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The San Mateo County Fair (June 5-14 this year) has a large quilt display within the Home Arts Maker Department division in the exhibition hall. I've enjoyed going to the fair in past years to walk through the entire exhibition hall. This year I'll have five quilts on display at the fair. This is one of them. Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild (which I joined last Fall) has two challenge categories at the fair under the Quilt Challenge Groups division. The Let's Meet Our Panel challenge asked us to use a panel. I've had students use improv work from class to create a quilt featuring a panel (like the one by Carol O. in this post) and have wanted to make one myself for some time. Since I didn't have a panel on hand, Rochelle from my guild shared this Monsters Inc. panel with me.

I started out by choosing solids from the five main characters on the panel. I did pretty well finding the coordinating colors in my solids drawer. On the left: Free Spirit Berry, unidentified light blue, unidentified olive green. On the top: Kona Jamaica, Kona Violet, Kona Cactus. On the right: Kona Oasis, Kona Peony, Kona Denim. On the bottom: unidentified pale blue, Kona Tomato, Kona Corsage.

Initially I thought I'd have each side be the colors of one of the characters, but there are five monsters (initially the Yeti blended in to the background to me) so I decided to mix up the colors to create the palettes for each side. For each side I chose a general geometric idea or starting point and started cutting fabric. With most of my improv work I don't know exactly how things will end up. This was no exception. Once I created the strip set and cross cut into pieces for the bottom side, I auditioned to decide if I wanted to insert strips of Corsage or not.

As I finished the improv sections, I added them to my design wall. As I tell students in class, I don't care about the messy edges until those edges are going to be sewn to something else. So you can see on my design wall that while the piecing is done, I haven't yet trimmed the borders to size. I'd been thinking about improv sections that would finish approximately 5" wide and I work oversized so I can trim down to my desired finished size.

From the beginning I figured I would miter the corners on my border. I creased the panel on the diagonal so I could use that as my guide. I figured I would just puzzle it out, but didn't have time to be wrong and need to redo things, so I found this tutorial to watch about the process of mitering corners. Thankfully the process went pretty smoothly. I trimmed both edges of the top border before attaching it, but then decided to trim only the inner edge of the other sides and wait until after quilting to trim the whole quilt to size.

Two down, two to go...

Using the diagonal creases through the center panel as my guide I did walking foot quilting in a 2" grid on the diagonal. My first line of quilting was 1" to the side of the creased diagonal. Then I used the guide with my walking foot to space the rows of stitching two inches apart. I quilted with 50wt Aurifil Dove (#2600), a light neutral that I thought would blend in well with all the colors.

The finished quilt is approximately 27" x 27". I machine bound with a medium grey solid after trimming the quilt. (This was the last photo I took, but I was able to steam out my diagonal creases before dropping it off to the fair.)

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Based on the classic precision pieced snake blocks, Sarah Ruiz asked us for improv snake blocks.

She pointed us to these two websites as examples of what the classic snake block looks like.

Sarah chose a palette of dark teal (for the arcs), magenta, coral, yellow, and cream. For each color family, we were encouraged to use various hues, and a minimum of two color families per section. We could include any type of straight-line improv piecing, with the only curved seams being the improv quarter circle arcs in dark teal.

After pulling fabric the first section I pieced was this corner section. I had pulled yardage and scraps in the appropriate colors and this quarter circle of magenta was calling to be a corner of one block. I slice and inserted three 1/8" wide skinny strips.

Then I started piecing boxy sections of magentas and corals to be a center section. Since I wanted to use different color combinations in the different background sections, I pieced yellow and cream for one corner.

For the second block I took inspiration from my round robin unit. I created a large wonky strip set wide enough to be trimmed on the diagonal to be the center section of my second block.

Again taking inspiration from my scrap shapes I used a triangular scrap and pieced around it to create the second corner for block two.

Finally, I decided to make another cream and yellow slab for the second corner of block one (below), heavier on the cream this time.

I attached the teal strip to the corner section first. Then I lay the resulting panel on top of the center panel of fabric (2nd photo above). I lined the edges of the corner up about 1/2" inside the edges of the center panel. Then I checked to make sure there was enough fabric in the overlap where I would cut and sliced through both layers at once (using this method) before piecing the curved seam (3rd photo above).

These blocks were such an opportunity to play. I loved choosing different color combinations and deciding on different styles of improv piecing.

It will be fun to see Sarah's quilt top come together. I like the visual interest of the teal arcs not lining up perfectly.

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I have fond memories of participating in a guild round robin with SCVQA back in 2019, so it was an easy decision to opt in for this year's round robin with Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild. There are 10 of us participating, rotating the project each month. I created my starting unit in February and passed it off to the next quilter this past weekend.

Since I'd used my favorite palette of lime, teal, and navy in my previous round robin I wanted something different, and I landed on vibrant, joyful colors. Due in part to a print that I'll use on the back (and I am not showing while the quilt is in process) I selected a variety of pinks, oranges, and yellows. The majority of my print fabric stash are blenders, fabrics that read as a single color, like you see here. I tried to have a ranch of values and hues within each set of fabric.

My initial plan was to piece strips of my fabrics. I drew this small sketch. Here I have four half square triangle units in the center, bordered by a small strip of white, then surrounded by my colorful strip sets. I liked the idea of smooth organic curves and thought I might trim the outer edges and add another round of solid white.

I didn't have a specific size in mind as I started piecing. True to form I chain pieced so I could be building multiple units at once. I found this process very meditative.

In the interest of time I reworked my plan a bit, deciding to sub in a single square of fabric in the center. I thought maybe I'd stop here. I really liked the piecing to this point.

But I couldn't stop thinking about my original intention for some improv curves. Though after spending the time to do all the piecing, I didn't really want to chop some of it off. These strip sets were only 3 inches wide, so it didn't leave much room for cutting improv curves on the outer edge. I reimagined my plan for curves and created them by adding strips of oranges and yellows to frame the center section and improv cut curved edges (using this method) to add my Kona White. My finished starting unit finished at 13" x 13".

I wish I'd taken a photo of my kit. I packed my fabrics up in an orange plastic box, with an orange notebook for notes during its journey. Stay tuned for pics of the project I'm working on for the round robin this month.

Notes to other participants in the round robin (summary of what's in the notebook):

I indicated that I'd like my quilt to have the vibe of a medallion quilt, with my starting unit as the center. That said, I don't need there to be symmetry throughout the quilt and folks can choose if they add to one or more sides (no need to each make a full trip around the medallion). I wouldn't mind if my starting unit ended up off-center. I'd like a lap size quilt that could be square or rectangular in its final shape. Regarding fabric, I supplied a bunch, including Kona White, and gave instructions to let me know if they needed more fabric and to feel free to add fabrics of their own in the same palette I've chosen, including solids if they wish. I also gave them permission to share photos of the progress, so we'll be able to follow along with how my quilt is going over the year.