After a busy weekend sewing, I am so excited to share my quilt Spectrum. I originally had this idea as a QuiltCon 2016 submission but didn’t get my act together. So I decided to make it early to have it ready to submit for QuiltCon 2017. As it turns out, I will remake it to improve the quilting, notably the wavy horizontal lines. 

The general idea was to play with solid colors to make it look like shading when the blocks overlapped. After playing with solids, I decided to go with Moda Grunge as it added another dimension that I liked. I have another idea with solids that I am working on so I am glad I went with Grunge. 

Here was my initial sketch of Spectrum: 

 But then I started fabric shopping… And we all know how that goes, especially when Moda Grunge is involved.  

 After getting the fabric I laid it out and then created my cheat sheet. That was critical because the cutting table was a mess once I got going. 

  So I thought I would just start cutting and sewing, but quickly realized what a stupid plan that was. It would have worked if I were going for improv, but that isn’t what I wanted for this piece.  Now I finally know why I took all those math classes growing up! 

 I then cut and laid out the pieces to make sure they made sense and created the right shape and overlaps before sewing.

 The quilt then went together in quarters which was a lot of fun to do…when I wasn’t distracted by Project Runway or tennis on TV… 

 After the top was done, or done-ish, I felt that it needed more white to focus the eye. So from this… 

 To this… 

  The quilting itself was good, and not good. My wavy lines are a hot mess but I really like the stippling on the solid colors and the back-and-forth on the overlapping pieces.  I did change thread colors a lot as I wanted the color of the fabric to hold through without too much distraction. I had to use different thread brands which annoyed the machine. I will be consistent with Aurifil when I redo this. 

 And now it is done. 😀 We have an “art at work” showcase today and I am excited to share this with my colleagues. More on that tomorrow. I also have to give a shoutout to my husband who was a great help – ironing, pinning, changing thread, cutting batting and refilling coffee – all critical tasks to finishing a project.