Hadley Quilt

I finished stitching down the binding on my Hadley quilt a couple of weeks ago.

 

If you've been following the progress of this quilt, you've probably seen the front already (in this post). I'm really happy with how the front turned out - basically, for each row, I stacked five fat quarters and sliced them into four fairly even strips, creating improv curves as I did so.  I then trimmed the resulting blocks into nice even squares.  This trimming process left me with quite a few offcuts, which I used on the other side.

For this side, I really wanted to push the retro vibe I was getting from the Hadley prints.  At first I thought I would just set the pieced strips in the cream background fabric, but they didn't look quite right so I ended up framing them with a teal shot cotton.  Technically, this side is the back but I think I like it just as much as the front (and maybe more...).

All that negative space meant that getting the quilting right was important.  This is a pretty big quilt (70" by 84") so I wasn't that keen to tackle it myself.  Instead, Sue Burnett quilted it for me using a digital pattern we found together.  I think the figure eight design is very characteristic of Denyse Schmidt's quilts and I thought it was right just with her fabrics.

For binding, I used the same teal shot cotton that I used to frame the strips on the back.  It's a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton and super soft.  I don't know if I would want to use it for ultra precise piecing, but it makes the most lovely, almost silky, binding, and is a delight to hand stitch through.

Finally, I thought I should include a photo of my quilt holder for these photos.  My youngest brother held this quilt up on his own (I made another quilt the exact same size recently, and my friend Lyndy and I could barely hold it up for photos working together - 84" is 7'!).  I think he is pointing at a speck of dust he wanted me to pick off the quilt.

Quilt Stats 

Pattern: my own improv-ish design

Finished Size: 70" by 84"  

Fabric: Hadley Fat Quarter bundle designed by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit Fabrics

Backing: I think it is Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Soft White

Binding: Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Jade

Pieced by: me

Quilted by: Sue Burnett

I will be linking up at finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts.

Strings Attached

Back when I signed up for QuiltCon, I also decided to sign up for the Michael Miller Cotton Couture challenge.  I received the fabric a couple of months ago and had a general idea of what I wanted to make, but in the end I only started my quilt a couple of weeks ago.

I think it's amazing that Michael Miller provides free fabric for the challenge, and I thought the challenge conditions were kind of interesting (essentially, the quilt must primarily use solids from Michael Miller’s Spring Cotton Couture Pastels. Solid Michael Miller cotton couture fabrics are permitted. Michael Miller prints are permitted on the binding and the back).  I decided to embrace these limitations and add as little as possible to the fabrics provided to make my quilt.

This is my finished quilt (which I have entered in QuiltCon).  I used only the fabrics provided, plus some Cotton Couture in charcoal for the backing and a small section of the binding (I didn't have quite enough white).

I really like the extreme simplicity of the straight lines, the graduated colour changes, and how the raw edges and fraying threads make the colours blend together and add softness.  I think this is the most minimalist quilt I've made, and probably the most "modern" (in the way that the Modern Quilt Guild defines "modern quilting").  Part of me worries that this quilt is just too simple, and maybe a bit boring.

Anyway,  despite my slight reservations, I'm happy with this quilt, and I'm glad I made it.  I would love to see it (and/or another of my entries) hanging at QuiltCon.

Did you enter anything in QuiltCon?