Yay! Another Quilt Crossed Off the List!

Another finish today! This one is 'An Uncertain Crossroad' started back in March 2015 as a Marsala color challenge. I'd been slowly collecting the drab, clay/maroon looking fat quarters for awhile {who knows why?} and jumped at the chance to incorporate them into a quilt.

Uncertain Crossroad is finished!

The quilt design had a couple influences {click on the link above for the first idea}. Together with the color challenge and a bit of secondary inspiration, it just sort of melded into something that felt right. I had a lot of fun stitching this particular quilt and the brighter, sparky circles still make me smile.

So graphic and fun!

One thing I've definitely discovered over the years is this: if you are continually drawn in to a specific color or color family and you don't know why? Don't sweat it. Just buy the occasional fat quarter in those colors and eventually, maybe even a couple years down the road, you really will find a way to build them into a quilt! It's actually quite fascinating to dig challenging prints/colors out of the stash totes and finally be able to bring them to life.

Love it laying in the sunlight....

Sometimes in very surprising ways! You can see that the color family {mixed medium and dark tones} of marsala is used as the background fabrics with the lighter strippy cross sections in what I'd call the lighter version of marsala--mostly mauves, light and/or dull pinks. Some of those fabrics seemed destined to remain in the stash totes forever as they were so... boring! Surprise, surprise!

Used in this pattern, all the colors, including the sparky colors used for contrast, make for a bold, unexpectedly graphic quilt. Who would have thunk it that marsala could be used in such a way! I certainly never would have.

I have returned again and again to Roderick Kiracofe's 'Unconventional and Unexpected' book as a way to soak in some wonderful make-do quilts and ponder the effects of this type of piecing. It's something I personally adore and have tried to incorporate into my quilting. If you click on that second link above, it will take you to a older post with the inspiration from this book. I bought the book sight unseen and have never, ever regretted it. Some books are important and meant to be on our bookshelves.

Love the circus poster below where the tiger is roaring! 

This quilt was deliberately put together in a 'not quite perfect' manner that nonetheless required matching cut-to-size background units. I would have to say, this is one of my favorite quilts ever made, in how the various prints ebb and flow throughout the quilt. The effect is probably more obvious in person, but there is a great, {subtle} background texture that would not be possible with a one-fabric background. Or probably the hand quilting?*wink

A close up of the circles and that perfect striped binding!

I was amazed to find the perfect striped fabric for binding in the bottom of one of my totes. I couldn't have found anything more perfect for the quilt, bought for a border that never worked out! Finishing this quilt makes me think about other ways to play with backgrounds and even possibly the idea of attempting another color challenge quilt some day. It feels like a good finish. Not giving this one away!