Ron the Half-Chevron Quilt Top

The winner of Lucie Summer’s book Quilt Improv is Justine M., you’ve been emailed!

Here he is! It’s Ron the Half-Chevron Quilt Top!

This is a variation on the Chevrons pattern from  Quilt Improv

Vin thinks it is cool.
She wants me to show you the back, too.

I like how the light-to-dark placement of fabrics is a bit more subtle on the back.
Lighter on top, darker on the bottom. I did something similar with the fabric placement in my log cabin quilt top (see it here).

Of course, once this thing is quilted, the back won’t be visible.  But then the quilt will be used and all squished up and lovely.

I need to take this quilt to my long-arm quilter…I have four bed-size quilt tops waiting to be quilted, and I’m thinking of handing them all over at once!  I’ll focus on quilting my smaller quilts and let the lady with the big machine do the big quilts!

I realize that I started this quilt top last week and am now showing it done, which might suggest that it was a fast finish.  It really wasn’t! I’ve been hiding away in my studio working on it quite a bit.   I  rewatched all of  BBC’s Sherlock while piecing (in preparation for the new season starting soon)  that’s at least least 12 hours! 

I did a few things beyond chevrons, all of which can be spotted in this picture.

First, I mixed in some orphaned shibori blocks (the circles of dyed fabric).  These are spare blocks from my cousin’s wedding quilt (learn about shibori and see Kelly’s quilt here).  I didn’t include these blocks in my cousin’s quilt because the colors weren’t right (too jewel-toned).  But they were neatly stacked in my stash and as I pawed through for more and more fabric, I realized they were the right colors for this quilt.  I stitched them together and added them to the design wall, integrating them into the overall top.  I like how it mixes things up just a little.

Also mixing things up and the occasional vertical cerise strips.  I put the first one of those in when I wanted to combine two stacks of ‘rons and one was bit skinnier.  Of course, the choice is then to either make the skinny bit fatter or the fat bit skinnier. I hesitate to cut away patchwork when the trimmings will be too small to use, so I decided to see how it would look to make the skinny stack of ‘rons fat by adding that vertical strip.  I decided to do it in a strong contrasting color so that it wouldn’t seem like I was trying to sneak a mistake into the patchwork.  I ended up really liking the look and so I kept the theme going throughout the patchwork.

The vertical strip within the vertical strip seen in the picture above (just to the left of the shibori blocks) read as too wide and too light when I first inserted it.  I decided to break it up, by adding an applique bit of another fabric (this was also a spare bit–from a tree skirt I mad the week previous and haven’t shared here just yet!)  The applique strip is just pinned to the top right now.  I think I’m going to pull it off for the long-armer, than stitch it on after the top is quilted.

I’m NOT in love with the vertical strip on the far left/bottom of the top, as I feel it makes the quilt look un-square.  However, I think I can fix this illusion when I bind the quilt.  I’m thinking of a thicker binding (maybe 1.5 inches showing) and a dark/heavy fabric in over in that corner. (Tutorial on thick bindings is coming, thanks to those who have asked).

Speaking of fabrics:  This is a mish-mash of fabrics from my stash.  As far as recent lines go: there’s a fair amount of Koi by Rashida Coleman-Hale in there, a lot of Botanics from Carolyn Friedlander (I did actually buy some more of Succulent in Curry at one point…love that print so much; there’s also a decent share of Dowry by Anna Maria Horner (those three lines have similar cerise and teal in them as well as a curry/reed thing going).  I’ve also mixed in some older Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Bari J, an old bed-sheet, and more. 

I hope you all have had a nice holiday season so far and will have a happy new year, see you in 2014!!