Friday, March 13, 2015

Two Birds, One Stone | A finished quilt

Warning this is a picture heavy post!

I was very exited when Adrianne and Anne announced the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge using this year's color: Marsala.  A lot of people aren't thrilled with the color but I really like how warm and versatile it is.  Just check your fabric stash, I bet you'll find some as a secondary color is quite a few of your fabrics.

official Marsala Swatch


Luckily for me, the announcement of this year's challenge coincided very nicely with the beginning of a design concept for my local quilt guild's yearly challenge.  And I, being the ever practical and logical person that I am, decided to combine them!

I have been sharing sneak pictures of this quilt since I started working on it but because our local challenge is supposed to be blind voting I couldn't share a picture of the finished quilt...  However, we had our presentation of the challenge quilts on Wednesday and our guild meeting and now I can!

Many thanks to my good friend Jenn and her co-worker Jason for holding up my quilt for me in a few of these pictures!





This quilt uses fabrics from a variety of designers, including Cotton + Steel, Kaffe Fasset, Anna Marie Horner, and many others!  The solid I found closest to the official Marsala swatch was American Made Brand in Brick Red.  Not exact, but close enough for me.  The background is a from Carolyn Friedlander's newest collection, Doe.  It's the Ladder Lines print.  I love how this print gives the whole quilt warmth and is less aggressive than a stark white print would have been.






I quilted on the diagonal on my home machine, a Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900QCP, using my walking foot and a brandless pink-red thread I picked up last year at Vermont Quilt Festival.  I love the pop of color on the backgrounds and how it blends into the prints.  I also really like the texture it gives the back of the quilt, just enough to be structured but still soft and cuddly.

The background is pieced, half with a nameless print I picked up at a clearance sale last spring and half with this adorable animal faces fabric... blanking on the name of it right now.





I used a fun purple/orange/marsala triangle print... again blanking on the name... and leftover scraps of the American Made Brand brick fabric to bind the quilt.






Despite it's size this quilt, when it's done hanging in our local quilt show, will become a couch quilt for my husband and I.  It measures a hefty 84" x 68"!  My husband gets genuinely upset when he can't find a large enough quilt to cuddle with on the couch so I have been given strict instructions not to make anymore lap quilts!  This ought to fit the bill though.

I'm calling this one: "Two Birds, One Stone"

It uses two different birds in the air blocks, two main color-ways, and will be entered into two different challenge quilt competitions.  You can see my previous progress post on this quilt here: Instagram Progress | Challenge Quilt


Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.

24 comments:

  1. This is stunning. Congrats on getting it done. I like the simple quilting.

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  2. This is beautiful! I love the colors - the hot pink pops - and you were dead on with the quilting color. Just lovely : )

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  3. This is beautiful! I love the colors - the hot pink pops - and you were dead on with the quilting color. Just lovely : )

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  4. This is stunning, Jennifer. I really love the softer background color to work with Marsala - its creamynes is delightful. I also really like the size differences of the triangles / flying geese. My husband walked by and saw it up on my screen and made the same comment about how nice the size variations are. :)

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  5. I love it! It's looks really great, and I'm another fan of the size variations with the triangles! One of these quilts is on my to do list as well, but all the HST prep scares me away lol! I don't really understand the hate for Marsala. I agree it's pretty versatile. Since quilts are pretty much a 'home decor' item I think it fits quite well with a lot of the interior decorating themes with the colour.

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  6. I really love this one!! You're done such an amazing job of combining the traditional triangles in such a modern design. Hopefully its not too pink for your husband to snuggle under!

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  7. Love the name of this quilt. So clever. I'm working on a marsala quilt and I'm jealous of your wonderful completed quilt.

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  8. It turned out gorgeous! Marsala is a scary color, but you knocked it out of the park!

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  9. I love your quilt! The background choice is perfect, it gives great definition without being jarring against the prints.

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  10. How beautiful! I think my boyfriend is going to be complaining about the small size of my quilts soon too! I love your fabric choices, it is such a warm inviting color. I just picked up some marsala fabrics for my project this past weekend and I can't wait to cut into them!

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  11. I really like this color too. What a beautiful colorful combo you created! I love those shades. Well done!

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  12. I really, really like this quilt – and for so many reasons: the rich wine colours in so many fabrics that blend so well, the not-quite symmetrical layout of the many triangles, how it is modern and yet easy to live with ... (Do you ever admire a beautiful quilt even though you know it would not suit the home of absolutely anyone you know?) Beautiful work.
    This is your own design, right? I see a publishable pattern.

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  13. Absolutely gorgeous!

    tushay3 (at) yahoo (dot) com


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  14. What a stunning quilt! I love the colors too. I think I need to make one of these!

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  15. Wow!!!!!!!! I love how you wrote about this quilt. Amazing, it is so attractive. Love the colors and all your choices. Your husband has a jewel to cuddle on the cough.
    Love from Amsterdam

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  16. Ah, such a grand quilt! Marsala is a wonderful color that blends so well with many other fabrics. Went to my stash and found two jelly rolls to use it with. Piecing all of those HST's seems daunting but I will tackle a similar quilt myself. So many blocks and techniques I want to try in my life time, thank you for the inspiration.

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  17. LOVE this quilt! You did an awesome job! Your fabric choices are spot on and I really love how the colors play so well together. Are you going to share your pattern you created for this quilt? That would be AWESOME! Thank you for sharing and giving such inspiration to your fellow quilters :)

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  18. This is beautiful -- I'd love to know the pattern or if you are going to make it available

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  19. All those triangles!! Pure quilty love!!! My husband, and 2 tall teens also "require" bigger, longer couch cuddle quilts! This is absolutely gorgeous! I would say "challenge well met!"

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  20. Your quilt is absolutely stunning! Really great use of color.:)

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  21. I pretty much love everything about your quilt and the photoshoot location! Great job.

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  22. Love this design! Well done! :)

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  23. This is such a beautiful quilt! I agree that the creaminess of the background works really well and adds depth and richness. The different sized piecing gives the quilt great movement. Thanks for taking on the challenge!

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  24. Wow, what a stunning quilt! I'm a sucker for flying geese and this design is geese for days! :D I love all the variations on the Marsala color that you used, it's so rich! And agree with everyone else that the ladder print for the background is fab. :)

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