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Saturday, December 7, 2013

Unknown Journey

When the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild announced their binary quilt challenge, I immediately thought of my stack of Kona solid greens, and picked out several to use. Fissures was still fresh in my mind, as was the lovely texture of Chinese Checkers, prompting me to order some Andover Textured Solids and Pellon Bamboo Blend Batt.
I knew right off that I wanted to make a quilt with alot of negative space. In addition to Fissures and Chinese Checkers, my thoughts for this quilt were influenced by my recent Crazy Rainbow, so before I did anything else, I started crazy-piecing the greens like, well, crazy.
For the pieced portion of the quilt, I was thinking of a journey. Life's journey. What some readers saw as "sticks", I saw as paths on that journey - with different lengths and widths, intersecting randomly along the way, and each made up of interesting and disorderly, yet beautiful, little bits. So I let the fabric "journey" travel across the width of the quilt and it became a panel.
All I did to finish the quilt top was to add wide swaths of solid above and below.
Though I debated ever so briefly about matchstick-quilting this one, its size (38"x42") determined that wouldn't be a great idea. Instead, I went with my original thought, which was to do wonky spirals, a la Fissures.

With an Aurifil 50wt #4653 (Limeade), I first spiraled within the boundaries of the pieced panel. 
For the bordering panels, I marked lines extending the "paths" and spiraled within those areas with my basic Aurifil 50wt #2000 (Beige). As a final touch, I did matchstick-quilt within the lines of the extended paths, and I really like that added detail. 
It was a bitterly cold day when we took "Unknown Journey" out for a photo shoot yesterday. Though the settings were fun, the lighting doesn't show off the details as clearly as I'd like. Though in retrospect, that seems fitting for most of the journeys we find ourselves on, now doesn't it?

Linking with Fabric Tuesday and Finish It Up Friday.

40 comments:

  1. When you "crazy-piecing the greens" in the picture...how did you do that?

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  2. It is so neat! It looks like a piece of artwork. I think the quilting design you chose accents it perfectly.

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  3. Wow! Amazing quilting on that one. Absolutely beautiful.

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  4. This is fantastic Journey, Debbie!
    First all the 'empty' space may look quite much but after quilting it's full and not empty! Beautiful idea and design! x Teje

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  5. That is an amazing quilt... the "journey" idea, the "paths", the quilting... I love it all! I also love your photo settings! :)

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  6. This is stunning! I love the quilt and the story. Your quilting is spectacular. The photo at the top of the escalator works especially well with the story. I hope to see some more close ups of the quilting one day too.

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  7. Fantastic, it's stunning, the quailing is wonderful.

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  8. This is great - I love all the quilted texture!

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  9. Oh wow Debbie! This quilt is spectacular! I love the crazy piecing and the quilting is just perfect. A wonderful finish.

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  10. Another triumph for modern quilting Debbie! Fantastic!

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  11. It looks fab, love the paths in the quilting that intersect too

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  12. It's beautiful and so is the meaning behind it. Love the matchstick quilting that makes the paths stand out even more.

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  13. This is amazing! I love the quilting, it is absolutely perfect!

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  14. emailed from my friend, Linda:
    I love your inspiration and thought process behind the quilt. Looks like another winner to me!! Your machine quilting is amazing. You who at one time were rather daunted by using your machine to quilt! I say that you have more than successfully mastered that one.

    Enjoying your journey in the quilt world, dear friend!

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  15. Such a pretty quilt! The quilting is so appropriate. I want to make one like this!

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  16. As always, I am in awe of your quilts, their stories and of course their photo shoot. The escalator with life's Ups & Downs is so appropriate. Congrats.

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  17. I just love that last photo with the ice. Such a great quilt and photo

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  18. Debbie - I've been waiting to see this one and you have NOT disappointed. Brava!! It's a beautiful quilt - the meaning behind it just makes it all the more special.

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  19. Really cool. I've enjoyed seeing this one come together on IG!

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  20. Just great Debbie. I think you made the right call on the quilting. Not sure that an all-over matchstick would have added as much interest to this particular quilt. A great finish!

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  21. WOW!!!! I freaking love the crazy-pieced matchsticks! That is so darn clever!!!!

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  22. Wow! This turned out beautifully Debbie. Love the quilting texture.

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  23. This quilt is just lovely. How beautiful - so simple, but absolutely not simple at all. The quilting is gorgeous! I just love it!

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  24. I love the dense quilting-- it created such great texture! well done

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  25. What a great quilt. I really like the criss-crossy bit with all that negative space. I also like how you quilted it. Great job!

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  26. Pinned it because I love it. Love it. I have had a vision in my head of something similar, this looks fantastic.

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  27. OMG I love it, you did awesome very talented, give me ideas WooHoo Merry Christmas

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  28. The quilting is to die for! Smart smart choice!

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  29. Very creative, very deep and very modern.
    Barb@Witsend

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