt Festival (LQF) coming up in a few weeks.

I started with this bundle based on the color scheme for this year's challenge.

After a lot of debate on what to do, I just cut a whole bunch of strips in different sizes and decided to play.

I came up with something fun (at least I think so) and am in the process of quilting it. I can't wait to share the finished project with everyone soon.

Make it Right Challenge - A Quilt

I'm sure many, if not all of you have heard about the "Make it Right Challenge" using a panel plus some solids from Angela Walters' debut fabric line, Textures.

A little over a month ago, Angela asked me if I would participate in the challenge and I eagerly jumped at the opportunity to participate.

I wanted to leave the center of the panel alone and make it the focus of the quilt. I also knew that I wanted pull out some of the rectangles on the other half of the panel and feature them more prominently.

I love the colors in the panel, but I wanted to bring in another color that some people may not thing to add. I thought about going with a purple, but in the end picked this beautiful pink Pure Element solid - Cherry Lipgloss! Hey, what can I say? I like to be different. The background is Pure Element White Linen and the other teal is Tile Blue.

I know what you're thinking... I didn't use the whole panel, just a few pieces.  Actually, I uses almost every single inch of that panel. What's not in the quilt top became a part of the binding.

When it came time to quilt this up, I wanted to emphasize the straight lines in the fabric. I divided the top into four equal quadrants and alternated the direction of the straight line quilting by quadrant.

I backed the quilt in the crosshatch print from Angela's textures line. 

This quilt finishes at 48" x 46".

Are you planning on entering the Make it Right Challenge? If so, I'd love to see what you end up making.

WIP Wednesday: A New Challenge

Quilter's Way is hosting a new color challenge and I decided to participate. Participants can pick from four different fat quarter bundles and make a quilt using a selected pattern - a criss cross quilt this time around. The challenge will be all about how folks arrange the colors and execute the pattern.

I picked the summer popsicle color way for my quilt.

Over the weekend I broke apart the bundle and separated them into pairs in order to make the criss cross blocks.

I managed to get the main fabrics cut as well. Now I just need to cut the background - a really nice light gray - before I start sewing them together.

Stay tuned for more progress!

Madrona Road Challenge - Yee Haw

So, you may have already see this over at The Modern Quilt Guild's blog, but my Wonky Road quilt was selected by Michael Miller fabrics to appear in its booth at QuiltCon!  How cool is that? Or should I saw, "Yee Haw" and channel my inner cowgirl since this quilt is about to head to Texas.

This quilt will join my Dazzling Diamonds quilt which will be in the juried show.

If you see me at the QuiltCon, stop me and say hi.  I'd love to meet you. 

Finish Friday: Madrona Road Challenge Quilt

This week I finished my Madrona Road challenge quilt.  I mentioned earlier that this quilt doesn't really match the style of quilts that I usually make - very much planned and in jewel tones.  I knew early on that the colors of the fabrics would be perfect for my basement, which I redid last year in a grey and yellow color scheme.

I had originally planned to make a paper pieced pattern featuring flying geese around the big yellow flowers, like I have as the center of these blocks.  But, I recently got a new computer and the old program I use to design my patterns wasn't compatible with my new one.  Onto plan B.

I used almost every last inch of five of the fabrics provided.  I decided not to use one print because it just didn't quite fit with the vision I had in my head.

Each quilt block finishes at 9" square.  I added five additional solids - four grays, a white and a baby blue to the Madrona Road fabrics.

I quilted this quilt with a bunch of straight lines 1/4" apart.  While most people would use their walking foot for this, I tend to just use my normal 1/4" foot when I'm quilting straight lines.  I find I have more control with my smaller 1/4" foot than a big walking foot.

For the back, I used an old Patrick Loose print that I've had in my stash for what seems like forever.  I bound the quilt in what is becoming my go-to for binding - Kona Charcoal.

You can check out more challenge quilts and projects in the MQG Madrona Road Challenge Flickr group.

Quilt Stats:
Size: 27" x 27"
Fabrics: Madrona Road and Kona Cotton
Thread: Pieced with Aurifil 50wt, Quilted with So Fine! #50 #508
Batting: Warm and Natural

BMQG Mini Quilt Challenge

For the BMQG special exhibit at the Lowell Quilt Festival, I helped arrange a mini quilt challenge for the show.  The guidelines were pretty simple, make a mini quilt, no more than 24" on any side in at least three colors of QuiltCon. 

I showed you my Dazzling Diamonds quilt over the past few weeks, but look at some of the other awesome quilts. Seriously?  The talent is amazing.

Here are some closeups of the awesome quilts!

This is Rebecca's quilt.  Her quilting on this is awesome.  I love the simplisity and her use of prints.  She used some of my favorites! 

This is Steph's mini quilt for the challenge.  I love how dramatic this quilt looks.  The scissor print binding is awesome too!

This is Karen's entry into the challenge.  I love spinning flying geese and this quilt is just awesome.  The quilting is simple to compliment the busy piecing.  Just awesome!

The awesome Alice made this mini quilt out of tiny tiny half square triangles.  We both bought the same bundle of solids for the challenge but our quilts look so different.  I really love how this came out, and the circular quilting adds some great movement to the quilt.

This mini quilt was made by Janis.  She sued some great print fabrics that go with the color scheme to make this awesomely funky mini.  I love the improvisational aspect of the quilt yet there's a decent amount of structure at the same time. 

This fun mini is Nancy's entry.  I love the way that she used just three colors - it makes such a great statement.  At first glance I think it looks like a fun forest with a bunch of colorful trees.  She also used some great prints in her quilt.

Finally, you have my entry.  It's funny seeing this one with all of the others.  My quilt looks so much darker than everyone's.  It just goes to show you how different people can interpret a challenge when given a set of colors to work with. I was the only one to not include white in my quilt.  I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it certainly stands out.

To help engage visitors to the show, we're asking everyone to vote on their favorite quilt of the seven.  Which one is your favorite?  It's a hard choice, I know.  They're all so different and unique in their own awesome way.