Hiding in Plain Sight

There was a time not too long ago when every quilt I made was photographed and blogged about the second it was finished.  It was a stead fast goal of mine to finish a quilt before I would start a new project.  That doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about the next project, it meant I had to wait and that was pretty exciting to me.  There were never WIP's, never a pile of quilts to quilt, and I was proud of that.

Somewhere along the way my rules changed.  I became a rebel!  Okay, not so much a rebel maybe I loosened up a little bit!  I'm certainly not complaining!  With my new found freedom I've discovered a quilt or three that was stowed in my closet waiting for...what?  I don't even know!  I probably shoved it in there so I could make room for another project to get underway!  I know it's not abnormal to have half a dozen things happening all at once, every one does, and I shall not dwell on the good old days, instead I'll embrace it and move on!

54" x 72"

I'm intrigued by geometric shapes and half-square triangles are a fantastic way to experiment and play.  I could spend hours if not days turning, flipping and moving the blocks to create different patterns.  I've fallen in the rabbit hole far too many times!

This time I stuck with a plan and besides moving a few background pieces, it was written in stone!  The squares and rectangles are Kona Nautical, which in this picture look black, but in reality it's a very dark blue.  I arranged them semi haphazardly and filled in with a lot of blue and green HST's in many different shades.  

When I start a quilt like this, I grab every fabric in the color scheme I'm going for and cut all my squares.  Generally I'll cut 2-5 squares in each color, but it depends on big my chunk of fabric is.  Then I'll grab my stack and randomly pair up sets.  That way I'll have a bunch of different combinations of colors after the HST's are made.  Random is better for me.  

They say variety is the spice of life and that holds true for me...but only when it comes to quilting and fabric!  

Sometimes when I'm pulling fabrics for a 'theme' color quilt, there are shades I'm not in love with.  I have to force myself to use them anyway.  I may only cut 1 or 2 blocks, but I throw them in the mix for variety sake.  

What would a geometric quilt be without geometric quilting?  I printed a coloring sheet via EQ8 and began the intense quilting process.  I started with the squares and rectangles first.  Stitching in the ditch and then quilting a 2" grid inside each shape.  After that it was a puzzle of lines.  I tried to keep a flow with the lines so it didn't look too haphazard in the end.  It worked and every inch was covered!

As always there were blocks left over and as almost always I didn't have a large enough piece of fabric for the entire back!  By adding the extra blocks to the back I was able to stretch my backing to fit and give the back a little visual interest as well.

The backing is Kona Pickle, which I love!  It's a rather bold and different kind of color that not everyone is attracted to.  

I added a binding of Nautical and this guy was done!  Well, this guy was stuffed in a closet!  When I finally released it from purgatory, I washed and dried it for the a true finish!  To me, a quilt isn't truly finished until it's been washed! 

I do want to get back on track a little bit with project finishing.  Maybe that should be my New Year Resolution?!  Probably not!  I've never ever ever followed through on a resolution...why start now!

Being the end of the year, do you scramble to finish WIP's and UFO's?  I know I do!  I want the old gone and make room for the new!

LINKING:

OH SCRAP! ● MAIN CRUSH MONDAY ●  MONDAY MAKING ●  LINKY TUESDAY 
LETS BEE SOCIAL ● MIDWEEK MAKERS ● NEEDLE & THREAD  ● TGIFF 

BRAG ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIES ● FINISHED OR NOT FRIDAY