3, 2, 1… SEW!
Three colors, two weights, one project.
I have to give props to the creative minds at Aurifil that come up with these challenges, because every time I think I know the drill, they toss me another curve ball! Ah, but I love it. I enjoy brainstorming something new and exciting.
But I do know to expect one thing: Be ready to spend time on the minutiae! I always end up taking it slow with these which is such a nice change of pace. So without further ado, let me take this in the reverse order; one, two, three:
ONE PROJECT
Having just come home from Quilt Market in Houston, I was actually a bit overwhelmed with how well it went! I feel like I have a lot of plates spinning, and I’m certainly proud of that, but it felt nice to just briefly set aside my shiny new ruler and bubbly bundle, and just sit down with where I started: a single block of my very first pattern.
In My Heart works great with all prints and all solids, but I actually got the idea to use both when I was going through the goodies I brought back from Market. I got this set of beautiful ribbons, which naturally brings back to the “ribbon effect” the pattern uses. So I used their bright colors and contrasting sides as inspiration and went for a happy feeling with a punchy pink and colorful print: what’s probably one of my favorite Ruby Start Society fabric ever: Selvedge Magic. It’s stripey and colorful and draws the eye! As for the solid pink, I went with a gorgeous fuchsia that was powerful enough not to be lost beside its partner!
TWO WEIGHTS
This wasn’t as tricky as I feared; I pieced with my standard 50wt, and then I did my new favorite thing of hand quilting to add some texture and movement to the look! For that, I used a 12wt, and I simply traced around and inside the heart. I think it makes it pop! Not to mention, all those little pink lines remind me of a heart beat.
THREE COLORS
First up was a baby pink, that was easy. I just used it to piece because I knew it would become invisible with the background as the same shade. Then I did some machine quilting with that same thread, because I wanted to give it some texture on top of the color that was coming.
Once I was happy with that, I switched to a neon orange that went with the print’s loud color scheme. That was still in 50wt, so it came through thin and sharp.
Though I was tempted to go at it by hand, I remembered that I fully hand-quilted my last Aurifil project, so I went with a different idea: mixing machine and hand quilting. So I grabbed that thick fuchsia 12wt and used it to border the heart. Doesn’t it look amazing?
And that was that! I made the binding with the same feature fabric and boy does it pop! Honestly, all that’s left now is to figure out where to put this wall hanging up, because it’s definitely something I want displayed!
Here’s exactly what I used:
THREADS: Aurifil 50 wt in Baby pink 2423 and Neon orange 1104. Aurifil 12 wt in Fuchsia 4020.
PATTERN: One block of In My Heart Quilt Pattern.
FABRIC: Selvedge Magic and Speckle in Playful by Ruby Star Society. Bella solids in Amelia Pink 9900 166 from Moda.
Stay tuned for two more challenges this year! Happy quilting!
Mariana
