Blogger's Quilt Festival :: EverGreenery

It's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, an opportunity for the online quilting community to share their quilts and admire the work of others. Hardest part about it is deciding what to share, right? Scrolling through the quilts I've made this year, I finally settled on EverGreenery, basically because it still makes me smile and I had so much fun making it!



Inspired by Greenery, the Pantone Color of the Year, I started with improv spikes, then filled in around them with improv hourglasses, diamonds, and stripes, basically made to order as the design came together.



Quilting was improvisational as well, with different designs in various areas of the quilt - all done with my walking foot.





Chunky binding (5/8" finished) seemed the perfect frame!



Creating quilts such as EverGreenery is my favorite.... going to the cutting board with rotary cutter and a stack of fabric or scraps - or both! - and just seeing where it takes you....

Quilt stats:

Finished size: 35" x 36"

Pattern: my own, improvisational

Fabric: Kona Parrot and green scraps + one lone scrap of Kona Pink Flamingo
Thread: Aurifil 50wt - 2021 [Natural White], with a touch of both 1114 [Grass Green] 

and 2435 [Peachy Pink]

Quilted by: myself, using a walking foot

My previous entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

StringSong, 9/23/16 ~ Yay or Nay, 9/21/16

Room Temp, 5/20/15 ~ Keychain, 5/19/15

Red Hots, 10/27/14

Unlocked, 5/16/14

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

EverGreenery

Frustration and fun all rolled into one! I shared a bit about my struggle coming up with a quilt design for the 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge in my last post, but perseverance won out and I'm really pleased to present the result, EverGreenery!

I knew from the moment Pantone announced Greenery as the Color of the Year, I'd be incorporating it into my work. From early on, Kona Parrot was deemed a close match to the official Greenery swatch card, thus the start of my fabric pull. I used a mix of solids and prints on a low-volume background.

Improv spikes played a key role, and I filled in around them with improv hourglasses, diamonds, and stripes, basically made to order as I pieced the spike slabs together. Snuck in was a lone spike of Pink Flamingo, as well as spikes made from a discarded crazy-pieced block from another project.

Quilting was also improvisational with my walking foot, the majority done using Aurifil 50wt 2021 [Natural White], with a touch of both 1114 [Grass Green] and 2435 [Peachy Pink] for good measure. Admittedly some of the quilting designs might have been easier (less turning and rotating) done free-motion, but that wasn't the space I was in. On a project of this size (35" x 36"), it worked.

Kona Parrot was also used for the chunky binding (5/8" finished), and I like how it kind of keeps all that craziness under control.

So there you go! Dare I say, I'm delighted with the finish, so much so that I switched out the display rod in our dining room and hung it there. You know, so I can enjoy it to my heart's content.

Linking up "EverGreenery" (35" x 36")!

Links to previous year's Pantone Quilt Challenge quilts: 

Tangerine Tango, Emerald, Radiant Orchid, Marsala,  Rose Quartz + Serenity 

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday!

The Underbrush

The 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge was announced back in March, and it seemed like there was plenty of time! But it took me until 10 days ago to pull out my greens and start cutting. I'd had weeks to come up with a design, but as I began, all I knew for sure was.... improv spikes.

And more spikes.

Aaaannnnddddd.... more.

I was having fun making those spikey slabs, but honestly, still no inkling of a quilt plan. sigh

I rearranged my blocks over and over again. I slept on it and rearranged them again.

I started making a few other random blocks - diamonds, hourglass, and even stripes, when my stash didn't come through for me....



And finally, finally, I had a quilt top.

At about 36" square, I decided my quilting needed to have as much variety as my blocks, so that's what I've been working on the last several days.

The challenge link is open today through May 29, so the clock is ticking, but I'm pretty confident I can do this thing!

Greenery

So did you hear? Rebecca/Bryan House Quilts and Sarah/No Hats in the House are spear-heading the 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge featuring the Color of the Year, Greenery!

I've taken time to focus on the COTY for several years now (Tangerine Tango, Emerald, Radiant Orchid, Marsala) and even Rose Quartz + Serenity when no one else wanted to play. So it's really no stretch that I want to join in the fun again this year. And boy am I ready, as daughter dear stocked me up for my birthday! (Let's just say after creating my Crop Circles and Ultimate! last year, my green stash was about depleted!)

Part of the gift was an official Greenery swatch card, which helped her determine Kona Parrot as a close match, along with Aurifil 1114 (Grass Green), so that's where I'll be starting.

I honestly have no ideas yet, but time doesn't need to be too rushed. The challenge runs from March 14 until May 29, 2017, with a link party open during the last ten days. Do check out Sarah or Rebecca's announcement posts for all the details. There are esteemed judges, enviable prizes, and all the key details there, including other suggestions of fabric choices, though nothing really needs to be that perfectly matched, so no worries there. 

So you joining me?

ColorS of the Year

I very nearly forgot that I was up for Faith Circle's quilt plan this month. Seriously, about 5PM on January 31, just out of curiosity, I went to check the quilter schedule, and there was my name for February. Oops!

Some quick scanning of my Quilt Blocks Pinterest board led me to Jodi/Tales of Cloth's Squash Blossom block tutorial. And without much more thought than that, I also chose a palette focused on the Pantone Color of the Year, Greenery.

photo courtesy of Pantone

Here's my sample block, which I think is really striking in a finished quilt, and I can't wait to see it in a mix of greens!

I fully intend to explore Greenery more this year, but this is a start. I've heard rumors that a 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge is in the works, hosted by Rebecca/@bryanhousequilts and Sarah/@nohatsquilts, so I'm watching for that.

And then there's the other Color of the Year - Kona's Pink Flamingo.

photo courtesy of Robert Kaufman

My guild Giving Committee co-host Louise/I'm Feelin' Crafty and I decided an improv quilt in Pink Flamingo would be a great way to start off a new year's giving quilt. Circa15 kindly gifted the guild with a generous supply of Pink Flamingo, and each participant will get a 9" x 11" piece at our next meeting, to mix with gray and white to create a 12 1/2" block of their own design. Doesn't that sound fun?

So I'm looking forward to using both of these colors - one (Greenery) which is right up my alley - and the other (Pink Flamingo) not quite. Do you have any plans to incorporate either in your creating this year?