The
Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild was lucky enough to participate in the Robert Kaufman Kona Solids Charm Pack Challenge. Anyone in the Guild who wanted to participate was given a Kona charm pack in the
BRIGHT colorway (my all time favorite of the Kona solid charm packs) and was asked to create a quilt using all of the 5"x5" charms.
I was unclear about the exact rules of the challenge, but this is what I decided my rules would be:
1. Use all the fabric from the charm pack.
2. Add one additional solid color.
3. Finish by the end of April.
4. Stick with only solids prints, no patterns.
Here is how I did in the challenge, on a pass/fail grading scale:
1. I used all the fabric except I lost two tiny little corners that I can't find anywhere. (I'm going to count that as a Pass.)
2. I added Kona Snow as the background and Kona Bone for the binding. (2 extra colors...Fail!)
3. I just finished yesterday. Only a month late. (Dang...failed again!)
4. I so so so wanted to add one printed fabric into this quilt to jazz it up, but I fought my temptation. (Pass!)
So, that's 50%. What is that...an F? Oh well, I still am happy with the results and had fun creating this quilt.
Here is how it all went down:
First I scoured
Flickr & Pinterest for inspiration.
I found
this picture and asked the artist if she would mind if I created a quilt using her piece as inspiration.
I ironed Steam 'n Bond onto the back of all the charms.
I cut out 5 - 5" x 5" squares from a manilla folder to make sure they were the same size as the charms and then sketched the birds the squares as a template.
I then set each charm on top of the bird template and traced them onto the fabric charms using the magical Pilot Frixion pens.
Have you guys used these yet? They are amazing. You can write on your fabric and then iron right over it and the ink instantly disappears. (Beware: it sometimes discolors dark solid fabrics.) It works wonderfully on white fabric, though. You can buy these at any drugstore.
To trace the dark fabric birds, I just held the fabric/stencil up to the light so I could see through the fabric to trace the birds.
I have been sewing with a friend named Babs who in a High School Fiber Design teacher. She said something the other day that has really stuck with me. She said that there are a lot of students in her class that just want to copy an idea and not create one of their own. I took this to heart and instead of copying the idea from the picture above, I created something new.
So, I scratched the bird on a wire idea. I layed all the excess square scraps I had left over after cutting out the birds out and ironed them onto the Kona snow fabric. I then quilted them to the batting sewing around each bird and the perimeter of the square.
I made the exact negative on the other side of the quilt. I framed the birds in zigzag squares to mimic the pinked edges of the charms on the other side.
The side with the colored birds and zig zag squares was then spray basted to the other side of the quilt.
Quilting with straight lines went super fast.
I have really enjoyed this challenge. It was just that, a challenge!!! I hope you like it.
~Val
