Tuesday, March 12, 2013

My Emerald Finish

Thanks to everyone who shared an opinion last week on what colors to use as accents in my Emerald Challenge quilt! I'm happy to say that I finished it today.

After reading the comments, I bought the exact blue of my cutting mat that several people thought was part of the quilt. And then decided not to use it.

Still not in love with anything, I went back to my original dark brown solid, thinking I could still make my original vision work.
 Nope. 

Since I didn't like it anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I cut it up into irregular strips, perpendicular to the original green columns. (Here it is randomly arranged back together.)

Then re-auditioned all the colors I tried the first time around (you know, because they worked so well originally...).

beige

light green

orange

and finally, blue

I liked the blue and went with that.
Thanks to everyone who suggested cutting mat blue as an accent! :)


 Here is my finished piece, a wall quilt, which measures approximately 26" x 21".
 I'm happy with it. It's more modern and abstract than probably anything I've ever done, but I had a lot of fun making it and will happily do something along the same lines again.

 And here's what I really like about it: the quilting. I rarely never show close-ups of my quilting because it's just not that remarkable (or even good). But I thought this quilt was a prime candidate for some of Angela Walters' techniques, so I pulled out my e-copy of her book and chose three different motifs to use.

Here's a close-up of all three. I especially love the boxy one in the center and was pleasantly surprised by how good it looked in my first attempt.

Here's the back of the quilt. I have NEVER had the back of a quilt look this cool.


I'm linking this to the Emerald Challenge over at a.squared.w (and also Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday).

Have you made anything with emerald?




5 comments:

  1. Yay, girl! Your quilting on the back looks amazing!

    I just finished my top a few days ago and have decided on a final quilting design--nothing as spectacular as yours that's for sure.

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  2. Wonderful quilting. We are our own worst critics. I think it turned out wonderful.

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  3. Your quilt is fantastic! I love how it turned out. The blue is perfect. You are so creative...and brave. I don't think I would have had the courage to cut into a finished piece like you did! The quilting is stunning too! Love this modern piece! You should do a tutorial.

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  4. I really love the final quilt! I think you made the right choice in cutting it up and adding blue. It looks awesome!

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  5. It turned out great! I think you're a little hard on yourself about the quilting. I think it looks great!

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