Shards

It's been well over a year since my then Seattle MQG Giving Quilt Co-chair Louise/
@imfeelincrafty and I brought our three-year stint to a close. Our final quilt was The Last Hurrah, which was destined for QuiltCon 2019. It contained 185 string-pieced diamonds, and of course in cutting those, scraps happened, small odd-shaped striped bits.

The bits that I trimmed myself were stuffed in a plastic bag and put away for another day. That day happened last week, when I just started sewing a bunch of them together, arranging them in an improvisational diamond pattern.

For quilting, I focused on one of the diamonds, and using Aurifil 50wt #2021 (natural white), spiral-quilted around it all the way out to the edges. Then I went back and filled in said diamond with horizontal lines.

The little quilt finished at 20 1/2" x 22 1/2", and with a two-tone binding, is just a little reminder of a very good time

Color Strung

Color Strung is a cherry reminder of a really enjoyable and insightful class at QuiltCon last February. In Color Play with String Quilts with Tara Faughnan of Tara Faughnan Quilts, we explored alllll sorts of color combinations, rethinking our thoughts about color and daring to go further.

As you see, my quilt's palette is not my norm, nor anyone's really. But I love that it came from a place of color exploration. As Tara said, "Color gets all the credit, but value does all the work." Hmmm.... I'll keep thinking about that one for a while, I'm sure.

For backing, I was lucky enough to find a generous length of an older Valori Wells' Novella floral that was very nearly large enough. Though there's a strip of contrasting fabric (not shown) along one edge, the primary backing fabric does indeed make its own statement.

When it came time for quilting, I debated for a while, then chose a design from Walk by Jacquie Gering. Might as well try another something new, right? It's called The Simple Diamond and I really like the way it echos the lines of the quilt but not too closely.

It's a little hard to see, isn't it? Trust me, it suits. And it was really pretty simple to execute. It did require some marking - the grid was done with my Hera marker, and for the little dots needed for the diamonds, I marked on a leap of faith with a FriXion pen. I used Aurifil 50wt 4651 (Bari) which is a variegated thread - a little yellow/gold, off-white, and light purple - that just nestled on in.... nothing too obvious, but it added a little interest for sure.

Binding was chosen on a whim. I dug into the ole stash and some Free Spirit Flamingo spoke up, and I think it's a nice fit.

So this quilt was the second of two I put on my Q2 2018 Finish-A-Long list back in April, and I'm cutting it close to link up my finish. But it's done! Gosh that feels good!

This project was on my 2018 Q2 Finish-A-Long list!