Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Sticky Sweet

The current Curated Quilts Mini Challenge was a tough one for me. When I heard the theme, "Plus," I was pleased and ready to dive right in. I pulled some solid fabrics from stash for the required palette - mint green, soft pink, peach, grey-blue, and aqua - and mulled over my options. Unfortunately, my vision for a design I loved never really materialized.


I made a fresh start with three different concepts, and none of them really spoke to me. Finally, I forged on with idea #3, realizing that I was working with a very limited supply of the grey-blue fabric, my favorite of the bunch. So it came to me to add the idea #2 blocks as sort of borders, and the idea #3 blocks were easily incorporated into a pieced back. So maybe this little quilt should be named "Conglomerate," eh?




I used Aurifil 50wt #2805 [Light Turquoise] to quilt an echoed curve, and if anything, that helped bring the other elements together. Though said elements weren't a natural fit, the idea of an obvious 'plus' or two along with a handful of less obvious, definitely improv, plusses suited me at least.



And for the binding? The very last inches of the grey-blue matched with the four pastels in their appropriate places made sense at least. The binding, cut at 1 1/2" wide, finished at a precise 1/4". And the mini itself, is 12 5/8"square of maker's perplexity, but sometimes that happens, so I can live with it.

25 mini quilts are selected for each issue's feature, and I don't have high hopes for being chosen. Maybe I'll try my hand another day, maybe this is it. Whatever will be, will be.

5 comments:

  1. The matched binding is a lovely touch. I can see this as being a different interpretation of "plus" as in adding until the composition is complete.

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  2. I love this color palette and think you have an excellent chance with this one! really terrific how you meshed all of your ideas together and the matched binding is the perfect TAH-DAH!

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  3. Sometimes it can be like pulling teeth coming up with a concept! I like what you've done because it's an obvious plus, but the less obvious elements are intriguing!

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  4. This color palette is certainly lovely, and you've showed it off in a unique way. The plus within a plus design is really good! May I say that I appreciate knowing you struggled? :-) I need to know that improv is REALLY HARD so I can feel better about the quilt top I've completely abandoned. More than anything, I hate that I've wasted 60" X 60" of lovely solid fabrics. Improv isn't in my bag of tricks. But you've still got it! I hope your quilt is selected for the gallery.

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  5. This is really cute Debbie! I love those tiny plus signs on the back and the quilting is awesome. Great job!

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