Category Archives: Project Finishes

Tread {a finish}

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The design for this quilt, Tread, was originally created as part of an article for the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) on finding elements and designing a quilt. I was lucky enough to be asked to make it a realty, using a specific color palette in Moda’s Bella Solids. This quilt is now available as a pattern to MQG members as part of Modern Monthly, and will be the feature quilt for June.

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Photo Courtesy of The Modern Quilt Guild (Photographer: Austin Day, Stylist: Lauren Day)

The original inspiration was this cog and spoke machinery, that I had captured at the Shantytown Heritage Park a couple of years ago. I was fascinated by the arrows of the cogs, to think that these interlock and make something move… just loved the pattern and shapes.

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Not my usual color palette but I grew to love this supplied color palette (Rust, Coral, Teal with backing and binding fabric Zen Chic’s Day in Paris). The batting was also supplied by Quilter’s Dream which I had not used before but really enjoyed the low loft. The quilting was done in 50wt Aurifil 2420 (light Coral color). I shadowed the zigzag and used some extra ghosting in areas for interest. In the larger negative space areas, I just used vertical 1/2 in. straight line quilting.

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Photo Courtesy of The Modern Quilt Guild (Photographer: Austin Day, Stylist: Lauren Day)

I was so pleased when the MQG posted the pics of this project, for:

  1. I was finally finished with the quilt. I had stitched this quilt in a period of a creative block and in midst of over commitment with craziness at work, additional travel and prepping for teaching my first time at QuiltCon. It was such a relief to see this done
  2. The staged pictures that the MQG produced (see captions of photos for photography and stylist) were just amazing. I mean look at the wall and how much it makes this quilt pop !!! Amazing!!

As I marked my quilt with chalk, I had to give a spin in the washing machine and dry it. I love that finish crinkly look of this piece.

Details

Name : Tread
Design: Original Design, Inspired by Cogs
Fabric: Moda Fabrics, Bella Solids – Rust, Coral and Teal
Binding: Moda Fabrics, Zen Chic, Day in Paris (Teal)
Dimensions: 60 x 60 in.
Quilted: With 50wt Aurifil 2420 (Coral), using domestic machine walking foot, straight lines.

 

Book Project: Group {a finish}

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As part of my book, I want to show people how to work together as a group designing a quilt. So, I have a couple of projects that highlight a couple of ways of doing that. The first group project is all finished and counts as my last finish of 2018.

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I had some amazing people contributed. A big thank you to all those that volunteered.

Lynne @monkeyneedle
Paige @quiltedblooms
Tania @iamgingerq
Nicole @mamalovequilts
Sophie @lunalovequilts
Jenn @jennrodriguez1
Melissa @meliherboth
Louise @imfeelincrafty
Valerie @valbetweenquilts
Rebecca @creativeblockquilts
Abigail @cutandalter
Sharon @sharonhollanddesigns

Check out who made what on my instagram feed (@ml_wilkie).

Once I received the blocks I decided that I did not want them all straight and very grid like, and wanted to add some wonkiness. This was accomplished with the sashing between blocks. The other thing I decided I wanted to do was add a color key of the palette used in the quilt. This was accomplished with the flying geese addition on the bottom right.

I had decided early on that most of my quilts for my book, I will be paying for someone else to quilt. It is not my favorite part and if I waited for me to quilt them all, we would never be finished. Luckily, in the quilting community there are lots of people who love this part of quilting. Krishma (from @krishmaquilts) is one such person and does amazing work. I have watched Krishma on social media grow over the last few years and her quilting skills are impressive. I asked her to quilt this one for me. She did an amazing job.

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Lastly, the binding I added was to ground and frame the quilt. Navy blue was an obvious choice, however, this particular C+S print was perfect. I loved the grid look but the small  surprises were in the colors that matched the quilt…white and pink/coral. A perfect finish.

Details

Name : ??? still needs a name – open to suggestions. 
Design: Design as a group
Fabric: Defined color palette use of solids and prints; whatever was in stash
Binding: C+S
Dimensions: 
Quilted: By Krishma from Krishma Quilts

The quilt is done but I don’t have a name for it. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment?

 

 

 

Mt. SohCahToa {a finish}

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When designing a new quilt design, I am usually inspired by things around me and what I have seen. This time was no different. This past year (April 2018), we had the most amazing road trip in Utah and a smidge in Arizona. We visited 7 national parks and a couple of other parks in 7 days (Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, Glen Canyon Dam, Horse Shoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyon @ml.wilkie_adventures).

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More images of our trip you can check out my other Instagram account (@ml.wilkie_adventures)

It was such an inspiring trip. One of the images that made me think of a quilt design was one of the La Sal Mountain range seen from Arches National Park. The continuous looking peaks lead me to a design using lines of angled triangles. The color’s represent the snow-capped peaks and rock base. These colors are also inspired by the color of the mountains from a distance.

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I submitted the design to the MQG for a Quilt of the Month and it was released in December (lucky last of the year).  Knowing that I had to make a pattern from this, meant I actually needed to consider repeatability and provide measurements that when making  I wouldn’t normally worry about.

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After some trail and error, I paper pieced the triangles as accuracy of those triangles were important to the overall design. In a hilarious conversation with friends on working out the length of those rows, I broke out my math skills. As these are isosceles triangles, I divided a single triangle down the middle and worked out 1/2 Base using the right-angled triangles using some geometry (Soh-Cah-Toa). This gave me enough to calculate the length of those rows for you all but more importantly a few laughs with friends. When it came to naming the quilt, this conversation lead to the name.

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For quilting, I used a light blue grey Aurifil thread for some 1/2″ straight line quilting. I used the horizontal lines of the triangles as a guide. As a surprise, adding more interest, some echoed triangles were stitched randomly into the quilting lines. You’ll find these not only within the triangles but also echoed in some of the negative space.

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Lastly, I wanted to highlight that last horizontal lines (the base of the snow line). I did this using two different colors in the binding and color blocked it to match the fabric color palette in the design.

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Details

Name : Mt. Soh-Cah-Toa
Design: Design by myself
Fabric: Paintbrush Studio’s Painters Palette Solids.
Binding: Paintbrush Studio’s Painters Palette Solids
Dimensions:  60″ x 60″
Quilted: Straight Line 1/2″ with inset echoed triangles

If you are an MQG member, you can get this free pattern from the resources web page here.