Riley Blake Challenge, Start to Finish

My Riley Blake Challenge quilt....

After receiving these Riley Blake Challenge fabrics from The Modern Quilt Guild, back in September, I started working on my piece. We could use these, or any Riley Blake fabrics, and add any solids.

Inspired by another Riley Blake fabric with circular motifs that sorta-look like circles, and being a big fan of circles (but not dots),  I used my nested acrylic rings to begin cutting and sewing circles.

I drew each circle on a piece of white cotton broadcloth and then machine-sewed completely around the circles.

I often listen to an audiobook while doing routine sewing and quilting.

Every circle was notched like this before cutting a slit in the broadcloth to turn it right-side out.

Teeny trimmings.

Because, for the background, I wanted the Riley Blake "Shuffle" print to directionally radiate outward from the center, it's comprised of four, large, bias-sewn squares.

After making all the circles I thought I'd need, I tried different arrangements. Hubby even got in his play time.

 

I didn't like any of them, finally deciding that the aqua prints didn't fit.

So, I went back to machine-sewing more circles, this time with the color green. Lots more teeny trimmings piled up! 

During the design process, I put this picture on Instagram: #MQGRileyBlakeChallenge. The picture was picked up by the national MQG and used in the December e-newsletter, so you may have seen it.

Once I'd settled on an arrangement, hand-appliqué began in earnest. This technique was my best option for car travel time, going to and from visiting our kids in Kansas and Texas. 

Knowing my finish, but perfectly symmetrical, design needing something more...

... I forced myself to make it asymmetrical, adding pieced, diagonal borders to two sides.

In early January, I began quilting the center fussy-cut motif. Batting is Hobbs Tuscany Wool, which I love for its loftiness, and being light-weight.

All the top quilting threads are YLI 40/3 cotton. The bobbin thread is Aurifil 50/2. I chose a different quilting design for each round of circles.

 When I reached the space beyond the circles, I free-form quilted spirals.

By the way, the circles and border pieces that appear as solids are not solids. They're Riley Blake ombres. The color gradation shows more clearly in the green circles.

YLI thread colors used are gray, variegated yellow and variegated orange. The yellow and orange don't show up well on the gray Shuffle background, but they look good on the circles.

From the back, the quilting shows up nicely on the yellow and orange solids, the only non-Riley Blake fabrics in the entire piece!

outdoor photo

indoor photo

For binding, I used bias Shuffle on two sides. On the other two sides, the binding is diagonally pieced prints that align with the inner borders.

From the back.

47" X 47"

Since the focal design looks like a dandelion head, I named this Dandelion Clock. What's a dandelion clock, you ask?

The number of puffs needed to blow the filamentous achenes from a dandelion is supposed to tell the time. - Wiktionary.

Thanks to votes cast by CentralFloridaMQGers, my quilt won Viewer's Choice at our January 13 meeting. Our new president, Karen, donated this generous prize - 16 Waterfront Park fat quarters and one yard of Kona! Thank you, Karen! Linda