Sunday, July 10, 2011

Modern Quilt

I completed this very large king-sized quilt a week or so ago. It's already made its safe journey back to California so I can show pictures of it. Each of the 16 blocks are a whopping 24" square. The piecing is very modern-minimalist, but the fabrics are anything but minimal. They are from the Parisville collection, and are busy to the busy power (for you math buffs out there). They are playful and fun, and work well on this design. The uniform center 8" square framed in some mystery tan fabric help to ground and simpliy the quilt's appearance. I say "mystery" fabric because I have never seen this particular material. It has almost a gauzy texture, but is a nice weight for quilting. I'm sure Michelle will clarify the mystery for me :-)
The owner asked for feathering in the solid areas, and that was her only request. Traditional feathering somehow seemed too "traditional" for this quilt, so I chose a more organic look. For quilts similar to this one (ie, really lacking a definite traditional look), other "feathery" options include funky feathers with swirls, vining leaves and ferns. Naturally, I came up with this list after quilting these.


The outer 4" band of the blocks I chose to stitch in a geometric meandering. It comes out looking kind of path-like and random. It seemed like a good choice for the modern-look. The center 8" square is swirled.


Remember me mentioning how "out there" these fabrics are? That one above I affectionately called the "eye-chart" fabric. It was nearly impossible to see what I was doing. It reminds me of the dot test pages that eye-doctors have you look at. But I love-love the scalloped shells below. These make me happy.


And this fabric is fun too.


Michelle pieced a fantastic backing - two quilts in one. I tried my best to center the top onto it. It has a ton of tan on it so the texture is there for the eye to see.


5 comments:

Vicki W said...

The back gives a much better perspective on the size of those blocks. I know you said it but I just didn't get it until I looked at the back. I think your quilting choices fit a modern quilt perfectly!

Desley said...

Great quilting choices. I agree the feather option you chose works really well the the style of the quilt.

~Michelle~ said...

Great photos - I may have to borrow if I can't get anything better myself. The mystery ivory fabric is Kaufman Kona Crush in Natural. It's somewhat hard to find, but it's a good price - around $6/yd for 55" fabric (which is on par with the price for the 44" Kona solids). I'm really liking the textural & visual contrast the fabric provides vs a normal solid or near-solid.

Jenny said...

Love your funky feathers!!

helen-mary said...

Nice job on the quilting. I really like the geometric-square quilting. It is sooo hard to quilt on those fabrics that make you dizzy!