Mango And Celery, 21″ x 26″ doll size

This is a fun quilt that I whipped up a few days ago.  I’m calling it Mango And Celery.  The design was patched from yardage and the flying geese were made using a border paper piecing tutorial, but it can be used in many applications.  It also comes in many different sizes…a fun bonus!  The geese were so fun to make that I will definitely be creating them again.  I left one “goose” in white to represent those individual birds that we often see flying a bit off of the group formation.  Here’s the link for the flying geese tutorial.  I used the 2″ x 4″ version.  http://www.quilterscache.com/B/BlankPPTemplatesPage.html

This was a challenge quilt and let me explain how it was made. I began with two simple goals for this doll quilt.  The challenges were to:

1. use a color palette inspired by a photo or a picture and
2. use only solid fabrics in creating the quilt top.

Here’s is the photo that I used to inform my color palette.  It’s a flower arrangement from teleflora.com that is simple, colorful and uses a celery color not typically used by me.   I like the color scheme a great deal and it’s extra summery, which feels perfect for this moment. While I achieved my goal for this first criteria, I was less successful with the following one.

Using only solid fabrics is so wonderful, modern and streamlined.  Many years ago, some of the quilts that I first fell in love with were Amish ones in solid fabrics of black, cobalt blue and purple only.  Today, I continue to adore so many modern quilters who make gorgeous quilts this way.  I thought it was about time that I conquered that style for myself.  Conquer may be too strong a word, so we’ll go with “trying on for size”.  You may already be saying to yourself, “I see some prints in the quilt”.  Well, you are right, I snuck in some patterns. This challenge is more difficult for me than I thought it would be.  It isn’t the first time that I’ve tried this, but it is the first round of my setting it up as a separate challenge.  I tried it, but the artist in me keeps fighting the results.  For example, I kept feeling pulled towards my cabinet of fabrics to look for more texture.  Naturally, I found many options that would work.  So, I dipped into my stash for some patterned fabric, and you see the results.  I didn’t do too badly with only putting a few fabrics into 3 of the flying geese designs.

While the challenge wasn’t fully realized, I got closer than ever before on previous quilts. I quilted it with simple swirls and some up and down straight lines.  I’ll be making another quilt and perhaps another one after that…all until I arrive at the nirvana of a totally solid quilt design that stands alone.  That’s my first challenge for this summer and we’ll see if I will ultimately reach my goal.