2015 Riley Blake Fabric Challenge

I actually finished something!!  This is my entry for the 2015 Riley Blake Fabric Challenge, which, unbelievably,was completed by the deadline.

When the challenge was announced we were told to attempt something new.  I decided to use EQ7 . I have used it in the past, but never to plan the entire quilt.  EQ7 was very helpful in deciding the fabric layout and providing accurate yardage requirements.

Here is my EQ7 quilt top layout with some notations:

One concern was whether or not to keep the directional fabrics going in one direction.  You can see the fabrics close up here:

As you can see all the fabrics, but the main floral, are directional.  That meant that I needed to lay out each row prior to stitching its blocks.

Here I have sewn the blocks for the first 5 rows and was placing the fabrics for row 6.

It was tedious running upstairs to grab the pieces off the design wall for each block as I sewed so I devised some layout sheets.

I had 9 sheets, one for each block in a row, on which I carefully placed the fabric.  I stacked all 9 blocks in a folder.  I was able to pull off one block at a time for stitching.

I also used the piecing sheet when cutting (and ironing) so I could return each block unit back to it’s correct location within the block.

 

After completing each block I would mark it off my quilt top layout sheet.  The following photo was taken just prior to completing the block.

Here is a photo of the completed top, along with the row numbers still attached:

 

 

The quilting design is a spiral square in the center block, surrounded by concentric squares throughout the rest of the quilt.

 

 

The quilt measures 60 x 60 inches.  The block design is the basic Bow-Tie Block.  I used Riley Blake Pewter Solid for the background.

Naming the quilt was quite a journey.  If there was some name that came to mind and could have been distilled from “walking in the garden, seeing birds in the trees, looking at the rain puddling on the tile stepping stones, noticing flowers growing around an opening in the wall while making your way through the labyrinth garden path…” into 3 words, I would have used it.   So, Walk On, look around, enjoy the day.

Thanks for stopping by!