‘One White Petal’ – how I made it – 2018.12.08

‘One White Petal‘ was made specifically for the American Patchwork & Quilting Two-Color Quilt Challenge, one of the categories in the QuiltCon juried quilt show featuring modern quilts by members of the Modern Quilt Guild.

In August, I started noticing posts on Instagram with the hashtags #twocolorchallenge and #twocolorquiltchallenge  I loved the idea, and checked my fabric stash for likely color combinations.  Most of my stash is small pieces – fat quarters and smaller.  I didn’t have enough of any two colors to make an entire quilt, and I didn’t want to buy more fabric.  But I do have a LOT of black & white prints, and thought a combination of geometric and floral patterns would be interesting to work with.

The entry deadline was November 30, but I was already working on another quilt with the same deadline, so I didn’t actually start working on this one until November 20.  I wasn’t sure I would make the deadline, but decided to go for it.  I actually finished it and submitted my entry on the final day!

I started by pulling a few of my favorite black & white prints, and pinning them on my design wall.  I even cut a circle from on of the fabrics.  Then I decided to go in a different direction, and I didn’t use any of these prints in the final piece.  (But I have lots of ideas for future black & white quilts!)

Of course I considered a pattern with circles.   The Orange Peel quilt pattern came to mind – up-sized to show off the various prints.  I used some of my favorite techniques – freezer paper templates, overlapped seams, trimmed and covered with bias tape (as described in this blog post).  These techniques are quick and easy for me, and I thought using black bias tape to outline each piece would look very cool.

I have a supply of 15 inch square pieces of freezer paper, so that determined the size of the circles.  I cut out the freezer paper pattern pieces, ironed them to back of the fabrics and arranged them on my design wall.

I sewed the pieces together from the back, with seam allowances overlapped, stitching between the pattern pieces. I squared up the quilt using Pellon 1-inch grid.  I was pleased that my circles were circular, and the overall pattern was square.

Then I trimmed the top seam allowances and covered the seams with black bias tape. And then I started having problems – even though I was careful not to stretch the bias tape as I applied it, it shrunk up a little and the quilt top was puckered in places.  Then as I was pressing it into submission with steam and a press cloth, I somehow got a bit of a stain on it.  I managed to remove the stain, but that involved washing the quilt top – which I seldom do, so that was stressful.

By then it was 2 days to the deadline.  I quilted it with white thread – horizontal straight lines about 1″ apart, as well as echo quilting around each petal shape (inspired by SewJess‘s quilting of her Orange Peel table runner).

I got it faced and photographed on the last day, and submitted it a few hours before the deadline.  The finished size of ‘One White Petal’ is 29 x 29 inches.

My artist statement is: Are petal shapes creating the effect of interlocking circles, or are overlapping circles creating a secondary design of petals? Whichever way you look at it, the traditional Orange Peel quilt pattern is a fascinating design. I selected a variety of black & white prints from my stash, combining geometric and floral prints with wild abandon. I used my favorite techniques of freezer paper templates, and machine stitched overlapped seams covered with bias tape.

Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict