Friday, December 7, 2018

Wooly Bear ++ Quilt Finish

I am happy to share my last QuiltCon entry today, Wooly Bear.  Wooly Bear is my entry into the Michael Miller Challenge category.


For the challenge, we were given fat eighths of four fabrics, three Hastdot prints and a peach colored Cotton Couture solid.  We had to create a quilt using using at least two of the given Hashdot prints and the peach solid in the quilt top and binding, but in addition to these fabrics we could also add other Hashdot print colors and any other Cotton Couture solids.


When I started to play around with the colors in designs, I could easily make all of the Hastdot prints work well together, but the peach was throwing me for a loop.  It just did not seem to fit in with the other colors (I think that in real life the peach is a little less bright and a little more pink than in the photo above).

None of my ideas were working until I thought to incorporate in an even brighter orangey color.  I added in the Cotton Couture lava and that seemed to calm the peach down in comparison.  I then added in some black just for a little contrast and depth.  I wound up not using the turquoise hashdot print.

I knew that I wanted to create an almost floating image and incorporate some curves into the design.  After playing around in EQ, I had my block design.

I first pieced random sized strips together on the diagonal and trimmed them down to 12 ½" square.  Then I added Drunkard's curves to two of the opposing corners.

Oreo "helping" me quilt

Once the quilt top was complete, I got to move on to the quilting.  For the background, I used a combination of large pebbles, teardrops, and elongated swirls using a matching Aurifil thread in 50 wt.  This was my first time ever using wool batting and I was really happy with how puffy all of the quilted shapes were.  I used Tuscany 100% Wool Batting by Hobbs and it basted and quilted wonderfully.

My initial thought for the pieced sections was to have dense straight lines echoing the seam lines within the blocks.  After doing half a block though, it was not turning out well.  The ruler work was causing some tucks and it was looking messy.  After a bunch of un-sewing, I tried again using a dense, small scale bear claw.


I used a lime green Aurifil thread in 50wt for the pieced sections (that matched the lime green hashdot print), which looked decent on all of the different fabrics in the pieced areas.


For the backing, I used some acid lime green Cotton Couture fabric.  For such wild colors on the front, I had to go equally as bold for the back :)  After quilting, the quilt measured 53" x 57".

Thanks for stopping by, I'll let you know if the quilt is accepted or not.






20 comments:

  1. I appreciate the bold backing and how beautifully your quilting shows on it! I am always fascinated by the fabric challenges, and I like that you were able to down select a little bit from the fabrics and add to it this year. I really love the design and hope I get to see it in Nashville!

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  2. Be still my beating heart! This is gorgeous - bold and beautiful, Cheryl! Your quilting adds amazing personality to a top that was already singing a happy song. Good luck with this entry!

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  3. I really love the name you gave this quilt. It suits it to a T. The quilting is amazing. The Bear Claw motif is what I was thinking of for my Celestial Plus baby quilt. I'll have to look up the motif on utube.

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  4. What a colorful and creative quilt. Good luck, Cheryl!!

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  5. What a wonderful design and amazing use of the challenge fabrics! This is just plain perfect from design, quilting to backing!

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  6. Wow. This is really lovely. Good job on the color story and I love your block design!

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  7. Love your quilt! The bold colors, the quilting. Exquisite.

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  8. That is a great use of the fabric. I had a hard time coming up with anything I was happy with, but so excited to see what people have done. I love the name and the lava did make that peach work and yes, it does look like a wooly bear caterpillar.

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  9. A beautiful quilt with such lovely quilting (and a great helper). The colors are bright and eye catching and the design is very interesting. The wool batting really makes the quilting pop. Hope it gets juried in to Quilt Con.

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  10. An amazing design! I am especially in love with the overall design/layout/ block idea & with the background quilting. Really impressive. Good luck with Quilt Con.

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  11. It is interesting to read about your thought process in working with what you were given, what you added and how you decided to quilt. Wishing you well with Quilt Con.

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  12. Love the pattern you came up with and the fabrics you chose to use!! Isn't wool just wonderful to quilt with...it really shows off your quilting...and it is wonderful quilting to show off!! Fingers crossed for it being accepted. It has my vote!!!

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  13. Wowza!! What a great use of the challenge fabrics. Amazing quilting too!! Good luck!

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  14. Stunning, Cheryl! Enjoyed reading about your approach and process. Looking forward to seeing this one in Nashville.

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  15. I love your design. Did you need to buy more hash dot fabric to make this size quilt?

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    1. Thanks Mary! I did have to buy more of each of the fabrics to make them work in the quilt.

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  16. My goodness, Cheryl! You really rose to meet this Michael Miller Challenge! I really like what you've done. Though you glossed over the most difficult part - designing it - the quilt is great! I've used wool many times in quilts where I want quilting to "show off," so I know what you're talking about with the puffy look. Your quilting designs are perfect. I can't remember... do you use a longarm? I do think wool batting is a little more challenging to work with when domestic machine quilting. Well, I'm sure looking forward to hearing what QuiltCon jurists say about our quilts. And I'm super-hopeful for you that this one is selected. My best!

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  17. It's awesome. That peach was a killer to use.

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  18. It is awesome, I love colors, design and quilting. So wonderful, congratulations for lovely artwork!!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!