Last Sunday was the beginning of season 10 of Project QUILTING, a series of one-week quilt challenges. I've participated for the past two years and this year I'm a sponsor. The theme for this week's challenge is Hope Springs Eternal. Well... I was out of town for the first 4 days of the one week challenge, and then I had to spend Thursday and Friday making serious progress on a quilt deadline that I'll be posting on my blog tonight. This means I didn't even have time to think too much about this challenge until yesterday.
I had a hard time with this theme. In the end, with 14 hours until the deadline (including overnight... and I needed to sleep) I had hope I could crank out a small quilt. How's that for hope springing eternal? My initial goal was a mug rug, then I decided on placemat sized, and in the end I trimmed it to 18.5" x 18.5". I'll be linking up with less than 15 minutes to spare.
I used a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric from my friend Mel Beach and my Planned Improv: All About Angles technique. After demoing my technique on Wednesday (7 times!) I'm excited to work on some All About Angles projects.
I used two sizes of Aurifil Light Leaf Green (#1147) for this quilt. It was pieced and bound with Aurifil 50wt and quilted with Auriful 80wt. I hadn't used 80wt and really love the fine line it creates. It's certainly quilting that's all about the texture and not the color. I chose a fast motif from my recent class with Christa Watson. It's way fancier than a basic meander, but not much more difficult.
Here's the basic breakdown of how I made the quilt start to finish in under 14 hours.
Saturday
8pm - pull fabric
8:50pm - cut fabric
9:07pm - start sewing
10:50pm - bedtime
Sunday
5:45am - back at the machine
6:20am - finished quilt top
7am - quilting begins
7:45am - done quilting
8:40 - binding going on
9:25am - photos, then blog post
9:48am - linkup
Congratulations to everyone who finished the challenge! View them all at the Project QUILTING 10.1 linkup. Voting is open, so click over to check out the 124 submissions and vote for your 10 favorites.
I've linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday.
Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl
You've had a very busy and full week! Welcome home. Sleep is hugely important in that 14 hour time span and congratulations on getting a project completed and submitted. The quilting motif looks like it would be fun and is something I hope I remember to try soon, too.
sarah
Post authorBusy week, indeed! I think I got 6 1/2 hours of sleep overnight. I may need a nap today. ;-) I was just thinking that the motif would be fun to try on the longarm. You could also try triple loops. Have fun!
Alison Vermilya
This is great! I love how the dyed fabric brings all of the shades of the other fabrics together. :D
sarah
Post authorThank you. I had such a fun time choosing Kona solids to accompany the hand dyed fabric. I was impressed that I had that many different shades on hand.
Angela Wink
What a lovely quilt! Rainbows are my favorite views from my window, but with a quilt like this one I could look at a rainbow every day at any time I want. My goodness, this is one i would love to have/make/just enjoy!
sarah
Post authorThank you, Angela. I didn't know that I would keep this quilt when I designed it, but as soon as I had a finished quilt top I knew I'd keep it. :-)
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Well done!! I made mine Sunday morning LOL I love this quilting motif.
sarah
Post authorYou're in good company. I've made numerous PQ quilts on Sunday mornings. Thanks for visiting, Anja.
Kim A Lapacek
So glad you did it! And I LOVE your time breakdown! I'm thinking I may have to do that in the future. Thanks for joining in the PQ fun!
sarah
Post authorThanks for hosting a wonderful challenge party, Kim!
hydee ann
you really pulled it off! and that green thread is such a delicious color. i was wondering what people did with 80wt, and now i know! i've been playing with 12wt for quilting and really enjoy that effect. how interesting to see the opposite effect.
sarah
Post authorThanks, Hydee Ann. I would like to play with thicker thread for quilting on my domestic. I should keep that in mind for the future PQ challenges this season. My default is 50wt for piecing and quilting.
ella
The hand-dyed fabric is fabulous inspiration! On behalf of the FAL crew, thanks for joining in!
sarah
Post authorThanks, Ella! It was a lovely gift to receive.