Thursday, March 14, 2013

sea crystal + plaid

Without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce my latest creation to my quilty friends!



I call it "sea crystal & plaid," a two-sided quilt.  It measures 58" square.



The tartan side started out as a b&w sketch composed on an airline tray table during a flight to San Francisco last fall.  Inspiration for this particular plaid came from one of my husband's many (...many) plaid shirts.  I had originally envisioned using just three colors (light, medium and dark), but I liked the idea of toying with a number of hues so I ordered a little bit of everything and ended up using about a dozen different gradients of greenish-blues from that order and my stash.  (More on that here.)


Then it came time to decide what to do on the other side.  Lately, I've been content to piece a series of "paper hats" separating two panels of fabric (a print and a solid, comme ça).  But then I got to thinking... this is for the Emerald Challenge, so why not test out a round cut version of my paper-pieced birthstone?  I thought about making rounded emerald "top hats" but decided to go with the full 16" gems, bezel set in a pearly cream on a backdrop of half ivory, half kraft paper bag.  

Edited to add:  the round cut birthstone block pattern is now available for immediate download for $5 on etsy and craftsy.


I straight-line quilted using the plaid side as a guide, and bound the quilt in Simply Color Ombre in aqua (though it's really more sea green).  I have to say, I think I like this two-fer, I like it a lot ;)


Entering this in the quilts category of a2(w)'s Pantone Challenge, and linking up with finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts.  Thanks to both amazing women for hosting!

2013 Emerald Quilt Challenge
Edited to add:  For challenge purposes, in addition to vary degrees of light --> dark emerald tones, I chose off-whites (pearl + ivory + cream) for my neutral, and kraft brown for my secondary color.

And if you like this cool green/blue color palette, check out this top!

27 comments:

  1. Gorgeous, stunning! I'm not a fan of Pantone's Emerald colour. In your photos, the quilt appears to have more turquoise tones which I like much more. Love your airline tray inspiration!

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  2. Wow, this quilt is amazing and a lot of work! It is beautiful, hard to decide which side is my favorite!

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  3. Wow, this is stunning! I can't decide which side I like better.

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  4. This is so beautiful! I love both sides! :)

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  5. This is just stunning! Congratulations on an amazing finish!

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  6. Wow. You've been ploughing through this. Stunning result.

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  7. Gorgeous!! Both sides are awesome.

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  8. Congratulations!
    It´s awesome!!!

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  9. very nice quilt, both sides are amazing - I love the tartan look.

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  10. It looks amazing, good luck in the challenge :o)

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  11. So much time and inspiration in both sides of the quilt!

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  12. I like both sides, but the shading of the plaid on the back keeps drawing my fascinated eyes back again and again.

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  13. Wow! Either side would be a spectacular quilt! Such great design and colors!

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  14. This is truly wonderful! it must have taken such a long time I love both sides.

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  15. It's hard to pick which side I like better! The paper pieced birthstones are magnificent!

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  16. This is a stunning quilt! Both sides are wonderful :)

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  17. I know everyone else has said it before me - but Wow! It truly is stunning. Since I noticed the word "stunning" had been heavily used in almost all of the above posts I thought I would hit the thesaurus and produce an equivalently descriptive word: 2 words in fact, "stunning" and "brilliant". By the way this is my first visit (from Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts) and I love what you produce. Your "eye" is amazing. I will definitely be following to see what other "stunning" things you come up with.

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  18. I saw a photo of this quilt's back on Pinterest, and landed here to see the whole beautiful thing. Nicely done!

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  19. Do you have that crystal pattern for sale?!

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    1. Oh wow! I wasn't sure whether there'd be any interest, so it isn't currently available. If that's something you (or others) are interested in, I'll work on dressing it up so check back in the next week or two ;)

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  20. visiting from crazymumquilts. This looks like a huge amount of work. Well done on your finish

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  21. This is so beautifully done! I've pinned it to my "Quilty Goodness" board on Pinterest (with proper credit, of course!). Feel free to follow me if you'd like: http://pinterest.com/lipglass/quilty-goodness/

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  22. This quilt is beautiful! I love how the two sides have their own identities. The effect of your straight line quilting looks awesome on the other side. Love it all!

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  23. The quilt is just stunning- on both sides! Thank you for sharing!

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  24. I just voted for you on the Quilting Gallery's Show & Tell. That is a stunning color combo & the pattern is so unique. Awesome. Thanks for giving us a peek.

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  25. I love this quilt! I think the plaid is plain gorgeous :)

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