So, I had found my motif, now it was time to make a much larger quilt on it. Last Fall I was experimenting with limiting my color palette, and also coming up with ways to assemble larger pieces so that I quilt them a bit at a time and there for don’t have to manuever lots of bulk under the arm of my dear Bernina. I becamse inspired by a modern setting of a log cabin block in the Mason-Dixon Knitting:
As ye knit, so shall ye quilt! So, I entered this layout into my quilting software, chose my limited color scheme, and spent several hours playing around with different variations of the lollipop flower, with each rectangle of color receiving its own version of the flower: larger, repeated, in a row, deconstructed, etc… Then came the making of the quilt, where I worked from my plan drawn up on the computer, tweaking things that I saw in fabric, but the quilt looked pretty much like what was on the computer screen. When it came time assemble and quilt it, I did it like a big log cabin block, quilting each section before adding the next. I was very happy with the result:
Lollipop Flowers, 44″ x 52″
I’m very happy with this quilt, but it did take a lot of time to make. It was juried in to Road 2 California and shown January 2007. While visiting the show, I again was confused as to why I entered in the 1st place: I hate that there are winners and losers, I hate when I get mad at/disagree with the judges, I become overwhelmed with the massive amount of free motion quilting being done, often with no regards to how it effects the overall artistry of the quilt, I also hate that they don’t include the information on what kind of quilting machine was used, etc…
Anyway, I still love my lollipop flower! There’s more to go!