Fissures

Fissures was first started in an Improv Slice and Insert class I took with Katie Pedersen and Jacquie Gering several months ago, and is loosely inspired by "Shattered" in their book, Quilting Modern.

It began with these 9 blocks, 7 of which I had made in class. Fabric-wise, I used a background of Kaufman's Carolina Chambray in Natural, slicing and inserting with the additions of Anna Maria Horner's Field Study multi-colored butterflies and Kona Olive. Eventually the small blocks (7" finished) were grouped together and 'bordered' with more of the Olive.

For quilting the center blocks, I used Aurifil 50wt #2000 (Beige) and did small, squarish spirals in each little section. This was alot of fun, and I'm super pleased with the interest it adds to what I considered the focal point of the quilt.

In quilting the border, I switched to Aurifil 50wt #2910 (Foliage Green), and began by following all of the solid green inserts out to the edge. From there I echo-stitched, using those lines and any seam lines as guides, with lines about 1/2" apart.

Quilting as I did gave quite a variety of angles and actually made the solid green quite busy. I had a few issues with puckers with all the turning I was doing, and I was temped to wash this one up to hide some of that. But for the sake of full disclosure and sharing process, I opted to just put it out there as is.

For the back, I pieced the last of my Field Study {bummer} with large blocks of In the Beginning's Dit Dot. Yes.

This quilt is one of those that was pretty much satisfying from beginning to end. And I'm gonna come right out and say that one of the things I love about it, is that when I was back in the class and showed Jacquie the fabrics I was planning on using for my slice and insert blocks, she commented something like, "nice fabrics but I've never done this technique with prints."

But by the end of class, she was encouraging me along with a smile and a hearty, "It works!"

This project was on my Q3 Finish-A-Long list and also on my selfish sewing week list. Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Finish It Up Friday.