Inspiration to finished quilt. This is Mountain Meadows. Fully improvised, made with scraps from my own stash and shared by quilty friends and blog readers.
It started with a family hike. The wildflowers were in bloom all over the mountains. Little pops of colour dotting this hillsides. And so many greens. Not to mention the light and shadows dancing across the meadows. I wanted to capture the visual as much as the feeling.
I think I did it.
Mountain Meadows
52'' x 68''
We went to Banff yesterday, a pleasant afternoon of brunch, a soak in the hot springs, and a little jaunt to take these pics. As you can see, I missed the window of opportunity for photographing this with the real inspiration. Snow has arrived!
But those grasses were still poking through the snow. And the sun played across the field. My kids threw snowballs at each other while Hubby helped me take the pics.
I quilted this one on the long arm. It isn't a big quilt but that quilting is dense. It took me nearly 5 hours straight. I wanted to mimic the movement of grasses. And here and there is a flower. Not difficult, but time consuming to execute. For thread I used Auriful 1147, a perfect olive green. It blends in parts and pops in others.
For binding I went with more green scraps. There was a moment where I thought about facing the quilt instead. I see this quilt, however, as the beginning of a series and part of me wanted it to be very, very clear that it is a quilt. So it needed a traditional binding. I did roughly match the binding with the top. If it was a dark section then there was dark binding, light got light. I didn't obsess about it perfectly matching, but made it work.
How I love a high contrast back! In this case the contrast comes thematically. This fabric is Jay McCarroll's Center City line. He was inspired by urban centres, so talk about contrast with my inspiration. But I had to have it and this quilt sat until I tracked down enough yardage. I'm thrilled with the result because of the contrast and because the quilting blends so nicely.
Remember, if you want to know more about this quilt you can listen to the Webinar I did with the Modern Quilt Guild on Improv With Intent. It's free to all Modern Quilt Guild Members.
In the Webinar I discuss the process of making the quilt - from inspiration to the final top. It isn't as straightforward as one might think. If you are a Modern Quilt Guild Member you can access the Webinar for free now, even if you didn't join me last week. To access it make sure you log in and join the Community site. Then click under Resources and there it is. Not only do you get to see more images and learn about my process, you get to hear my awesome Canadian accent.