Over the weekend, I got to share my finish for the Madrona Road Challenge at the monthly meeting of the Tampa Modern Quilt Guild. It was a lot of fun to see all of the fantastic projects the guild members made, there were quite a few members who participated, so it was very exciting. We did a vote on all of the projects shown at the meeting, as well as two that couldn't make it, and I'm proud to share with you my entry, which won the challenge.

I'm positively in love with how this quilt came together. I've hung it up in my sewing room over my sewing table and every time I look at it, I can't help but smile.

When I started on this project last week, my only plan was to let loose and have fun, not to do something super intricate, but to put something together that would make me smile. I started by cutting my fabric into strips and putting together some string blocks. Then, I decided I wanted to use some Essex Yarn Dyed in Black for the background fabric, so I put together a few Roman Stripe string blocks to use as half-square triangles. As I played with the layout of my blocks, I kept thinking about the pixelated heart quilts I've seen and loved recently, so I decided to go with a heart layout.

Once I put it up on my design wall, I was happy with it and I felt like I had a direction. I wanted lots of negative space, for fun quilting, and to the piecing of the heart truly shine.

For the quilting, I chose a gray variegated thread, which blended really nicely. I quilted using both wavy lines and wiggle back and forth lines to give a sense of movement to the quilt. I like how the stitches really blend into the Essex in a way, but a part of me wishes I'd chosen a color with a little bit of contrast so I could see the stitches a little bit better.


Quilt Stats
name: The Road to Love
size: 40" x 46"
pattern: none at the moment; maybe I'll write a simple tutorial eventually
fabrics: Madrona Road by Violet Craft for Michael Miller Fabrics paired with Essex Yarn Dyed linen in Black
quilting: wavy lines and wiggle FMQ in 40 wt Aurifil varigated gray thread
binding: Essex Yarn Dyed linen in Black

And speaking of my weekend, I did my first real interview over the weekend, with quilty podcaster Katie of Katie's Quilting Corner. If you haven't listened to Katie's podcast before, she shares projects she's working on, things she's learned, as well as interviews with other quilters periodically. I was super flattered when she asked me to do an interview with her, but I have to say, in spite of my nerves, she really made me feel comfortable and I enjoyed chatting with her. You can find a link to listen to it right here, along with tons of pictures of my sewing space.

Have a wonderful Monday!