Some Like It Medium

This year's Seattle MQG block of the month, Salsa Medallion, has been a very enjoyable one, though I started late and am ending early. That wasn't intentional, but it is how it's worked out, and I think that's ok. I have no excuse for my late start, but I do know that I chose to finish now because I have a long list of TO DOs, and this one was the smallest thing on my list. Plus it suited my mood and time this last weekend. Made perfect sense to me at least.

One additional thing of note with this project, is that I chose to make it my personal Pantone Color of the Year challenge. So in focusing on Illuminating and Ultimate Gray, my key fabrics have been Kona Highlight and Cotton Couture Pewter, with Kona Punch added in as an accent. I also added in some stripes, a couple of other grays and yellows, and a few random scraps, including one lone piece of a  print by Yoshiko Jinzenji.

The monthly BOM blog posts themselves have been a wealth of information, each focusing on a specific element, while offering mild, medium, or spicy options every month, to go along with the salsa theme. These posts are available to anyone, so if you're interested in medallion quilts, or any of the techniques I've used, you might check them out. 

So once some general Planning was done, we focused on Lines, Triangles, our Focal Block, a Text Message, the overall Design Framework, Curves, and finally, Diamonds. September was to be the month to actually sew all your blocks into a quilt top, but I had decided early on to do that as I went. Considering my quilt top was small (26.5" x 31.5"), quilting and binding didn't take long, thus I was able to finish mine pretty quickly, and am now free to move on to the next project on the list.

One quick glance and you can see that mine is not a typical medallion quilt. Though I did begin with an improvisational Rocky Mountain Puzzle block as my center, most rounds after consisted of at least two, if not more, of the monthly techniques. Not sure why I decided to do that, but it became my own little challenge, and I knew it would help keep my finish on the smaller side. As I worked on the curves prompt, I made some New York Beauty blocks using a tutorial by Matt Macomber, that we had used for giving quilts last year. And in placing them up on the design wall, I realized that I liked them on the side with the "2021" better than I did my original cornerstones. Nothing a little time with the seam ripper couldn't fix. That didn't leave much room for diamonds; in fact I made the two I did out of scraps from earlier in the process. 

The backing was pieced with a few lone blocks and other leftovers from the front, featuring only the pair of Pantone colors. For quilting, I did an angled grid using Aurifil 50wt 2625 [Arctic Ice], which matched that Cotton Couture Pewter quite well. I wasn't too sure about that dark gray going over the punch and white fabrics; but in the end, I really like the effect, and the angles really seem to suit the graphic nature of the quilt's many shapes and angles.

Sincere thanks to our guild president, Katie/@sadiesews, for the comprehensive resources she's provided as we've worked our way through the block of the month this year. I know she's working on a post now for the assembly step, and though I skipped ahead, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of my guild mates' finished quilts. You can too at hashtag #SeaMQGSalsaBom.

Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Linky!