TGIFF Link Up! Propelled Pixels is Finished!

Hi there everyone and welcome to Persimon Dreams!  This is my first time hosting the TGIFF link up and I’m so excited to have you joining me! 

The finish I’m sharing with you all today also happens to be my ‘A Lovely Year of Finishes November Goal.’ 

The Modern Quilt Guild is holding a Michael Miller Spring Couture solid challenge.

These were the eight fat eighths of spring couture fabric we have to incorporate into my quilt.

I’m not really a ‘pastel’ person and knew that I could add other Michael Miller couture solids into the quilt so I did a little shopping and found these …

and these …

After spending months with this challenge in the back of my mind – at the end of October inspiration finally struck!  My inspiration actually came from playing Quilt BINGO on my bus trip to Houston.  Cheryl, our tour guide, was calling out the card at at one point she accidently said ‘nine patch block’ instead of ‘log cabin’.

This triggered me to think “Why not use nine patches to make a log cabin quilt!?”

  I started by simply making just nine patches. I think this would have worked had this been a scrappy quilt but since I was limited to the solids I already had for the challenge (no time to do more shopping at this point) I felt that simple nine patches would be just too limiting.  I then started making some other blocks that were based off a nine patch but included half square triangles or simply just strips.  I like how this added some more dimension and interest to this piece. 

I had enough fabric (barely) to make four ‘nine patch log cabin blocks’.  Even though I’m not a traditional quilter I like to incorporate tradition into my quilts.  I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but the center of each log cabin block is red. Now that I had my four blocks together – it was time to decide on the orientation.

The pinwheel orientation had been in my head from the beginning …

I also thought this hour glass was pretty interesting.

A more traditional layout.

And probably my second favorite layout – I really like how the darker colors frame the lighter.  BUT this was just too traditional for what I was going for.

I decided to stick with my initial inspiration and use the pinwheel layout.

I even pieced a back for this quilt!  I had to use Michael Miller fabrics and since there is so much pastel on the front I didn’t want to use anything too dark or too patterned so it would show through to the front. Luckily – my aunt and quilter – Barb Raisbeck of Quilts by Barb – was able to squeeze me in for quilting so I could still meet the QuiltCon deadline of November 30th. 

She did a really cool center pattern

with swirls that radiate out from the center!  Absolutely perfect for this piece!

I bound the quilt in the darker taupe.  On two sides though I did add a thin red lip of fabric.  I really like how it creates a bit of a shadow box effect.  And now  – let’s see the FINISHED quilt –  

‘Propelled Pixels’

I had a lot of fun *sarcasm* photographing this quilt in the 13-degree weather and snow!  Do you see the frost still on the fence!?  I took these at 3 in the afternoon!

What do you think of my solution to the pastel challenge!?

And now it’s YOUR turn! Do you have a finish to show off this week?

Link up your post below – it’s best to link the URL for the individual post instead of your blog’s home URL. Also, it’s good etiquette to add the TGIFF button and/or a link in your post.  And it’s most fun of all when you visit some of the other participants’ pages and leave little comments for them! 

An InLinkz Link-up