Dear World, Please meet Kaleidoscopic Calamity

I have hesitated about introducing this quilt in its entirety before it goes to show next week, but decided what the Hell.  Why not?!

Without further adieu, here's "Kaleidoscopic Calamity".  It has had a number of possible names ranging from Experimental Solids to A Colorful Co-mingling, and a few that are not appropriate for print!  What started as a desire to make a quilt solely from solids has now been put to rest.  I no longer yearn for this any more.  These are not true solids; they are Moda Crossweaves.  They have one color in the warp, and another in the weft.  They turned out to be thicker to work with than I like, making accurate points hard.  When I selected them, for some reason I had them confused with shot cottons.  Dumb me.

Specifics...this quilt is 35"x35", my smallest to date.  You can double click any picture to see the quilting details.  I used the usual show quilting batting recipe - Hobbs 80/20 with Tuscany wool.  It's stitched with threads Monolon and Glide in several colors.  The shine is pleasing on the otherwise dull fabrics.

I chose to quilt the center of the quilt "free-form", as in not adhering strictly to the piecing (now, that would be boring, eh?!).  This was definitely a quilt of learnings.  I much prefer things to work out right the first time, without picking out.  Seriously, who doesn't.  I designed the star block.  It seemed simple enough.  It was just intended to be rotated onto point for the quilt layout.  I constructed it in rows, very neatly pieced.  (you will notice that if you turn your head 45 degrees, the piecing looks much neater).  Problem is that when the block is turned on point, it doesn't look quite as neat.  Learning #1: Piece blocks in the orientation that they will hang so that horizontal and vertical lines appear straight.  Needless to say, I did not undo these blocks.  This quilt was already losing my interest by then.  I am surprised I did actually finish it!

Here's a closeup of the star...Small quilts call for tiny, intricate quilting.  Not really sure how many hours I spent on this but the number is insane for it's small size....probably 35-45.  Or more. Yup, probably much more.  It's like childbirth...your body is programmed to forget certain things that would otherwise be disturbing.

The outer border is my favorite part.  The quilting happened to stitch beautifully that day, and I loved the look of the motifs I chose.  Maybe a judge will feel the same.  Fingers crossed.  I know areas that have plenty of issues, but this border is not one of them.

It's bound with a red piping.  In fact, the day I needed to mail it off to MQX, I had one corner to "modify" as it was not laying properly.  I unpicked the hand stitches, and proceeded to accidentally nick the binding with my brand new rotary blade!  Talk about pissed.  I had to remove about 1/4 to 1/3 of the brown binding just to replace a tiny hole!  Two hours later, it was ready to send off :-)

The back is strips of leftover green.  It's not really symmetrical, but does that really matter?  It shows the quilting really well.

Since these pictures were taken, crystals were added to the back too.  You never know, if it ribbons, it may hang with the back showing.

Cross your fingers and wish this Calamity luck.  The competition and quilty company at MQX next week looks daunting.  I have a quilt in 3 different categories.  My guess is that this small quilt category (under 40" side) may have the best chances.  But who really knows!?!   The news will all be out next Wednesday evening.