by Jonelle Archibald
Our Mod Squad is a modern quilting interest group, comprised of individual members of the Modern Quilt Guild. We are all members of Quilters’ Guild Acadienne, a 26 year old traditional guild. This is our second year entering the Charity Quilt Challenge. Our journey for this quilt, based on the theme of “scale”, began in July 2016 when our Mod Squad members met to research and brainstorm ideas for scale.
The challenge in design was met by brainstorming concepts after doing some research on scale through written and graphic examples. After sketching several designs, this geometric collage was agreed upon. The final design was blown up to exact size of quilt.
Several factors were considered in the design before it was cut into sections. Seam allowances had to be added to each section. It was decided that each piece would be made slightly larger than needed. Learning from last year’s entry when we had to improvise sections to make our pieces fit together, we knew that would not work with this precise design. Writing the color of each section and numbering each block before cutting pattern apart made certain the transparency sections would be fit correctly. Using all colors in pallet and choosing solids allowed us to focus on the shapes and overlapping to create illusion of transparency.
We worked together at the first production meeting and then each member took their section home to complete piecing. This was a very different experience from last year. Because of the design we worked on our pieces at home rather than in our group sessions. So in this aspect it was a challenge to keep momentum and enthusiasm.
Bringing back our sections and putting the puzzle back together was a neat experience. Because we had the foresight to add a small amount to each of the pieces it was easy to adjust and make the entire top fit perfectly.
Turning to the design of the back we realized we had enough large pieces of each color to put together another geometric design of different proportions.
Several of our members have done free motion quilting on domestic machines. Having a member acquire a long arm gave us the opportunity to practice on this quilt. Our choice of quilting design is Gee’s Bend inspired. Our guild sponsored a trip there this past year and we came back all fired up. Using straight lines and echo quilting, our result is free form, improvisational and reflects the geometric shapes we chose in the design.
Our intention is to present this quilt to a local charitable organization that will organize its own fundraising activity.
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"Transparency"
Mod Squad made to the theme of scale
hanging in Savannah
QuiltCon 2017 |
