“Wild Thing” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: June 19, 2021

“Wild Thing” Quilt

I’m still side-lined with my hurt foot. It gets marginally better each day, but I’m not yet over this event. Who knew…???…what on earth I did to it. I don’t.

I have had a lot of couch time with the foot propped up high and a heating pad going—and that helps it a lot. So, I have been able to do handwork while listening to Audible books, and I finished the binding on “Wild Thing.”

You may recall that this quilt has been in production for several years and is my part of our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild ongoing challenge, “Bee Inspired”—which was modeled on the work of the Instagram group Bee Sewcial. In turn, each group member issues challenge “prompts” to its members—or guidelines for the kind of blocks the prompt member wants. The group works totally in solids, so the resulting quilts are very graphic in nature. Many of the quilts produced by this group have been prominently featured at QuiltCon, the yearly gathering and show of The Modern Quilt Guild. The quilt I thought to model from the Bee Sewcial group won best of show at QuiltCon a few years back. (See below for a pic of it.)

My prompt was “Shapes,” and I specified solid fabrics in bright colors. I gave members a picture of the solid clear, bright colors I wanted and hoped that all would have fun playing with…shapes.

So, this quilt holds many blocks made by Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild members who are participating in this challenge. I really enjoy the creative work of trying to make the blocks all “fit” into a coherent presentation.

I quilted with a bright aqua thread, using my clam shell groovy boards. I like the older, traditional pattern of the clam shells overlaid onto this very modern quilt. The fabric “flower” in this picture is one of my blocks. When I set up my prompt, I also gave members a number of blocks I had made while “playing” as examples. This flower block was inspired by Nicholas Ball’s recent book, INSPIRING IMPROV.

As this quilt is fairly large (87 wide by 81 long), I wanted to find a 108-inch wide backing, which I did. And it is as wild as the front. Front and back play well together. There is a mermaid which appears in places on the backing fabric—which I thought was rather run. A muse of sorts…. Can you find her below?

So, this project is done, folded up, and ready to be passed to grandchildren in some future time.

My thanks to all who made such beautiful blocks for me.

Here is the Bee Sewcial quilt that inspired me and that won best of show at QuiltCon: