Striped Much

Just for fun, I decided to combine the QuiltCon 2022 Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge sponsored by Windham Fabrics with the Connected Stripes Challenge. Of course for fabric, I needed to use Windham Fabrics Artisan Cotton, a cross-dyed quilter-weight cotton that reads as a solid. According to the Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge Rules, I needed to use at least 3 of the 4 challenge fabrics. 

Challenge Fabrics

• 40171-68 Wine / Pink
• 40171-47 Coral / Aqua
• 40171-35 Aqua / Blue
• 40171-12 Blue / Orchid

I opted to leave out the Orchid in making the front, but you'll see it on the back of my challenge quilt. We could add specific Windham Artisan Cotton neutrals, and I chose three.

Neutral Fabrics

• 40171-1 Charcoal / White
• 40171-55 Taupe / Light Grey
• 40171-27 Black / Copper

I was able to find a good selection of these fabrics at Crimson Tate, which was great, as I already knew them to have good, quick service.

For the Connected Stripes Challenge, I basically just needed to make something with stripes, post progress on Instagram, and have it completed by October 3. Perfect! To start, I made a big ole striped slab. And then I made another.

I had in mind to create something reminiscent of Loosely Connected, but on a larger scale. The nested striped triangles went well enough, though what you see below - the finished top before quilting - is not quite what the finished quilt looks like. But those side gray edges at least gave me a close enough view of the end result to start in on quilting.

For the back, I used the largest leftover pieces of Artisan Cotton, plus 'scraps' from my first go at 'borders' for the front. Yeah, I was going for too similar a look to Loosely Connected, and it ended up the scale just wasnt right. So onto the back they went.

For quilting, I used Aurifil 50wt 2605 [medium gray] and 1125 [medium teal], echo-stitching inside of each triangle. On the gray edges, I marked triangles with my Hera marker, then echo-stitched inside of them too.

Once quilted and I went to square it up, the gray sides just didn't want to square up evenly. So the right one decided to be a triangle, which fit in, especially since I had quilted it as one. The more I look at it, the more I like the unexpected proportions. 

The binding had to be in an Artisan Cotton Challenge fabric or neutral listed above, and I chose Charcoal/White, with just a few inches of Aqua/Blue for some matched binding on the blue triangle. The quilt measures 23.5" x 32.5" and was a fun little foray, using a palette that I may not have otherwise chosen. But love the crisp finish of those Artisan Cottons, and how nicely they quilt up.