Modern Quilt Guild–Michael Miller Fabric Challenge–Deconstructed Dutch Rose Quilt

A week or so back I asked you all for your thoughts on the layout of what I’d started or the Modern Quilt Guild’s Michael Miller Fabric Challenge.  I got loads of opinions and ideas and I appreciated them all!  I was truly stuck on this one!

One comment from a new friend seriously turned a light bulb on in my head…

“Reverse 4: lighter blocks at the top, going down to the heavier ones”

From there…things went much more smoothly! I’m not sure if you noticed but my original block was this one…

Fairly early on in the project, I realized the green corners were just not going to work with what I had for fabrics to work with.

The deconstruction of this Dutch Rose started from block one.  Above, you can see that one corner is missing…

A new grey corner is in it’s place now…

And the final block – doesn’t it look completely different with grey corners instead of lime green!? I did some more block deconstructing. 

This one just wasn’t working for me.  I’m an engineer at heart and all this asymmetry was bothering me enough…this was just too out there for me.  I pulled the random chunks out and replaced them with grey…

This was the final block…

And here was my final layout…  With the weight of the blocks in mind…a whole new concept was formed.  I waited patiently for my mother-in-law to finish her lunch and then I dragged her to the design wall to analyze it with me.  I did want to add a little more width to the quilt since I thought the 48” x 72” was just a bit too long and skinny for my taste.  As I was pulling out border options…the three strips on the side just happened.  We both stepped back and thought…hey, that’s sort of cool.  I went with it.  It sort of reminds me of a book now too.

I sent the quilt off to my aunt, Barb Raisbeck of Quilts by Barb for quilting.  All that solid just made me feel panicky…I was leaving this one up to the professional.  She put on a linear, bubbly, tree-esque design.  So cool!

I also had her put a back on it and I’m loving this gray modern log cabin-esque printed fabric.  A perfect fit for the back!

Another view of the book binding border…

And here is ‘Deconstructed Dutch Rose’ in all it’s glory!  I bound it in a dark solid grey.  I was tempted to add a lip of green but I refrained…I’m thinking modern is more about ‘less is more’ rather than ‘more is more is more…’ my typical motto.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Deconstructed Dutch RosePieced by:  Kim Lapacek, PersimonDreamsProfessional Long Arm Quilting: Barb Raisbeck, Quilts by BarbInspiration: Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Fabric ChallengeDimensions:  55.5” x 73.5”