Well, I hadn't planned on posting this because I don't have any even remotely decent photos yet, but since I am still without my little camera, I decided to go ahead and post anyway. Some of you may remember that I am, in fact, one of the participants in the Modern Quilt Along - I'll forgive you if you've forgotten this - it's not like I've posted any progress in eons! I probably should have been posting regular progress reports - tales of the challenging piecework, the near-impossible exercise in fabric selection, the learning curve of the entire process... but, I was too caught up in the tiny details of the quiltmaking process - details that would be boring and technical to anyone not attempting this particular design.
Although this post has been a long time coming, let me assure you that I have been working regularly on this project. I don't have much time for quilting at home - in fact, basically none - so my quiltmaking time is reserved to my precious Thursday evening class at our local college where I go to sew and relax and socialize with other community quilters. These nights are an amazing gift to me, and Jerry has wholeheartedly supported my weekly escape from home and family life. So, I haven't had the chance to work on the quilt on a daily basis, but just once a week at my class. Last week I reached a critical and exciting benchmark in the creation of this quilt - I basted! Here is an admittedly horrible, blurry, poorly lit photo of my basted quilt on the table:
The quilt is called Unfinished Business, and I assure you that I have thought the name a curse more than a few times! Here is a picture of the sample quilt from the Modern Quilt Workshop:
The concept of the quilt is a modern interpretation of the crazy quilt. Jerry chose the pattern (the most challenging in the book!), and I decided on a monochromatic grey palette so that the quilt can move from room to room and still work with our various color schemes. You'll notice that my quilt has just 4 rows, where the original has 5. This happened for a couple of reasons: appropriate grey fabrics were really tough to come by, and I didn't want to go all black or all white in the quilt - I thought it would be too much overall contrast and would overpower the other rows; and I decided that the size of the finished quilt with 4 rows would be the perfect size for the lap-sized quilt we were going for. And 4 rows are just fine, right?!?
I'm thrilled to have gotten to this stage with this particular quilt - it's been a tough one - and the race is on for me to get it quilted and bound before the end of my class. I hope to have a finished product to show you within a month, so keep your fingers crossed!
It's looking really cool, Kelly. The binding they describe in the book is surprisingly easy, but the quilting, on the other hand...but I'm sure you can do it!
Posted by: Rose | April 26, 2006 at 07:10 PM
Hi Kelly, How fun to see the quilt. I remember sending you grey fabric it's neat to see such a cool creation out of something that I didn't know what to do with. You are so talented.
Posted by: mira | April 26, 2006 at 08:10 PM
It looks really cool! Starting a Modern Quilt is on my to-do list, althoughI haven't picked which one yet.
Posted by: Passions & Distractions | April 27, 2006 at 06:16 AM
Hey there, this white-grey-black quilt looks really great. Wow for finding all these grey fabrics, that must have taken some real dedication! I can't wait to see it all finished.
Posted by: Melanie | April 27, 2006 at 06:57 AM
Oh my god, you did it! It's spectacular! Show-worthy! I will do an MQA update just to celebrate it. Congratulations!
Posted by: Kim | April 27, 2006 at 07:04 AM
wow- I LOVE your quilt. You should be so proud! it is beautiful. I really like the shades of grey and the crazy quilt design.
How wonderful that you get to take that quilting class. My pottery class serves the same purpose for me--a chance to get away and socialize with other talented, creative people.
I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on your quilt!
Posted by: molly | April 27, 2006 at 12:18 PM
it's wonderful! i've been thinking about a monochrome quilt too...just gotta learn to sew first! beautiful...
Posted by: ani | April 27, 2006 at 10:15 PM
Your quilt looks fantastic! It will look so amazing when it's done. I'm a serial unfinisher when it comes to quilts, always finishing the top-piecing but getting it to quilted and bound stage seems to take a marathon effort. You'll get it done in no time with having to go to class!
Posted by: Kirsty | May 08, 2006 at 01:37 AM