My Emerald Finish

Thanks to everyone who shared an opinion last week on what colors to use as accents in my Emerald Challenge quilt! I'm happy to say that I finished it today.

After reading the comments, I bought the exact blue of my cutting mat that several people thought was part of the quilt. And then decided not to use it.

Still not in love with anything, I went back to my original dark brown solid, thinking I could still make my original vision work.

 Nope. 

Since I didn't like it anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I cut it up into irregular strips, perpendicular to the original green columns. (Here it is randomly arranged back together.)

Then re-auditioned all the colors I tried the first time around (you know, because they worked so well originally...).

beige

light green

orange

and finally, blue

I liked the blue and went with that.

Thanks to everyone who suggested cutting mat blue as an accent! :)

 Here is my finished piece, a wall quilt, which measures approximately 26" x 21".

 I'm happy with it. It's more modern and abstract than probably anything I've ever done, but I had a lot of fun making it and will happily do something along the same lines again.

 And here's what I really like about it: the quilting. I rarely never show close-ups of my quilting because it's just not that remarkable (or even good). But I thought this quilt was a prime candidate for some of Angela Walters' techniques, so I pulled out my e-copy of her book and chose three different motifs to use.

Here's a close-up of all three. I especially love the boxy one in the center and was pleasantly surprised by how good it looked in my first attempt.

Here's the back of the quilt. I have NEVER had the back of a quilt look this cool.

I'm linking this to the Emerald Challenge over at a.squared.w (and also Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday).

Have you made anything with emerald?

100 followers & 1 Placemat

I'm thrilled to have hit the century mark for followers! I'm digging around in my fabric to find a good giveaway to celebrate, so check back in the next couple days to see what I can bear to part with find. Thanks so much to followers old and new!

Here's what I've been playing with lately: Placemats.
Why? First, they're quick and can be finished quickly My UFO list is piling up to obscene heights. Second, it lets me practice some small-scale machine quilting, something I badly need to do. (see evidence below)

It all started when I saw this pillow on the clearance rack at Target.

It caught my eye, and when it was still there on my third trip during a two-week period, I took it as a sign and snapped a quick photo. Small segue: Somehow I made it to Target three times in two weeks WITHOUT any kids. That's almost unheard of. And heavenly.

Using the design as inspiration, I pulled all kinds of large florals from my stash, went solid fabric shopping again, and found a shape I liked in my clip art book.

I mocked up a small and large design versions in Illustrator.

Then I moved to fabric. Here's what I made first:

 I really thought I'd like the ultra plain placemat--besides topstitching around the edge, the only stitching is a little raw edge applique around the motifs. But it actually seemed kind of boring.

So I added a little free motion quilting, just following the "grid" of the shapes.

At this point I knew that this particular placemat was not going to be a finished product, because I'd prefer to quilt just the top and then add the backing, pillowcase-style, so I decided to play a bit, experimenting with different stitches and seeing if I liked anything.

Notice that I'm showing you the full shot first, where it's hard to see detail. Go ahead and ooh and ahh now, because the close-ups below won't spare you the gory details.

But first, a few things about free motion machine quilting:
1. I picked the absolute worst fabric and pattern to start practicing on--wide open space with no boundaries to help me contain the quilting, and a solid color that hides nothing(!) in terms of mistakes.
2. When I was in high school, I used to umpire middle school girls' softball games. Let's just say that split-second decision making is not a skill of mine. When I called balls and strikes, about 50% of the time I regretted the call I had just made. Machine quilting is not so different. I'd made a decision (turn here!) and then two stitches after turning, decide I should have gone the other way.
3. For me, machine quilting is grind your teeth, tense your shoulders stressful. I think I need to work on changing this mindset almost as much as I do the quilting stitches.
4. All that aside, I fell in love with this book:

I want to BE Angela when I grow up. I LOVE her quilting, and really enjoyed trying out many of her stitches. If you haven't seen this book yet, definitely check it out.

Ignore my fluctuating stitch length, my herky-jerky curves, and other messiness, and take a peek at these close-ups. Because while I know I have a lot to learn, I really enjoyed the process the finished results and I can't wait to practice some more.

Swirls and a meander

Upper left: Circles (I had the most trouble with this one); back and forth (top center), paisley attempts (lower left) and just a wavy grid (lower right)

Modern clamshell (one of my favorites!) and a random grid

Here's my question--how should I quilt these placemats? One of the designs you see here? Straight or wavy-straight lines before I add the appliques? I'd love to hear what you think because I can't decide!

p.s. Linking up to "Can I get a whoop whoop?" over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!