Yippee! I finished a quilt this week. This makes 3 so far this year, which has got to be a world record! (At least for me it is) Meet “Three Dimensions of Happiness” — my honeyman named it!
Last October, our quilt guild decided to participate in the Riley Blake challenge sponsored by The Modern Quilt Guild. We each received 6 fat-eighths of fabric. The rules are that you could make anything, but it had to be quilted, and you could add other solids and other Riley Blake fabric. I had been working on a design for a baby quilt and decide to use the fabrics from this challenge for that.
I get ideas from the strangest places — sometimes I see patterns in nature, furniture, architecture, or sometimes I dream patterns. Much to the embarrassment of my husband (hey, what are wives for?), I often stop and take pictures of carpet, fixtures, ceiling beams, silos, or whatever catches my eye. I am loving the modern technology that allows me to have a camera in my cell phone! But, because of this, I have many more ideas than I have time to make.
So one evening Iast fall, I was watching an episode of Hawaii Five-O and there was a piece of art work on the wall in one of the scenes that I loved. It was simple and modern and I thought it would make a good quilt. Once I had the center made, I thought it needed a border and dreamed that a alternating white/colored border would look good. So I just sewed some strips together, none of which were the same length, and then sewed them around without caring much where the colored pieces fell. And… I don’t love it. I think it may look better on a larger quilt, but I don’t love it here. So, I’ll likely redesign the border a bit before finalizing the pattern.
I decided to quilt it in a spiral and I LUV how it looks. But, I promise you, it is more difficult than it looks — especially in the center. In fact, it just about killed me. Well, not physically, but mentally. Once I had 4-5 rounds done, it got much easier, but the center part was hard on my home machine. And it pushed the fabric a lot since I kept sewing in the same direction. I should have either pinned it more or used a spray adhesive. Next time I’ll know and it will likely be less noticeable once I wash it and everything shrinks a little.
The binding is not part of the fabric that I got for the challenge, but it is a Riley Blake print called Shuffle.
Linking up with Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.