Blogger's Quilt Festival :: Unlocked {Small Quilt Category}

It's always a bit of a dilemma choosing what quilt to share in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. After glancing through my most recent quilt finishes, I decided on the one that felt like the biggest accomplishment, Unlocked.

You may recognize the quilt's blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler book. I had the pleasure of sewing them along with the City Sampler Quilt Along, 3 blocks a week. Each just 6" finished, I stored the blocks between my book's pages, and every few weeks, plopped them into a grid to see how I was coming along. {Here's a tutorial to make a similar grid.}

So basically, this quilt was alot of "make and wait" - no pressure to put it all together for over 9 months! When it was finally time, I opted for a 'no sashing' version of Tula's "Gridlock".

Much of the fabric used in this quilt was from Tula's lines, though there are plenty of stash solids and a few other coordinating prints. For the back, I recreated  Block No. 16 as a backing, with Parisville Eye Drops as the focus fabric. I tried quilting one huge spiral for the first time, using Aurifil's Tula Pink Premium Collection, #2843 (palm leaf). A very pale green, it blended perfectly throughout the quilt.

I finished with a faced binding, which I thought added to the artsy look of the quilt. And once complete, Unlocked was whisked downtown to meet up with an appropriate city skyscape. 

Besides being colorful and striking, this quilt is one of my favorites because of its journey. I love quilts like this - sewn in community, a fun and unexpected layout, and new techniques tried, if not mastered. That all makes for a very happy finish in my book.

Quilt stats:

Finished size: 60" square

Pattern: all blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

Fabric: majority of fabric by Tula Pink, with several coordinating prints & solids
Thread: Auriful 50wt #2000 (light sand) for piecing; #2843 (palm leaf) for quilting

Quilted by: myself, using a walking foot 
Helpful tutorials: tutorial by The Quilting Edge for the spiral quilting;
OPQuilt's tutorial for the faced binding; 
creating a block grid

Category: Small Quilt Category

My previous entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

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

City Sampler Quilt Along :: Finally Unlocked

The most logical place for a photoshoot of a finished City Sampler quilt is of course the city.

But as lovely a day as it was at Kerry Park on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill, it was also very windy. The quilt, unfortunately held upside down in the chaos, wrapped itself around us.

 We tried another tactic with some success . . .

 But seriously, it was WINDY!

Down the road a bit, we found a quaint little garden, and had better luck.

Nine months I've traveled to get to this day. Stitching page by page through Tula Pink's book, 3 blocks a week with the City Sampler Quilt Along. Rewarded big time by being selected by Tula herself as 2nd place winner in the quilt along contest, I really wanted to do this one justice.

I thumbed through my book again, and chose Block No. 16 to recreate for a backing, with some Parisville Eye Drops as the focus fabric. Quilting one huge spiral seemed a perfect way to tie the blocks together, and I chose one of the threads I won in the contest - straight out of Aurifil's Tula Pink Premium Collection, #2843 (palm leaf). A very pale green, it blended perfectly throughout the quilt. {I referenced the immensely helpful tutorial by The Quilting Edge for the spiral quilting.}

Have you noticed yet that I did a faced binding? Weeks ago I decided this would be a great finish, and I just love the clean look it gives to this quilt! {See OPQuilt's easy-to-follow tutorial.}

So I guess this is the last chapter for my City Sampler, "Unlocked". I knew at the beginning it would be an ambitious undertaking. Yet I can honestly say it was a thrilling adventure, and I'm pleased as can be with my finished sampler. The End.

This quilt is on my Finish-A-Long 2014 Q1 list. Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.

City Sampler Quilt Along :: Unlocked

Nearly 8 months after starting my City Sampler blocks, I have a finished quilt top! I began with some trepidation, but amazingly was able to keep up every step of the way. I began using stash fabrics following the colorways in the book, but it wasn't long before I began collecting more Tula Pink fabrics. A few charm packs, my proceeds from the Tula Pink charm swap, and a fat-eighth bundle of Acacia made up the bulk of my fabric. I added stash solids and other miscellaneous fabrics as inspired, all along planning on using the Gridlock layout. But the more blocks I added to my block grid, the more I liked the blocks nestled together edge to edge. So in the end, I sewed them together just like that and came up with my own Gridlock variation: "Unlocked."

There was one block that just was not 'right' in its original placement - a very purple block in the middle of some reds - so I swapped it with another. Otherwise, for better or worse, the blocks were placed according to the placement for the Gridlock layout. 

As I pieced each block, I placed it in my book for safe-keeping. Then all these months later as I sewed rows together, I pulled blocks from the book as they were called for. And happily, my book is in great shape, surviving to inspire another day.

All blocks are from Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, part of the City Sampler Quilt Along. Linking up with Sew Sweetness and W.i.P. Wednesday.