Pantone Quilt Challenge 2018 (and other minis)

This year’s Pantone of the Year colour is Ultra Violet and as usual the lovely Rebecca and Sarah have organised another Quilt Challenge! I entered this for the first time last year and had so much fun that I thought I would try again this year (and also I really like purple!).

You can see how long ago I started my piece this year – yes that’s snow on the ground! I had a rare Saturday off and treated myself to a little play time in the sewing room.  This is the improv panel I ended up with.  I do love yellow with purple so added a few pops, as well as a fair bit of black/charcoal prints.

I had an idea for another version of my Almost Black quilt but this time, instead of using needle-turn applique to attach the circles to the improv and then quilting the whole thing, I decided to experiment.

I freehand cut wonky paper circles in random sizes and then used them to prepare the fabric circles for applique (using a tiny running stitch).  I then glued them over the improv panel in a pleasing composition.

I then quilted over the whole thing with matchstick quilting, leaving a few spaces which I filled with hand quilting later. I used Aurifil 12wt thread  in purples and yellows for the hand quilting and Aurifil 50wt in black for the matchstick.

I really love the texture and I think this experiment worked quite well (and was a lot quicker than hand stitching the circles!).  I like to think of it as an extension of my siddi inspired cushion with a little of Modern Handcraft’s hexy technique thrown in.

When I came to square up before binding there was quite a pronounced ‘kick-out’ on the left hand side, and to keep with the maverick spirit of this piece I decided to leave it! Not sure whether it is quite wonky enough to work but it’s always good to experiment.  That’s actually why I like to do this challenge as it’s a great way to stretch yourself and try something new.

The finished quilt measures 20 x 24in.

We were so lucky to have the amazing Krista Hennebury visit us in Edinburgh last month, all the way from Vancouver! Krista was on a UK tour and come to stay with me at Shangri la Farm and taught at myBearpaw studio and for the Edinburgh MQG.

She taught her ‘Round Peg, Square Hole’ quilt for the Edinburgh MQG and I attended as a student (always a lovely thing to do!).  This was a masterclass in accuracy and I really learnt a lot from Krista. You can purchase this pattern from Krista’s Craftsy shop.

I used my stash of the new Blueberry Park fabric by Karen Lewis throughout (which should be arriving at the shop in a week or so) and made a mini quilt which can hang in the shop to show off the stunning fabric.

With Krista’s encouragement I tried a faced binding for the first time using this tutorial.  I really like the effect and it’s been good to learn a new trick! Plus I am enjoying exploring straight line quilting at the moment and for this piece I used an Aurifil 40wt thread in that pale pink.

I’m linking up with Pantone Quilt Challenge Linky Party, head on over and check out all the other entries!