I Heard It On the Radio

Seattle MQG is having a quilt challenge! It's been several years since we've had one, but hopefully a lot of members will participate. Entries are due by our September meeting, and thus far, at least two exhibitions (three counting online) are planned. I knew right away I wanted to participate.

The theme of the challenge is "I Heard It On the Radio." Honestly, I don't listen to the radio a lot these days, but a song came to me that I remember hearing a lot in the '70s, so I decided to go with it. The perimeter of our pieces needed to be between 60 and 100 inches, without any obvious symbols or representations from our chosen song. So, with a song in mind, I chose some fabric from stash, a mix of solids, prints, wovens, and linen-cotton blends.

I'm keeping my song a secret for now, but I do have a 'hint' of a photo, taken on one of my walks. AND one of our guild members, Lorinda @lorinda.b.davis, made a play list of all our songs! Isn't that cool?

I began my quilt by making four types of improv blocks. I'm not going to say anything more about them now, but you can see there are wavy horizontal lines, stacks, straight horizonal lines, and straighter vertical lines. I decided to use an even amount of each block type in my composition.

Gotta say, the quilting was the funnest part! Using four coordinating Aurifil threads - 50wt 2625 [Pigeon] and 2784 [Dark Navy] + 40wt 2870 [Green] and 2730 [Delft Blue] - I quilted differently in each section of color. In the top blue section, there were actually lines 1/8" apart, 1/2" apart and 3/4" apart (shown best in the top photo). In the green section, I did vertical matchstick quilting; in the dark blue, wavy lines, and in the gray, a dense uneven grid. Whew! 

For the back, I had used extra blocks and scrap basket finds to create a pieced backing I really loved. 

Then I finished it all off with a faced-binding using the tutorial by Audrey of Cotton & Bourbon. The quilt, which I'm naming "Surrounds," measured just over 18" x 27" (90" perimeter), which fit cleanly into the guidelines.

If you want to see more of the entries, check out the #SEASongQuilt hashtag on Instagram. I'll share just a bit more about this quilt's inspiration and the guild's exhibits later on. 

Linking up with Quilting JETgirl's Favorite Finish for July!