01 August 2011

Habitat J quilt

At the June meeting of the East Bay Modern Quilt guild we received fabric for a new quilt challenge. Free Spirit generously gave us each several fat quarters from the Earth colorway of Jay McCarroll's Habitat fabric line. The only rule was that we could add our own solid fabrics, but non-Habitat prints were verboten.


On his blog the other day Jay encouraged craven flattery (not his term), so I took that and ran with it. The result is my J quilt.


I was struck by two things in the fabric line. First, there is a crazy mix of colors. I latched onto the contrast between the pastels and more saturated colors, evident especially in the floral dot. Secondly I was surprised by how the most angular print in the collection seemed the most organic, reminding me most vividly of living plants, palm fronds and leaf veins. 

I chose my solid colors from the floral dot print. The pastel background colors became the stripes of the J. I cut solids matching the saturated dots into fractured blocks with the Habitat prints.


The quilt is pieced in three sections: the two improvised block sections and the precise stripes. Measuring, cutting and pinning those curves was nerve wracking, but it all came out right.

I quilted with a few straight lines in royal and white on the J, then a loopy triangle meander for the rest of the quilt. I like the loopy triangles with the fractured patchwork, and especially that angular print.


I pieced the back from various solid scraps, and the tiny bit of extra fractured patchwork from the top. If you squint you can see another J. The binding is more scrappy solids. The quilt is 60" x 74" unwashed.

Update:
The Habitat J quilt was featured on Modern Day Quilts. Thanks Heather!

Update 2: This baby finally got a name: "In One Way"

20 comments:

  1. Such a bold design! I have a feeling Jay's gonna love it!

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  2. Stunning and as always your backings are worthy of frontings anytime!

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  3. Love. My guild is doing this challenge as well. I pick up my Habitat fabrics in two weeks. I think we're getting fat eights of the purplish colorway. Can't wait. I love yours. www.paperstarfish.prettyposies.com

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  4. Cool job with a tough challenge. Love the graphic quality of it. How did you apply the curving strips?

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  5. that quilt is GORGEOUS and so funky! I love how the angular print looks pieced from far away rather than a print.

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  6. This is super unique. I love that J and your angular quilt lines are perfect on it!

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  7. Oh fabulous! You are braver than me with those curves. The triangle quilting is icing on the cake!

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  8. I love the way the back of your quilts is as beautiful as the front. Love the bold colour combinations here.

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  9. this is beautiful! i love the way those pastel solids look with the rest of the habit fabrics. and that j?! swoon!

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  10. Super crazy awesome! We're doing the Habitat challenge in our guild too (through blocks, and then making a charity quilt from it). I love your quilt, and love the photo too!

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  11. Daymn Dan, you've really outdone yourself on this one, LOVE the 70's J!

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  12. that quilt is pretty awesome! those curves looks amazing on the colorful patchwork!

    love the quilting! you rock men!!

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  13. thank you for posting this. my guild is doing this challenge and i've been feeling stuck and out of ideas. luckily, your blog always gets me out of a design funk :) we'll see what the creative juices cook up!

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  14. Your quilt is great! I love the big J - it feels very 70's. In KC we just got our challenge fabric last night and I'm excited to use it.

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  15. That is awesome. So creative. Way to respond to a challenge!

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  16. Hi Dan,

    Can you share the solid colors you used with us??

    Thanks!!

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  17. How in the world did you do that lol I love this quilt very modern but still vintage looking if that makes science lol did you aplique the strips? Id love to learn how you did this great job!

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