Peak of Perfection - Sewtopia Atlanta Fabric Challenge

When I heard Sewtopia would be coming to Atlanta, just a couple of hours down the road, and the teachers would be Elizabeth Hartman and Denyse Schmidt, I knew I would love to attend.  But when registration opened, I hesitated a bit on signing up and found myself on the the waiting list. Fortunately, I was able to land a spot through a cancellation, one of only 80 attendees.

In completing the registration form, I was asked if I wanted to participate in the fabric challenge.  I did not hesitate marking that box with a YES!

I am happy to show you my Michael Miller Fabric Challenge for Sewtopia Atlanta, Peak of Perfection.  I am guessing that Sewtopia was named after Utopia and according to Webster, it a place of perfection. The pattern I used is called Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. So I combined the two and decided on the name, Peak of Perfection.  And I know my piecing and quilting are anything but perfect.

Peak of Perfection by Paige Alexander
(Pattern: Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Midst Designs)

The Michael Miller challenge fabric arrived in late February and here is a picture I posted on Instagram.

I received 6 fat quarters and the main print was Color Play in blue by Laura Gunn.  Here it is photographed with 3 Cotton Couture solids, Opal, Lemon and Turquoise.

Michael Miller Color Play with Cotton Couture in Opal, Lemon and Turquoise

Also included were 2 fat quarters of Michael Miller's basics, Painter's Canvas, again by Laura Gunn in Coral and Blue.

Michael Miller's Painter's Canvas n Coral and Blue

According to the challenge guidelines, we could make anything for the challenge and use as least one of the challenge fabrics.  We could add in any other Michael Miller fabrics from solids to prints. The two Painter's Canvas prints spoke to me and I decided to pair them with Cotton Couture in Bright White.

Pike's Peak made its debut in Issue #2 of Make Modern, an Australian digital magazine, and included 2 colors, a lime green and hot pink, both paired with black along with a background of white.  The pattern includes 2 sizes, 50" x 50", Cheryl's version pictured here, and a smaller wall version measuring 25" x 25" which is what I made.

Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs
(photograph used with permission)

The piecing went fairly quick but when it came to the quilting, I ended up ripping out several seams. One time I started ripping out a line of quilting where I was not satisfied with the spacing and started ripping out the wrong quilting line.  So I then removed two entire lines because it was right in the center and did not want the repaired stitching line to show.  I quilted mine similar to how Cheryl quilted Pike's Peak.  In this blog post you can see the detail of her beautiful quilting and her quilt hanging at QuiltCon 2015.

Here you can see more of the piecing and quilting detail along with the two color binding.  I chose to change the binding color in each quadrant. With just 2 fat quarters, I managed to make 32 half square triangles and piece the binding which included several extra seams due to the color changes.

Peak of Perfection by Paige Alexander, detail

A close up of the binding color change is below.

Peak of Perfection binding detail

I am glad to have my challenge piece done with time to spare and excited to be going to Sewtopia! You can see the fabrics I picked out for the Free-Wheeling Single Girl class with Denyse Schmidt in this blog post.  I am working on gathering the fabrics for Elizabeth Hartman's class now.

Quilt Stats:

• Finished size:  25" x 25" 
• Pattern:  Pike's Peak by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs
• Binding: 1/4" straight binding from 2" strips sewn down by hand    
• Fabrics: Painter's Canvas in Blue and Coral by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics and Cotton Couture in Bright White
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Thread: Aurifil 2024 White for piecing and quilting

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Anja at Anja Quilts hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.

Rainbow Mini Swap Round Two: Colorful Cats

I am happy to show you Colorful Cats since my swap partner has received her mini quilt pillow cover for the Rainbow Mini Swap Round Two which took place on Instagram.

Colorful Cats pillow cover by Paige Alexander

Two of my swap partner's favorite fabric designers were Bonnie and Camille and Tasha Noel.  At the time I did not have fabrics by either one in my stash but soon remedied that with a a couple of trips to my local quilt shops.  You can read about my fabric selection of reds, pinks and aquas in this blog post.

Since my swap partner was limited on wall space, she requested a pillow cover instead of a mini quilt.  I found the Cat Block pattern by Elizabeth Hartman offered as a free download from Janome. The pillow finished at 20" x 20" which for a perfect size.

I incorporated some fussy cut elements into some of the blocks using fabrics from Hello Darling and Vintage Market with a few other fabrics added.  I used Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Bright White for the background.  Here are the finished blocks on the design wall.  I was still deciding on the arrangement of the cat blocks.

Cat Blocks made from Elizabeth Hartman's pattern

I decided on crosshatch quilting just like Elizabeth used on her pillow.  I marked the initial two quilting lines with a hera marker.

Quilting lines marked with a hera marker

Here is the quilt after the first two lines in each direction were quilted using the walking foot.

After four lines of quilting on Colorful Cats

Now here is where patience is needed.  You just keep quilting, line after line, until it is finally quilted.

Crosshatch quilting on Colorful Cats

I finished the pillow cover with a traditional binding us a Riley Blake dot fabric.

Traditional binding on Colorful Cats

Pillow Stats:

• Finished size:  20" x 20" pillow with envelope backing
• Pattern:  Cat Block and Pillow by Elizabeth Hartman for Janome
• Binding: 3/8" finished straight grain binding finished by machine using a Riley Blake dot
• Fabrics: Hello Darling by Bonnie and Camille for Moda, Vintage Market by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake and others
• Batting: 100% Cotton Warm & White by the Warm Company
• Thread: Aurifil 2024 White for piecing and quilting
• Quilting:  Crosshatch using the edge of the walking foot as a guide

From looking at the Instagram account of my swap partner, I knew she had a cute little kitten.  Rather than making a little something extra for her, I made a stuffed kitty for daughter.  The pattern for the kitty was from a panel by VIP.  I saw the pattern on blog and wish I could give them credit, but I did find the same panel in this Etsy listing.  This also shows the envelope backing for the pillow cover using a print from Vintage Market.

Calico Kitty made from a vintage VIP panel pattern

Although my pillow is missing a few colors from the rainbow, I tried to make something my swap partner would like.  Close to 500 swappers participated in the #RainbowMiniSwapR2 and I had fun participating. Thanks to Kate @katebasti for organizing  and swap mama Sara @supersara20 for helping with the swap.

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.

Ready for Some Free-Wheeling

I am super excited to be heading to Sewtopia, a sewing and quilting retreat, taking place in Atlanta in a few short weeks .  In a addition to a class with Elizabeth Hartman, we will have a class with Denyse Schmidt. She will be teaching Free-Wheeling Single Girl, an updated improv version of her Single Girl pattern.  Rossie Hutchinson will be her assistant and you can see her recent version on her blog, Rossie Crafts.  I love her four blocks surrounded by negative space.  She also has some great tips for piecing your own Free-Wheeling Single Girl.

I ordered this roll of 10" squares of Franklin from the Fat Quarter Shop even before I knew I was going to Sewtopia.  You see, was was able to get in on a cancellation.

Franklin line by Denyse Schmidt for FreeSpirit

Here are the green and blue prints from the Franklin roll.

Green and blue prints from the Denyse Schmidt Franklin roll

Although the roll had some oranges and maroons in prints and solids, I 'think' I have decided to use prints from several fabric lines in greens and blues along with some coordinating solids.  But look at all of the beautiful designer solids included in the roll.  From top to bottom they include: Saffron, Tropical, Kumquat, Pomegranate, Chartreuse, Meadow, Serpent, Light Jade, Shadow and Mist.

FreeSpirit Designer Solids included in Denyse Schmidt Franklin roll

Stash Fabrics recently had a great sale on all FreeSpirit fabrics for $6 a yard and I picked up some various prints to throw in the mix.

Various Denyse Schmidt prints

Thinking I might use a colored solid for the background, I ordered a 1/4 yard each of Neon and Caribbean to audition with the prints.  I decided both were too pastel. I appreciate them labeling the solids for identification.

FreeSpirit Designer Solids ordered from Stash Fabrics

I ordered another bundle on sale from Lisa at Pixie Spit Studio on Etsy.

Denyse Schmidt fabric bundle

Here are all the fabrics together along with two other possible solids, Light Jade and Cactus, for the background.  But after some suggestions from fellow guild members, thinking they might be to close in value as most of the prints, I have decided to go with mist for the background so the rings will stand out more.

Denyse Schmidt fabrics

Now to decide on fabrics for Elizabeth Hartman's mystery class.

Linking up with Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge who is hosting Sunday Stash this week and Beth at Cooking up Quilts for Main Crush Monday.

Block #8 - Rail Fence

I have one more block, the 8th one, named Paint the Fence, completed for Modern Quilts Unlimited Everything Old is New Again block and quilt challenge.

Paint the Fence block by Paige Alexander

This month's traditional block to interpret in a modern way was Rail Fence.

The block is made up of 4 squares containing 4 rails.  The traditional layout has every other square rotated 90 degrees.  Since only one block was created for the challenge, I rotated each square withing the block 90 degrees.

I decided to add some curve to the rails since we had a Gentle Curve Piecing workshop with member, Lynne Harrill at the Greenville MQG in February.

My plan was to try to create the same, or close to the same, curve for each of the rails within the squares.  And then, join them together imitating the same curve.  I cut the outer rails a little larger, allowing for joining the squares together and trimming.  Here is the block before trimming to 12 1/2". I could have cut the rails a tad smaller because I lost more of the green then I really wanted.

Paint the Fence untrimmed

I was nervous about repeating the same curve and joining all the blocks together.  But I was pleased with the result and was even able to twirl the centers to reduce the bulk.  I found a great post which explains twirling seam allowances here.

Center twirled for Paint the Fence

After finishing the this month's block, I realized this is my only block that does not contain any of the background fabric.

Here are all 8 blocks together.

• Flying Geese - Flying into the Sun
• Snail's Trail - Trail Blazers
• Ohio Star - Ohio on Point
• Card Trick - Simple Transparency Trick
• Bow Tie - Bow Tie Bold
• Double Pinwheel - Curvy Pinwheel
• Square in a Square - Minimal Square
• Rail Fence - Paint the Fence using Michael Miller's Cotton Couture in Apple, Magenta, Azure and Lava

MQU Everything Old is New Again Challenge blocks

When linking to the Cotton Couture page, I saw where if you sign up for their newsletter, you can receive free shipping when ordering the Cotton Couture Color Card.  I find it so helpful to have on hand when matching colors and with the challenge, we had to correctly identify the colors used in each block.  When I made the Card Trick block, I used charm squares from a Spring Couture charm pack and was able to name each color used.  This is a picture I posted on Instagram at the time.

Identifying colors using the Cotton Couture color card

With 8 blocks completed, there are only 4 more left and then the challenge continues to incorporate all 12 blocks into a quilt.  You can read more about the challenge in a previous post here.

Since I completed this month's challenge block, I am linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Izzy at Dizzy Quilts hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.