Jeni's Colorado

Hello, my quilting/blogging friends.

Once again, it has been a while. I wish I was in a better place and I wish it could be different. 

But I do have a new quilt and we will focus on that, for now. 

With Marcia

It began with Marcia, who is my former boss. She retired after her 81st birthday. Kudos to her, because I am sure I can't make it to my 60th before calling it quits. 

When Marcia learned about my quilting hobby (obsession), she introduced me to her neighbor - Lesley. Lesley is an art quilter. I need a whole separate blogpost to describe Lesley's work. She takes her inspiration from nature and excels in applique and embellishments. 

Lesley (notice the elephants in the quilt behind her)

We, Lesley and I, admire each other's work. She appreciates my sense of color and composition and I am totally floored by her microscopic attention to detail and excellent workmanship.

When Lesley's daughter, Jeni, got engaged,  Lesley asked me to make a quilt, embodying the feel of Colorado, Jeni's after-marriage-new-home-state. Jeni's favorite colors are green, purple and crimson. 

I shared several mock-ups with Lesley, inspired by my previous quilts/patterns. 

Shanvi/Phagun

Yamini

Niko

Honi

Fireworks

Arboretum

Lesley had also seen and admired my interpretation of the Moon over the Mountain Quilts.

This is what Lesley picked, a combination of Arboretum and Moon over the Mountain.

Final!

A queen size quilt with curved piecing, lots of angles and a scrappy border. My work was cut out for me. 

I knew that Green and Purple would have a sufficient contrast against the white background. But I wasn't sure about the Yellows.

I chose Solid White instead of Egg White, due to better contrast. Background confirmed, it was time to pick out Purples and Greens.

Island Batik Purples

Island Batik Greens

Sufficiently excited, I decided to make one each of the blocks and show it to Lesley.

Tree Block

Sunrise Block

Once all blocks were made, I sent another picture to Lesley.

I sent her several in-process pictures. I wanted to make sure she was with me on this journey.

Once the top was completed, I asked Lesley if she had a preference for the backing color.

She chose Green. I chose Dark Purple for Binding. And here are the pictures of the finished quilt - Jeni's Colorado.

Finished!!!

Since it is a Queen-sized quilt, I knew taking pictures will be a challenge. For Paul's ease, I added a temporary sleeve wherein a curtain rod was inserted. Hence the perfect pictures and a much happier quilt model.

Island Batik Fabrics

Crushing on you

Sunny & Labelled

When I took the finished quilt to Lesley, there were oohs and aahs. Marcia and Lesley posed with it and I took some more pictures.

You two are adorable!

One week later, Lesley sent me a picture.

From Jeni

I am told they love the quilt!

My work has been stressful and I have been struggling. While Paul has been very supportive, I feel like I must carry on for now. 

  

The Color of Valor

Island Batik's April Challenge requires us to make a lap-sized (or larger) quilt using the timeless Drunkard's Path Quilt Block, making sure that the technique used is curved piecing and not applique.

Naturally, many ideas were considered and discarded. I am saving them to a very long list of possible future quilts.

In the end, I chose the quilt block - Moon Over the Mountain. I have been fascinated by this quilt block for a long time. I looked for tutorials and found few but none of them appealed to me.

It was time to design it myself.

Thank you EQ8

Next, I auditioned a few different fabric collections, also in EQ8.

Petal Poetry (I have a huge crush on this one)

Botanical Dreams

Shadow Blooms

They all looked lovely. But I wanted more than that. I wanted energy and passion. I decided to go for yellow orbs over rust/orange/red mountains.

Fabric Pull

I ended up using fabrics from Modern Opulence, Celebrate, and Fire & Ice collections.

Block Construction

Design Wall

Basting

And here is my first finish named Rising Suns.

Rising Suns

The background and binding is Island Batik Solid Black. I used Black Heirloom Batting from Hobbs and Schmetz 80/12 Needle for both piecing and quilting. I used Walking Foot to quilt squiggly lines. The variegated thread adds to the sizzle.

Walking Foot Quilting

Variegated Thread

The bright orange shades made me think of Saffron, one of the colors in India's national flag. India's national flag is named the Tricolor, so named for the three major colors. Saffron for sacrifice, White for Peace and Green for Prosperity. Saffron is symbolic of renouncement - giving up everything for the one cause, making the ultimate sacrifice for the country.

Labelled

Now that I am an American, I associate Red, White and Blue as the colors of valor. Is there a universal color for valor? Or does it mean different things to different people?

As I was mulling over colors, an off-color incident made me seethe. Not that I could do much, but I channeled my thoughts into prayer while I busied my hands to make another quilt.

Pinned

Work in Progress

I chose nine different  yellows and nine different blues. The background and binding is Solid White. I used Hobbs Bleached White 80/20 Batting. I used Schmetz 80/12 Needle for both piecing and quilting. I used Walking Foot to quilt squiggly lines. 

Backing is Frosting, Labelled

Here is my second finish. I have named it Doblest, which means Valor. 

“Any fool can fight a winning battle, but it needs character to fight a losing one, and that should inspire us." 
_William Butler Yates

Both quilts finished at about 53" by 51". I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties. See full list on the sidebar. Should you have any thoughts about color, valor or this block - Moon over the Mountain, I'd love to hear from you.