Altitudinal Ecosystem

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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.

Altitudinal Ecosysytem

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.
CraterLake_AnnPlayCrafts

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).
Altitudinal Ecosystem Forest

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.
Altitudinal Ecosystem Back

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.
Quilting Sky

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.
Quilting Lake

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.

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

 

 

August QDAD

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The set of designs, for this month, are all so different. I was inspired by folks like Clare Rojas, Lucienne Day, and Sherri Lynn Wood.  I really enjoyed the designs exploring improv. using various shapes (squares, triangles, stripes, and curves) from the 8th – 11th August. These designs were definitely my favorite of the month so far.

As the sparks (inspiration photo is not mine) don’t forget to check out the facebook page for the photos.

02 August: Coastal Village

The coastal village on the hillside spark had areas of color. I used these blobs of color in my design. I was also inspired by Clare Rojas work for this design.
QDAD_02August2015

06 August: Dragon Boats

A line of dragon boats inspired this simplified design. The lines end at various lengths based on the angle of the line of boats.

QDAD_06August2015(4)

07 August: Flowers
These colors reminded me of Lucienne Day and inspired me to play elements that were in one of her designs where she breaks areas into angles and using solid shapes and lines. Here is my individual block but the repeats are endless and make unique patterns.

QDAD_07August2015

The first one is a more regular pattern just using an inverse repeat but my favorite is the second design which randomly places the block at different rotations.QDAD_07August2015(1)        QDAD_07August2015(2)

08 August: Gridded Wire Frame

The gridded wire frame that was in the spark for this day, let me experiment with varying square designs that I had been collecting from various building facades.

QDAD_08August2015(2)

09 August: Car Show

Based on the squares the day before, and the inspiration I had experienced with Sherri Lynn Wood’s class, I decided I wanted to play with improv. only using triangles. I broke the areas into rows and sections and designed a piece at a time. This was the final design.

QDAD_09August2015

10 August: Casino Lights

The spark definitely had three distinct areas, the two sides and the foyer. Still in the mood, for improv, I used those sections to introduce improv design elements of triangles and lines. The foyer section in the design represented by the full columns. I was surprised with the color palette of this spark, I really enjoyed it and definitely would not put these colors together naturally.

QDAD_10August2015

11 August: San Diego Strip

In the spark, there were these unique curved lampposts in between the trees. These lamp posts and trees are represented by the left side of the design…playing with improv triangles and curves. Th right side with the more structural lines represent the building structures in the spark.

QDAD_11August2015(6)

12 August: Boardwalk Pier, San Diego

I was inspired by a blind and its reflection on the wall for this design. I do like the angles and the variations of the line widths in the design, though I would use a different color palette if I made this up.

QDAD_12August2015

Please Note: If you would like to make or use one of my designs, please email me (ml_wilkie(at)hotmail(dot)com) or leave a comment below. I am happy to talk with you on options and provide the relevant measurements etc. or have you test out a pattern. Also, if you use one of my designs, please use the following text to credit me the design: “Designed by Michelle Wilkie @ Factotum of Arts”.

Spoonflower Sampler Quilt Update

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I have finally got back to my Spoonflower Sampler quilt, which has been lying around since last August.

Spoonflower Sampler Quilt Top

I worked on the quilting last night at Spoonflower’s Pins & Needles. I am doing various straight line quilting designs, using the bottom middle block as a focal point.
SamplerQuilt_WiPFront

And you can see the quilting a little better on the back and I am loving the texture. The lines are my usual 1/2″ apart.
SamplerQuilt_WiPBack

Last year, I also promised to provide the instructions for each block, finally I have managed to get around to that and plan on releasing at least two blocks each week.

Linking up with Lee over @ Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday (see button on the right).