Friday, October 28, 2011

Mango Revisited

After much thought about which project to enter in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, I decided on my "Mango" quilt. It was a challenge in many ways, and was created specifically for my secret partner in the For the Love of Solids swap. We were all given our partner's favorite color, and an inspirational mosaic. We were able to cruise through their blog, and snoop around their flickr photostream. And then, we were to create something special, backed by all that quilty knowledge. Talk about pressure!

Besides the color mango, my partner liked circles, and had somewhat modern tastes. Thankfully, her answer to "Likes" being "whatever you enjoy" gave me some relief and a sense of freedom.

An idea developed in my  mind, and when I couldn't find a pattern that was just right, I went to my cutting table, surrounded by my tools of the trade and drew, cut, sewed, recut, resewed, etc., and finally came up with a small block I liked.
I tweaked one more time to enlarge the arches, and finally set to work making the little blocks.
I distributed three shades of orange evenly through the blocks, both in the rings, and in the "pinwheels." Four shades of gray went into each block center, then were used to frame the blocks somewhat arbitrarily. 
Finally, it was time to quilt. I chose to use variegated thread for the first time to tie all the oranges together, with a wavy quilting stitch to enhance the curves in the blocks.
Bound up in medium gray, off it went to my partner, Tina of Seaside Stitches
Though the process of making this quilt was nerve-wracking at times and filled with indecision, it stretched me in good ways. Using only solids and creating my own design were gratifying steps forward in my quilting journey.

Fabric is KONA cotton; batt is Warm and White Cotton Batting. Finished size approx. 42" square. If you would like to see my original post about this quilt, including a look at the back, see here. Thanks!

Linking up to the Bloggers' Quilt Festival! Hope to see you there!
Amy'sCreativeSide

31 comments:

  1. It's wonderful. And wow, all of those curves. The wavy quilting lines are awesome too. Is that something your machine does?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You did a fantastic job. It looks very vibrant and cosy at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow...super impressive in solids and your design is fantastic. Love the whole thing. Thanks for sharing and have a great day. I think we need a tutorial!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Will you let me know if you do a tutorial, please. I just love your blocks

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks great- you did a wonderful job!

    ReplyDelete
  6. love this quilt! the blocks are super great! yes, we need a toot!

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOVE! Love the graphic feel to it, great choice of colors, too!
    Isn't pattern design rewarding?!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am still so impressed by this quilt! Can't wait to see your next original design!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! very impressed with your skills here! Love the combination of mango and grey plus the back is as impressive as the front.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love this quilt!! The pattern is wonderful and the colours are sublime!! Wonderful!! I think it's lovely that your daughter quilts as well!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a beautiful modern quilt! I love orange too! (sorry- mango!) this is a fabulous creation- how could you bear to give it away!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So glad you selected Mango....what a modern beauty. It truly makes a statement.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wonderful quilt! The back is pretty nice, too:)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love this quilt!!! Great colors.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I pretty much love everything about this quilt! Especially the quilting. Yay!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow! Way to conquer circles and pinwheels! You could do so much with this pattern. And, I love the quilting, too. I'm still trying to think of the best quilt to use wavy line quilting, but I know it is somewhere in my future!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Greetings from Hungary. I love the abstract pattern .. beautiful colors.

    ReplyDelete
  18. what a fantastic quilt! love it!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Amazing curves and such lovely colours!

    ReplyDelete
  20. This looks amazing! i love the mango and grey colour scheme - bet your swap partner loves it!

    x

    ReplyDelete
  21. you did such an amazing job on that quilt debbie. I haven't tackled curves yet and it may be a while!

    ReplyDelete
  22. That is a great quilt! Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I love seeing the process photos! Great entry into the festival, perfect choice!

    ReplyDelete
  24. LOVE this quilt. The curves everything about it! I've been trying to work on a project that involves piecing curves and it is driving me insane. Needless to say that project has got put on the back burner for the sake of my sanity. =)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Very cool! I really like your pattern and the wavy quilting looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  26. This is amazing! I love that the block is really simple, but so dynamic. I keep thinking I know it, but then I have to go and look again. And all those curves! You are brave!!!

    ReplyDelete
  27. It's great! And how awesome is it that your swap partner got an original design?!

    ReplyDelete
  28. This is lovely! Thanks for sharing! :)

    ReplyDelete
  29. This is beautiful, Debbie! What a great design and colours are adorable! x Teje

    ReplyDelete