Last summer, some of us were throwing around ideas for our next guild challenge over breakfast one morning at the Pacific Northwest MQG Meet Up in Portland.  We were talking about the books that we bought because we were inspired by the quilts inside of them and how these books sit on the shelves of our sewing rooms and we never get around to making the quilts.  The idea for our 2017 Creative Stitches Show Challenge was born:  “The book that you bought that you haven’t made the quilt from yet Challenge”. The idea of the challenge is that all participants take the opportunity to make the quilt from a book that prompted them to buy the book.

By our November quilt guild meeting, we had to commit to what our quilt was going to be. Our guild has a Facebook page and some of our members are already well into making their challenge quilts.  I usually agonize what I will make for any challenge and change my mind several times.  This challenge was no different.  I had several ideas and finally by the deadline, I had narrowed my choice down to one idea.

I thought I should pick a quilt pattern that not only inspired me but took me out of my comfort zone; after all this was a challenge.  I remember seeing a quilt at Show and Tell at a guild meeting one night that was so inspiring to me.  I ordered the book and curved piecing ruler so that I could make the quilt.  I believe that was back in 2014.  I never made the quilt because of the fear of making the curved blocks.  The quilt is in the book, Contemporary Curved Quilts – Curved Piecing using the Quick Curve Ruler by Jenny Pedigo and Helen Robinson for Sew Kind of Wonderful.

 The quilt in the book is called Modern Millie.  I have read the pattern over many times.  It isn’t a long pattern–only 3 pages of instructions.

Modern Millie Quilt from the book: Contemporary Curved Quilts

I wanted to make the quilt just like the picture in the book and I wanted to use a Kona solid for my background so I placed my order on line for 5 meters of Kona Cobblestone.

I picked a bright yellow for the center of the flowers–Kona Sunny.

My fabric order arrived in the mail.  I have pre-washed the 5 m of Cobblestone.  Now I am looking at the picture and thinking that the colour I picked may not be quite right for the background.

This morning, when I was reading blogs over coffee, I read a post by Debbie at A Quilter’s Table.   Debbie posted a picture of her latest quilt, Archipelago, which has a gorgeous turquoise blue background.  Debbie said that the use of Bahama, one of the Free Spirit Designer Essentials, as her background was an intentional use of a colour outside of her norm.  She went on to say that it was an enjoyable diversion.  This caused me to think that perhaps I have been approaching my challenge quilt all wrong.  Maybe I too should pick a background colour that I would never think to use.  After all, I am planning to use black and white fabrics like the quilt in the book, but who says I have to stick with the taupe background that the designer picked?  I have some Kona Turquoise in my studio that looks great next to the Kona Sunny.  

I have watched the videos of Jenny demonstrating the ruler over and over.  I think I need to audition background fabric choices against my black and white fabrics, pick a background fabric, quit stalling, and jump in and make one of those blocks!  

If the quilt doesn’t turn out, I can rename my challenge, “I was inspired by the quilt, I bought the book, ruler, and required fabric, and made the quilt; but in the end it looked better in the picture!