The last of this round of secret projects was revealed last week!! “Altitudinal Ecosystem” was August Quilt of the Month for the Modern Quilt Guild. Amazing to think that thousands of people got my quilt in their email last week. WOW!! In case you missed it, the pattern is available to MQG members here.
This design was created as part of Quilt Design a Day (QDAD). It was inspired by Anne @ Play Crafts spark (inspirational photo and color palette) of Crater Lake.
The mountain in the middle of the lake reminded me of my ecology studies. We looked at the impacts of altitude on species causing zonation/changes of various species (both plant and animal).
This gave me the idea to represent the zones by various colored bars and graduating the color from light green to dark green to white (snow caps).
For the back, I really wanted to use this mountain print from Sarah Watson’s Indian Summer line and some of the off cuts from the front. However, the off-cuts were too bold for the print so instead I created a grey and white stripe section with splashes of the color from the front.
You may also notice in this photo above I have used color blocked the binding. That is, The mountain areas is in dark green (pickle), the lake in the dark blue and the sky area in Lighter blue.
The quilting was all done with my walking foot and various Aurifil threads. I used standard straight lines following the direction of the zones, for the mountain. This represented the solid nature of the mountain. The sky and the lake though I wanted to introduce more movement. For the sky, I used wavy lines representing air movement.
The lake, I was thinking about circles but since it it not symmetrical I thought an improv. irregular block design could work. This quilting design was inspired by some of the quilting Carolyn Friedlander uses in her savor each stitch quilts. I really like the look and the texture is fantastic.
This is definitely one of my favorite quilts, I have made so far, its getting a little hard to choose now :-). I hope you all enjoy it too.
Details
Name: Altitudinal Ecosystem
Design: Designed by me, available from the MQG site (if you are a member)
Fabric: Kona Solids (White, Shadow, Pickle (which was provided by Robert Kaufman), Wasabi, Prussian, Oasis); Back: Woodland in Pine, Indian Summer, Sarah Watson, AGF, Kona Solids (White, Shadow, Pickle, Oasis, Prussian)
Dimensions: 60″ x 60″
Quilted: Using walking foot and matching Aurifil 50wt threads; Ultra wavy lines, Improv. Irregular block shapes, Straight line quilting.
If you want to submit a quilt design for the MQG Quilt of the month, you can – they are looking for 2016 people. Vist this page for the information and submission form.
Linking up with Adrienne for 2015 Finish along, as this was one of my goals for Q2 to finish.
Factotum of Arts 
Seeing the quilt beside the spark is really lovely, Michelle, and I always love to know more about the story behind a quilt design and design choices. The quilting in the sky is amazing, and the texture of the quilt looks like it would be so much fun to cuddle with.
Michelle, congrtulations on such an honor! This quilt is gorgeous–and I love the colors you chose to represent the spark. I’m stealing your idea of color blocking the binding–so great! The geometry of your lines are such fun and so fresh. Definitely deserved the recognition
Love this quilt, thank you for sharing the design information behind it!! You already know I love the quilting in the sky, but it’s nice to get a better look at the quilting in the “water” as well. 🙂
This is lovely! I love the colors, your quilting, and that color-blocked binding. Nicely done and how fun to be featured by the MQG!
Congratulations on being chosen as this month’s designer by MQG! You so deserve this (and a lot more). I’ve downloaded the pattern as soon as I saw it in the newsletter. Didn’t see the backing then, great choice the “Woodland in Pine”!!
Such a well thought out design, from front to back, quilting to binding! I think its beauiful!
Mountains have my heart and this quilt does them justice – so beautiful! Love the crisp lines and your colors!
So cool to have it go out to all the MQG members! Congratulations, I bet that was pretty exciting for you!
It’s a really lovely quilt – I like this one a whole lot!
Congratulations, MQG made the right decision! Lovely design, perfect quilting.
Congrats! This is a great design!
I have just recently come across your blog and modern quilting. I really enjoyed reading about the making of this quilt. It is so well designed and executed. Congratulations. You have inspired me to explore this road in my quilting journey.
This quilt is so inspiring and gorgeous. Congratulations on the honor and the opportunity! Your talent just keeps on growing.
Many congratulations Michelle – you really deserve it! Another awesome quilt design from you – another great one for the boys 🙂