Wow, the last 6 weeks sure have flown by! Keeping up with the Modern Mystery Quilt A Long sure kept me on my toes. It was so much fun watching it all come together. Lat week all the pieces were finished and assembled into strips, but I couldn’t picture how it was all going to go together for the life of me! Turns out three of the strips I made were for the binding, so that would explain it =)
Without Further ado, here is my Modern Mystery Quilt!
Taa-daa!
I can’t wait to see how each quilt turned out. It is amazing how different they can look with the same pattern. Remember, send me a picture of your finished quilt and we will have a small giveaway! The deadline is November 15th. The top must be pieced but does not need to be quilted. I will upload the quilts into a Flickr Group and post the link here on the blog. The quilt with the most votes will win =)
Do you ever have those moments where you go, know why didn’t I think of that? That’s what happened to me the other day while reading Felicity’s blog. She posted about her Craft Buds month entry, and mentioned that she got her book from the local library.
“SAY WHAT? The library has modern quilting books? Well, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before!” I said to myself.
Needless to say I promptly went online and searched around the Surrey Public Libraries website, and boy, do they ever have quilting books. Not just modern quilting, but any kind of crafting book. And new ones, modern ones! Tula Pink, Elizabeth Hartman, Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, and not one but three Kaffe Fassett? My library card now holds a coveted spot in my purse, and I almost have the numbers memorized to log in online and reserve books, but because I am a new cardholder my limit is 10 books at a time. I laughed when she said that, 10 is more than enough to keep me occupied for 2 weeks. I maxed out my limit the first night (better on a library card than a credit card) and have 8 books on order. I have to bring the lot of them back this weeks and exchange them for the next batch (Quilts from the House of Tula Pink is in this batch, yippee!)
While digging through my little trove of quilty goodness, getting inspired and copying templates, I discovered something about myself. A couple of the modern quilting books were centered around minimalist quilting, or had projects that fall into that category. As much as I can appreciate the design and time that goes into them, I found myself thinking more and more that these were not things I would make for myself. Only one color and a plain white background…? I am not a minimalist!
I love to put as many colors as possible in my quilts.
Rich, vibrant prints and blenders with a tone-on-tone black background? Yes please!
Batiks? Let me at ’em!
Don’t get me wrong, I really like many of the modern quilts I see, and there are many that I would like to/will eventually make. I love anything Tula Pink, I think Pat Bravo makes some amazing fabric lines, and the use of solids is stellar, and I love the projects that come up in the blogs I follow that put a modern spin on the traditional quilts. Don’t even get me started on the amazing quilts of Kaffe Fassett! I just can’t make a quilt with only 3 fabrics in it when there are so many out there just calling my name. Use Me!!
Flights of Fancy, using Nest by Tula Pink for Moda
I am looking forward to this week’s mail, my order of Rock n Romance by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics will be arriving! Hurray! I ordered a fat quarter bundle from The Intrepid Thread. It has all the prints with an equal number of matching blenders. I am going to use these to make the Starburst Quilt.
The American Quilters Society is hosting a modern Mystery Quilt. The quilt was designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, authors of Quilts Made Modern. The best part? Its free! It is a 6 part/week Mystery Quilt, and part 1 is up now. Part 2 will be up next week.
Because this is a free quilt-a-long, I would love for everyone to participate and send me pictures of your progress week to week! I will post pictures as we go, and then after the last installment we will have a final reveal of everyone’s finished quilt tops! You will get to vote for your favorite, and the top with the most votes will win a fat quarter pack! That’s right! I will put together a packet of 5 fresh modern fat quarters for one of my lucky readers to win! So please, share this with all your friends and lets have some fun! The deadline for submissions will be November 14th, 2012. Voting will run from November 15th to November 25th, and the Winner(s) will be announced November 26th. Voting Closed.
To Participate:
1. Comment below so I know how many people interested. For every 10 entrants I will add a Fat Quarter Packet. If there are more than 10 entries we will have a first, second and third place!
2. Encourage your friends to follow the blog and vote for your quilt! The more followers, the more votes!
3. Send a photo of your finished quilt top ( it does not have to be quilted) by November 14th, 2012
Here is the link! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!
This challenge will be open to international participants as well! Quilting is its own language, one that is spoken with color and thread and heard with the eyes, and understood by all!
