Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Mod Blocks

Mod Blocks
45" x 45"
$150
This one was a bit of a challenge. These fabrics were donated by Robert Kaufman for our quilt show.
They arrived in two giant boxes, stuffed to the gills.  Inside, mountains of seemingly unrelated scraps.  Some obviously were part of the same collection.  However, once I found a fabric that I liked, there wasn't enough of it to do what I envisioned.
So, I gave up... temporarily. Then jumped back in again, grabbed the first stack of strips and went with it.  I cut these 4 inch squares and tossed out a few, and added a few from my stash.  I found that with this scrappy appeal, everything looks pretty good if you repeat the colors just a few times.  Once I added the large white border and the scrappy binding, it pulled all the disparate colors and patterns together.  I am quite fond of the outcome, so I pieced a back for it and then quilted it in a giant spiral. 
The spiral quilting is difficult.  I did mark some of the lines, about every other one.  That helped show where to quilt, but the real trick is getting the tension right while you are sewing; otherwise, the center draws up and turns your lovely flat quilt into a giant three dimensional bell. I picked this design for quilting because I LOVE it, and I thought it would look good for the front and the back.  Good choice!
This quilt will be for sale at the Austin Area Quilt Guild's show, Sept 12-14, 2014, at the booth, Quilts for Sale.  The proceeds will help fund the expenses for the Boutique.  P.S.  Some of our guild's members made a number of really charming items for the Boutique from this donated fabric.  I will post about those on my Boutique page.  Stay tuned!