When I first read that the Island Batik Ambassadors were to make a crazy quilt using Aurifil Thread for this month's challenge I was not enthused. I appreciate crazy quilts as they are tremendous pieces of art, however, they are a little over the top for me personally. So...what to do?
I knew I needed to think outside the box on this one so I asked myself this question: can you make a crazy quilt modern? I think I have satisfied that one with a resounding yes and I LOVE how it turned out!
I decided that I wanted to paper piece a modern looking circle. I designed my pattern in Electric Quilt 8 and picked a yellow Stashbuilder Roll to pick my fabrics from. These are 5" strips and perfect for my purpose.
This is my final selection of yummy yellows.
The paper piecing commences!
Rings complete. Now it was time to add the fancy thread work that is typical of a crazy quilt. Since I had yet to turn the edges of this shape under I thought it would be the perfect way to hide all the thread ends I was about to create.
I received the Stinking Corpse Lily color builder collection from Aurifil threads. It has some gorgeous coral colors to it. One is solid and the other two are variegated which is always fun to see all stitched out with fancy stitches from my machine.
Don't they play beautifully with the yellows? They are going to shine against them.
Below you can see that I removed the thread from my machine. The top and the bottom. I then stitched around the inside and outside edges of my circle. It's like perforating the fabric and it makes turning it so much easier.
I have had my Bernina 570QE for 5 years and I'm not sure I've ever done a decorative stitch with it. It was fun to explore the menus and try different things. I used my favorite size 80 Schmetz Microtex needles and they worked like a charm even through all the layers.
Here is the whole circle ready to be turned with glue.
The edges are all turned under and it's time to put it on some fabric!
To hide the thin edges of my circles I decided to add a bright pink circle of a gorgeous Island Batik foundations fabric. I love the way it brings out the color of the Aurifil Thread. This circle of course I cut on my Accuquilt GO Big electric as it made it so much easier! To stitch them to the background which is a Dark Grey solid Island Batik fabric I used Aurifil's invisible thread. It's fantastic.
For the quilting I wanted to do something modern and jus the other day I was watching a Christina Cameli drawing video on Instagram where she explained how to do this pattern. PERFECT. I love how it adds more circles! I of course layered it with my favorite Hobbs 80/20 poly/cotton batting.
Project complete! Crazy quilt? Check. Modern? Check. Do I love it? YES! A win-win for sure.
I hope you get to quilt today!Suzy
