Tag Archives: challenge quilt

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I decided to go simple and small for this week's Project QUILTING theme of A Stitch in Time.

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, including products from Aurifil.

This week I was working on two other Island Batik projects, a super secret rep sample of a not-yet-released collection that I'll just say is full of saturated color -- just what I love, and my March "try a technique" project which I'm using my Mountain's Majesty 10" stack for. The stack includes two each of 21 fabrics. (The full line has 46 fabrics!) I prepped my fabric for that project and used about 3/4 of one set of the squares, leaving me a scrap pile of rectangles, one piece of each of the 21 fabrics. I'd already decided to go simple for this week's Project QUILTING challenge and had landed on a 9-patch block mug rug. Ya know... cause A Stitch in Time... Saves... Nine. The Mountain's Majesty collection is a beautiful assortment of neutrals, blues, greens, and purples. I'll be using it all in this month's Island Batik challenge. But for my PQ challenge, I chose my nine favorite prints from the pile to make my 9-patch. I especially love that deep purple in the top left!

I opted for a pillowcase binding and super simple quilting. Just a border around the edge and a square echoing the center square on the 9-patch. The quilting was done with Aurifil 40wt Light Blue Grey (#2610). It is backed with Aspen Leaves in Leprechaun and finished at 8"x8".

I'm linking up to Project QUILTING 9.5. Be sure to check out all the submissions and vote for your favorites (starting Sunday). (Mine is #24.)

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Or... Not So Mellow Yellow.

I knew this week's Project QUILTING challenge would be extra hard since I was leaving for QuiltCon on Wednesday morning. That left less than 70 hours for the challenge, including sleeping and packing. Step one, make it small. Maybe really small.

I was pleased for it to be a color challenge, as I knew I could make it work in the short period of time. The first palette I considered was this year's QuiltCon Charity palette. First, it included a bright, cheerful yellow. Second, I've loved the palette since it was first announced. And third, since I'm an Individual Member of the MQG I wasn't participating in making a charity quilt with those colors. I had already purchased the solids a while back, knowing I would someday make a quilt in this palette. My fabrics were Kona Corn Yellow, School Bus, Red, Geranium, and Bright Peri. (Why use a neutral when you can use more color instead?)

I chose a simple, single star block. "Work small," as my friend Mel reminds me for short challenges. So, I decided on an 8-inch sawtooth star block. I wanted to use all the colors, which led to the decision to piece the background sections by building a slab from the non-yellow colors. I edited out the School Bus orange in favor of the three darkest values: Red, Geranium, and Bright Peri.

 

Here's an accidental alternative setting. I dig this one too, but it wasn't what I initially had in mind and I wanted to stick with plan A.

Once the block was pieced, I intended to add a border of the scrappy background and a yellow binding, but I would have had to build a new slab and I was crunched for time. I didn't like the idea of putting a solid yellow binding on it without the borders since the star points would touch the binding. It was clear to me that the right answer was a scrappy binding that would blend with the background.

It took a little planning to be sure that my corners wouldn't have seams, and that the binding fabrics weren't matching too much with the background fabrics. Though honestly, it probably would have been faster to build more slab for borders and use a single piece of fabric for binding. That said, I'm thrilled with the results.

Not So Mellow Yellow finishes at 8.5" x 8.5". The walking foot quilting was done with 50wt Aurifil #2120 (Canary).

I'm linking up to Project QUILTING 9.4. Be sure to check out all the submissions and vote for your favorites. (Mine is #70.)

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It's once again time for Project QUILTING. Kim at Persimon Dreams and Trish at Quilt Chicken host this series of one week quilt challenges running now through March. I participated for the first time last year for season 8. Each week there is a theme and exactly one week to formulate a plan and execute it to completion. This week's theme was Hometown Proud. There is a prize drawing for participants, and a Viewer's Choice vote, so be sure to visit the link up and vote for your favorites. (VOTING IS OPEN. Mine is #73.) If you haven't participated, consider joining us for round two which begins on January 21.

I have lived my entire life in San Jose, California (with the four year exception of being in college in San Diego), so unlike people who had to consider which town they wanted to identify with for their challenge, there was only one choice for me: San Jose. I thought a little about what San Jose means to me, or what comes to mind. San Jose is a city with a population of over 1 million people. Santa Clara County has nearly 2 million people, and the greater Bay Area has a population of over 7 million people in nine counties and 101 cities. I live in the heart of Silicon Valley. There are a wealth of options to represent my hometown. I considered a few options, thinking about memories from my childhood. Here are a few I considered: Happy Hollow, Sharks hockey, Wichester Mystery House, San Jose Giants, Christmas in the Park, The Tech Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, the 'Quake of '89, History Park, Hotel De Anza, San Jose libraries. In the end, I settled on the first item on my list: the orchards.

Back before Silicon Valley was Silicon Valley, the valley was full of trees. Long before I was here, Santa Clara County had 8 million fruit trees. My parents built their house in the 70's along the east foothills surrounded by orchards. The vast majority of these orchards are gone. Heritage Orchard at San Jose’s Guadalupe River Park is 3.3 acres, containing over 200 fruit trees, of the varieties that were grown in the Valley over the last century. This map (PDF) of the Heritage Orchard was the basis for the design of my quilt. Each tree is represented by a 1/2" x 1/2" square. As you can see on the map, the first three sections of trees are cherries, apricots, and prunes. The last section of the orchard has a wide variety of fruit and nut trees. I chose a low volume black on white for the area around the trees and bound in the same fabric.

All those tiny pieces create a lot of bulk on the back. My smallest pieces were cut 1" x 1" and finish at 1/2" x 1/2".

The quilt finished at approximately 7" x 10" and has over 125 pieces. I shared a bit about my project with guild mates without telling my inspiration and a guess was made that all my little bits of fabric were to represent computer chips. From that conversation I was inspired by Michelle and Mary to use the design of a circuit board for my quilting. I used my hera marker to mark some horizontal lines as a guide for my quilting. It is quilted in Aurifil Dove (#2600) 50 wt.

Also with circuit boards in mind, I chose a bright green solid for the backing. I thought these details were a great nod to the current Valley. I've named it Silicon Valley, Then and Now.

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up to Project QUILTING 9.1

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