Tag Archives: Kona Cotton

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

 

 

It takes a Village – Finish

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I started this quilt, “It Takes A Village”, back in December. I think February, March and April, I listed it as my monthly goal for “A lovely year of finishes” but could not get it done. Well, I am ecstatic to say that have finally finished it!!

ItTakesAVillage_Front

It Takes A Village, started out as one of my Quilt Design a Day designs. I actually kept pretty close to the original color scheme.

QDAD_FlyingGeeseBrownLinen_3August2014

While pulling the fabric, I decided to switch out the lighter brown for a Cotton and Steel print. I thought it added some interest into the quilt, while the background color was similar to the design.

I tried a couple of new things with this quilt:

  • I bought a new tool – a BLOC LOC Ruler for a triangle in square. I loved it! It made it much easier to trim up the triangles and it improved accuracy.
  • I was inspired by Angela Walters book “Shape by Shape”, and decided to quilt each individual triangle, with one of three designs.

I used Aurifil for my quilting and it provided the most amazing texture to the quilt.

ItTakesAVillage_Quilting

For the back, I wanted a patchwork brick feel. However,  when finished, the back did not look right with lines moving horizontally, so I flipped it so the lines ran vertically. The final design decision I made, was to pull one of the colors out of the Cotton and Steel print and use it as a main color in the back and binding. It landed up being the blue, the pink just didn’t work for me.
ItTakesAVillage_Back

Here are the final details for the quilt.

Details

Name: It takes a Village
Dimensions: 48″ x 48″
Design: Michelle Wilkie

Fabric: Yarn-Dyed Essex Linen Flax; Kona Chocolate; Kona Silver; Kona Oyster; Cotton and Steel – Tack; Back + Binding: Also includes Kona Lagoon

Quilted: Walking foot. Triangles: Quilted using 3 designs; Negative Space: Circle represents a Town Circle while the lines are pathways through the village to add movement.
Thread – Aurifil (50 wt): White – 2021; Light Beige – 2310; Turquoise – 2810 (used for 3 triangles + binding).

Linking up with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts for next week’s Finish it up Friday. I will be writing it up as a pattern and hope to release it next month.

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

Lines Drawn

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Ok, so really I do not have a name yet for this quilt. Lines Drawn just popped into my head as I was writing this…so let’s see. I will say, this is probably one of my favorite quilt tops.

Unnamed_QuiltTopFence

This quilt top came together fairly quickly while on our mountain vacation this week, a big woohoo for vacations.  I love the lines, minimalism and complementary nature of the fabrics I choose (love the squares and colors in each).

Unnamed_FinishQuiltTop

Fabric Selection Process:
I have been stashing Karen Lewis Textiles fabric and trying to find the right project and decided I just need to do a design specifically for some of my pieces. This was it. I did play with the colored fabrics I had for a bit and decided on using Allotment in Silver, Oyster and Nautical and Kona Torch (orange stripe).

I also knew, once I finished this design that a plain white, or even a white on white fabric was not going to be enough for the background. I wanted something with some interest but not something that took away from the focus of the two lines. I immediately played around with my Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric and decided none of them worked…but there was one I had been looking at that would be perfect…I bought it and thankfully the vision was right on (that does not always happen when I buy fabric for a specific project).

Here’s a close-up of the fabrics in the quilt:

CloseUp_Unnamed

I think, I have already found a spot to hang the quilt in the house. It is in my son’s room, that is, if I can convince him to let me hang it…it doesn’t have pink it and does have one of his favorite colors orange…so there is a chance 😉
Unnamed_HangingQuiltTop

If you can think of a better name, I am open to suggestions. Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.