DQS 12 Sent - Wildflower Wonky

Busy, rainy Spring Break; four days of school and then a four day weekend with absolutely beautiful weather!  And was I ever busy.  But...the taxes are done and ready for the preparer, snuggle blanket of minky sewn and given, sewing area sort of cleaned up, lots of walks in the sunshine, bird feeders refilled (how is it that such tiny creatures eat so much?), and oh, yeah, my doll quilt got finished and mailed.  I'm kind of tired, but I've got one last thing to do--show it off to all of you!

Before I forget, here's some fun goodies I sent along--2 fat quarters (who doesn't like more fabric--ha ha, I sound like that commerical "who doesn't want more cash"), some of my favorite chocolates, and the book Zakka Style which is full of lovely projects.

Okay, back to the quilt.  I decided, after much debating on patterns to go with a wonky or liberated log cabin style.  (We were to incorporate one of the following blocks into the design: flying geese, log cabin, churn dash, drunkard's path and New York Beauty; and have a total of six blocks minimum, plus not use any white/cream solids.)  My partner loves contemporary quilts, so I thought she'd like that.  There are a total of 20 blocks ranging between 3.5 inches and around 5 inches long (all are 4 inches wide).  I used a no-show mesh stabilizer as a foundation to sew the fabric to--an idea I got from the book String Quilt Revival.  I found the stabilizer both on the authors' website and at Nancy's Notions.

I really wanted to try an all solids quilt after reading through City Quilts by Cherri House.  After some thorough "stalking", I was inspired by images of the area where my partner lives.  The landscape is stunning when all the wildflowers come out!  So, I selected some colors from the multitude of wildflowers, keeping with the warm, yellow-based tones that my partner seems to prefer.

Here are the blocks arranged but not sewn together yet.  You can see bits of the white foundation mesh where the fabric is floating up.

I made a pieced label incorporating the fabrics from the front.

That's right--no peeking!  It's a secret swap until it arrives!

I debated back and forth about piecing the back or even using a print, but in the end, I went with my gut and stuck to a solid.  I think it was the right choice--the quilting looks better on the solid than I think it would have looked otherwise.

The back is quilted with a 100% cotton multi-color Coats & Clark machine quilting thread that blends from red to orange to green.  It is a 50 weight thread.  It gave me no trouble in the bobbin.

The quilting is a continuous rectangle spiraling outward.  With different threads for the front and back.

For the front I used a size 30 trilobal polyester from Japan.  It is labeled Signature, A&E Inc., Pixelles and is called Sunrise.  This multicolored thread blends from deep red to orange to yellow and has a slight silky sheen to it.  Very easy to quilt with.

The binding is done in the same fabric as the back (although I did consider using some Pure Organics Steel).  I think this helped to add a finished line to the quilt without detracting from the design with something too stark like black.  I'll be doing a tutorial later on the way I did the mitered corner binding (hint:  its not the typical method, but it is easy).

I love how this turned out!  Creating this quilt was a lot like using crayons--there were no prints to distract the eye or hide in.  The design, while simple in idea, actually took a bit of thought and planning so that the colors and shapes all played nicely together.  The quilting was kept simple so as not to compete with all the lines of color, but add its own dimension too.  Contemporary quilts always look so simple to me, but having finished this little one, I can honestly say there's a whole lot more that goes into their design.  I think there might just be a few more contemporary quilts in my future!