I recently joined the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild and I'm excited about how much they have going on. The group is very friendly and there are challenges, swaps, and charity projects (and more) to get involved with.
Helen and Claire are running this year's challenges with a scrap theme. Our first challenge ran from February to April and required that squares and rectangles be a dominant feature in our projects. You can see all the details of the inspiration and challenge on the guild blog.
We also had a scrap swap to kick off the challenge so at the February meeting I brought in almost all my warm colored scraps (reds, oranges, yellows) since my favorite colors are in the cools. To start this challenge I looked at my greens, blues and purples. I decided to go with the spring greens so that I could use this project for my guild challenge as well as the 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge, featuring Greenery.
A lot of my design inspiration comes from geometry. I knew I wanted to focus on squares and made a tiny sketch of what was in my mind. I started by cutting up all my greenery fabric scraps into squares as large as I could cut from them. I did pull a few greens from my stash as well, but nothing was purchased for this project.
I decided for my background I'd use scrap fabrics as well, in light whites, greys and creams. This section ended up requiring I pull more from stash, but I did use everything I could from my small scraps.
I used a planned improv method. When I had created my first chunk, I added to my set of self-imposed rules to create six similar chunks.
My quilt top finished at 61.5" x 66.5".
Paige @ Quilted Blooms
Sarah, what a great design! You definitely lived up to the challenge, well done.
sarah
Post authorThank you, Paige. I have some more squares to play with, too. That's the thing about scraps. ;-)
lisa
That's awesome Sarah. I love the addition of the purple. I think it helps that most of your fabrics are blenders although it would be interesting to see what happens if someone uses fabrics with more going on in them. What size is your larges square or rectangle ( approximately)
sarah
Post authorThanks for visiting, Lisa. The single purple square was a great recommendation from a friend! I do love blenders. As you can tell, that's most of what I stash/use. The largest squares are 8" or 9" finished.
Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl
I really like how each of the chunks has a small piece of the other color in it; that design decision makes a lot of cohesion and harmony in the piece.
sarah
Post authorThat was a great tip from a quilter friend! Thanks for visiting, Yvonne.
tisha @ quiltytherapy
Very interesting design. Any thoughts so far on how you plan to quilt?
sarah
Post authorThank you, Tisha. I have a plan involving some straight line echo quilting and some yet to be determined free-motion.
Helen
I too like the geometry in quilting , right from when I thought log cabin looked like the right angles in a column graph . I love how your squares seem to butt up against each other .
sarah
Post authorThank you, Helen. I've allowed myself recently to send out a couple quilts for quilting. This has allowed me more time for the color and geometry parts of quilting... my favorite parts! :-) I love the vision of a log cabin as a column graph!
Patty
This is such a fun looking quilt top! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish!
sarah
Post authorThank you, Patty! I had a great time making it.