I have a quilt that I finished back in February that I haven't shared here on my blog yet.
I call it "My Modern Voice".
This quilt is my own original pattern and design although I took my inspiration from a quilt in Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen. My inspiration quilt is called Fiesta and it is on page 122 of the book. It is a square quilt with an orange square border on the outside, red square border in the middle and purple square border on the inside. Then inside of the purple, is a patchwork square of print fabrics. My inspiration was the patchwork and the use of solid colors.
I love patchwork and I think it connects me to traditional quilts but by the same means, I love solid color and the use of negative space which I feel connects me to the new modern quilting movement. I consider myself a modern traditionalist because I love making traditional quilt blocks but I like doing it in a modern way and arranging my quilts using an alternative grid and using modern fabric.
So, My Modern Voice was my quilt that represents me and my current quilting viewpoint. I sketched it out sometime last year and started it with the intention of having it finished to apply at Quiltcon. But even though we sometimes have good intentions, we don't always meet our deadlines. I did however, finish it in time for our local quilt show in March.
One of our modern quilting group members who is also a member of our local guild, was in charge of arranging the quilt displays. We had about 12 or so quilts that we marked "modern" and she hung them all together. We were all so grateful to Mrs. Sheryl for doing this for us. I think it made our modern quilts stand out more and hopefully started a voice growing in our community about modern quilting.
My Modern Voice
50 inches by 50 inches
All solids are Kona cottons
I used a jelly roll of Mediterranean Dreams from Quilting Treasures which I cut into 2.5 inch squares.
I used some of the jelly roll strips to make the scrappy binding.
The back of the quilt is made from more patchwork, more solids and also some of the yardage from the Mediterranean Dreams line.
I quilted it using the Serpentine stitch on my machine to mimic how the inspiration quilt was quiltied. I used navy 50 wt. Aurifil thread for the quilting.
Quilt back. Notice the label - I'm really a stickler for labels now.
Quilt binding.
This is a bit of a late post because I completed these blocks back in January, I think. But since I'm behind in my blogging anyway, to heck with it. I can post anything I want. HA
My local traditional quilt guild has a quilt show every March. We have the opportunity to purchase kits of fabric (usually 2 fabrics) for $2.00 and then we are to make a quilt block to be entered into the quilt block challenge.
This year I purchased 2 kits. The background fabric was black and the other fabric was a multicolored. You can add any other fabrics to the block that you want and you can make your block anything you want. It can be any technique.
I chose paper piecing for both my blocks. My son had gotten me the book A Flock of Feathered Stars by Carolyn Cullinan McCormick for Christmas and I used a pattern from there for one block. I love this book and I intend to make every block in it. I was thinking maybe in red and white.
My other block is a flying geese block and I made my own pattern because I couldn't find a paper pieced one that was the right size. But that's ok because it turned out pretty good.
The ribbons are judged but I don't really understand their judging process. Every single block gets a ribbon. What is the point of that? Who are you competing against? No one? Then at the next guild meeting, they divide the blocks into sacks and draw names to see who gets a stack of the blocks. You have to participate in making the blocks to be entered in the drawing.
Anywho, I also made a small quilt for our small quilt auction which raises money for the guild to use for speakers and workshops and such. Of course, I paper pieced it :)
I used a pattern by Quiet Play which I purchased from Craftsy. I don't have a finished picture on my computer but I'm sure there is one somewhere. So I'll just show you what I have.
I can't find what I did with the dimensions but I think it's about 12 inches x 20 inches. I quilted it with what I call fractured glass straight line quilting. Just random lines across, diagonal, all over. The back was the black Architextures print from Carolyn Freidlander and I just bound it with the same white Kona I used for the front. It turned out super cute - in my opinion.
My friend Robyn bought it at the auction before anyone else got a chance. Thanks Robyn!
About 3 or so weeks ago, the annual quilt show was going on in our little city. I had never been before and thought I'd go check it out.
There were a bajillion quilts on display and they had them roped off so that you couldn't get to them to look at them. There were people standing at each little section, wearing white latex gloves and if you wanted to look at the back of the quilt, you had to ask and the lady/gentleman would raise it up so that you could look at it from about 4 feet away. I have to say, I was alittle frightened.
I had no idea that they were so fragile. I had no idea that it would all be so proper and precise. It kind of freaked me out alittle.
I was frightened and freaked out. So, I just gave up looking at them and went shopping at the little booths set up all around the perimeter of the quilt show. They had given me a ballot and I was suppose to vote for my favorite quilt but I was so intimidated that I didn't vote.
For some reason, I had it in my head that I would buy a kit and try to make a quilt.
So, I bought this.
Sigh. Let's see how long it takes me to make that. Geez, it's like I'm setting myself up to fail.
I also bought this little charm pack. I've since found a tote bag pattern in a magazine that I may try this out with. Or, I also found a quilted placemat pattern that I could use them on. Placemats are small, so maybe I'll just start out small and graduate to the quilt.
And lastly, look at this little guy.
It's a pincushion chicken filled with sand. He was so cute that I couldn't pass him up. They also had sand pincushions that looked like mice with yo yo's for tails.
It was a fun and scary day. :)
