I don't know about you, but I own a boatload of sewing and quilting books that I adore for the eye candy, but I haven't exhibited a whole lot of follow-through when it comes to actually making things from them, so when Lindsay asked if I was interested in making a project from a book, I jumped at the chance, figuring that it was exactly the motivation I needed!

I went to my shelf of crafty books and pulled out one of my favorites, Quilting Modern: Techniques and Projects for Improvisational Quilts by Jacquie Gehring and Katie Pederson. I love how this book not only has patterns in it, but it also teaches principles and techniques of improvisational piecing that you can apply in your own patterns as well. It was hard selecting a favorite one to make, but after much waffling between the Swirling Medallion on page 113 and Blue Ice on page 147, I literally flipped a coin. Swirling Medallion won. ;)

The Swirling Medallion pattern uses the stitch-and-flip technique taught in the book to create a modern medallion quilt. I knew I wanted to use prints, as opposed to the solids used in the book, but I wanted to be sure that my prints definitely "read" one color, so I was awfully picky about the fabrics I used. I picked various shades of gray, aqua, green, and gold from my scrap bins for my quilt, with Kona Snow for my neutral background and got to work. This quilt was a breeze to put together, the pattern was written very concisely yet in a way that was easy to follow and understand.


I quilted this quilt using a cathedral windows inspired continuous line FMQ design, which was tons of fun to do and looks really cool with this quilt, using Aurifil 50 wt thread in white. For the binding, I used a Dear Stella Squiggles print, which is one of my new stash building favorites.



Quilt Stats
name: Swirling Medallion
size: 30" square
pattern: Swirling Medallion quilt from Quilting Modern
fabrics: DS Flea Market Fancy Eyelet in Green, Half Moon Modern in Lime, Half Moon Modern Ovals Vines in Lime, Mono Pez in Yellow, Silent Cinema Front Row in Yellow, Spring Street Flowers in Yellow, Spring Street Sketchbook in Yellow, Dream On Stripe in Yellow, Juicy Blossoms Dot in Yellow,
backing: Dear Stella Squiggles in Teal
binding: Dear Stella Squiggles in Teal
quilting: continuous line cathedral windows, by me, in Auriful 50wt white thread

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll continue to follow along the Craft Book Month blog hop! I think it's great that this blog hop is inspiring so many people to crack open a craft book and use it!! Here are the other fantastic bloggers who are participating:

Sunday 9/2: Hopeful Threads / The Jolly Jabber
Monday 9/3: Stitchery Dickory Dock / Me Sew Crazy
Tuesday 9/4: Olive & Ollie / Sew Sweetness
Wednesday 9/5: Fabric Seeds / The Busy Bean
Thursday 9/6: CraftFoxes / Stitched In Color
Friday 9/7: Katie's Korner / A Prairie Sunrise

Week Two
Sunday 9/9: Sweet Diesel Designs / missknitta's studio
Monday 9/10: Sew Tara / Clover and Violet
Tuesday 9/11: Sew Fantastic / amylouwho
Wednesday 9/12: Projektownia Jednoiglec / Two More Seconds
Thursday 9/13: Ellison Lane Quilts / Don't Call Me Betsy
Friday 9/14: Live a Colorful Life / LRstitched

Week Three
Sunday 9/16: Fairy Face Designs / Canoe Ridge Creations
Monday 9/17: Inspire Me Grey / Freshly Pieced
Tuesday 9/18: Lindsay Sews / The Cute Life
Wednesday 9/19: The Littlest Thistle / Sew Crafty Jess
Thursday 9/20: Urban Stitches / imagine gnats
Friday 9/21: Sew Bittersweet Designs / The Plaid Scottie

No time to create a project? No problem! All month long, follow Craft Buds and comment to win some new craft books and lots of giveaways! Good luck!