Blogger's Quilt Festival :: Unlocked {Small Quilt Category}

It's always a bit of a dilemma choosing what quilt to share in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. After glancing through my most recent quilt finishes, I decided on the one that felt like the biggest accomplishment, Unlocked.

You may recognize the quilt's blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler book. I had the pleasure of sewing them along with the City Sampler Quilt Along, 3 blocks a week. Each just 6" finished, I stored the blocks between my book's pages, and every few weeks, plopped them into a grid to see how I was coming along. {Here's a tutorial to make a similar grid.}

So basically, this quilt was alot of "make and wait" - no pressure to put it all together for over 9 months! When it was finally time, I opted for a 'no sashing' version of Tula's "Gridlock".

Much of the fabric used in this quilt was from Tula's lines, though there are plenty of stash solids and a few other coordinating prints. For the back, I recreated  Block No. 16 as a backing, with Parisville Eye Drops as the focus fabric. I tried quilting one huge spiral for the first time, using Aurifil's Tula Pink Premium Collection, #2843 (palm leaf). A very pale green, it blended perfectly throughout the quilt.

I finished with a faced binding, which I thought added to the artsy look of the quilt. And once complete, Unlocked was whisked downtown to meet up with an appropriate city skyscape. 

Besides being colorful and striking, this quilt is one of my favorites because of its journey. I love quilts like this - sewn in community, a fun and unexpected layout, and new techniques tried, if not mastered. That all makes for a very happy finish in my book.

Quilt stats:

Finished size: 60" square

Pattern: all blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

Fabric: majority of fabric by Tula Pink, with several coordinating prints & solids
Thread: Auriful 50wt #2000 (light sand) for piecing; #2843 (palm leaf) for quilting

Quilted by: myself, using a walking foot 
Helpful tutorials: tutorial by The Quilting Edge for the spiral quilting;
OPQuilt's tutorial for the faced binding; 
creating a block grid

Category: Small Quilt Category

My previous entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

Crazy Rainbow, 10/25/13
Absolutely Mod Pop, 5/19/13

HST Love, 5/17/13

The Stars of Summer, 10/26/12

Hopscotch, 5/19/12

Mango Revisited, 10/28/11

Supernova, 5/13/11