Zing Quilt

Zing, 41" X 46"

Can I just say that designing this quilt was w-a-y outside my comfort zone? It was, by far, the most challenging design project I've ever made. And that's saying a lot because I started hand-piecing my first quilt in 1976!

I certainly respect Maria Shell for her design sense and ability to create a beautiful creation. If you aren't familiar with her style, check out her blog: TalesofaStitcher. She's also a great instructor.

She asked each student to choose four favorite things, and use them as inspiration to create four interpretive designs to express them. This design method is very much outside my comfort zone. I spent countless hours stewing over fabrics - 30 different colored solids of mostly Painter's Palette solids;  units to piece (Maria calls them "bits"); and a few sketches (I don't sketch as much as she does); only to piece, arrange parts... and decide they weren't right. For me, creating a design means heaps of trial and error, with the error part in the form of un-sewing, and re-sewing. That definitely happened frequently! I cut into a large quantity of solid fabrics and have the scraps to show for it. 

All this began in a Zoom virtual workshop on Thursday evening, January 28, and subsequently occured on the following Sunday, Thursday, and Sunday, for a total of four three-hour workshops. 

In previous posts I've written about my process, and the angst I experience through it, so I won't repeat myself. 

After the top was finished, I pieced a backing from as many discarded chucks of pieced fabrics as possible. I'm frugal like that. 

Then, I pieced together the last two bits of Quilter's Dream Puff I own (I have since restocked with two king-sized batts from the local Sew Together shop that's now stocking Quilter's Dream batts) to make the quilt sandwich. I really like the loft of Puff, which is a 100 percent polyester batting. Puff makes quilting stand out.

Zing has lots of quilting! I had the crazy idea to custom quilt it. 

Using 50-weight Aurifil thread colors to coordinate with fabric colors (lots of thread color changes), it's walking foot quilted with my Bernina 770QE set at 3.20 stitch length, and free motion quilted. 

Quilting, from the back.

I used my favorite facing tutorial on WeAllSew to machine-sew a faced edge. 

Then I hand-stitched it into place. I really like the corner treatment with this facing method.

For me, a quilt isn't completely finished until it's been photographed from a branch of the Bismarck palm in our front yard. Hubs recently cut off the lower branches though (as a palm grows, lower limbs die and must be removed), so am now using a step ladder to get to the branch to hang the quilt!

Each quadrant represents an inspiration. Upper left: Iowa wind farm; upper right: my ukulele; lower left: our Bismarck palm; and lower right: a favorite song, "I'll Fly Away."

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to take this "Asymmetrical Symmetry" workshop because I learned a great deal about myself and my design process. For me, designing according to inspiration is difficult because I tend to be too literal. Also, I don't have the patience for sketching, and more sketching. I need to see components - their shapes and colors - alongside other components to determine if they look good, or not. I feel comfortable trusting my instincts and decisions about design, but it takes a lot of self-speak to work through it:

Let me try this.

Ugh, that doesn't look good.

But, maybe this will.

✂ Unsew - Cut - Resew 

Now how does that look?

Hmm. Maybe better. But what if I move this bit over here, and that bit over there?

That looks a little better, but those colors don't look good beside each other.

✂ Unsew - Cut - Resew

...and so on. You get the picture. Lots of starts and stutter-stops that make designing a long, and sometimes tiring process. But, because I like patterned improv so much, I know another such quilt is in my future.

Linda