It's not that often that a final quilting project turns out exactly as I saw in my mind's eye when I began. In fact, I often have no vision whatsoever, but approach my cutting board with fabric and rotary cutter and just see where it takes me. But with my
SMQG Paint Chip Challenge quilt, what I see now completed is as close to what I imagined as I could hope for. I call it "Through the Looking Glass," a glance into the mind of a modern quilter, where traditional and modern blocks live happily together.
The whole paint chip challenge was introduced to the
Seattle Modern Quilt Guild by Arajane/
you know what I love?, and I think everyone immediately thought it would be a great challenge! We were all given paint chips with shades of gray and blue, and some {lucky} folks got an extra little chip of citrine. The added limitation was that our creation was to be exactly 18" square.
As you can see, I was assigned to #teamgray, and I admit I wasn't disappointed one bit, though fabrics to actually match my chip weren't as easy to find as I would have expected. Here's what I finally settled down to work with:
- light gray "Scratch" from Bethany Shackelford of Quilting Treasures
- Northcott Colorworks in Pearl (9000-90)
- three shades of the ombre graphite grey from Vanessa Christenson's Simply Color
What I started with was a faced inset oval. Then I just started making small blocks to fill up the space. (And yes, the center of that log cabin was removed and replaced!)
Eventually came the time to piece them all together, a little wonky at that.
As you can see, I made blocks that were very traditional, as well as some that were more improv - from a maple leaf that in my state of focus was made incorrectly and even a little "bacon" block as a nod to my
Sizzling. I just made what struck my fancy at the time.
For quilting, I used
Aurifil 50wt #2600 (light gray) and just echo-stitched the oval both inside and out. A simple "Pearl" frame was the finishing touch.
This challenge was really captivating. And as pleased as I am with the conclusion I came to, I'm equally excited to see all our guild quilts hung side by side at Seattle's Drygoods Design in June!
This is my 2nd finish from my 2015 Q2 Finish-A-Long list! Linking up with the FAL Q2 Finishes.
