Off the Grid in Curated Quilts Issue 2 + Giveaway

Surely, by now, you have heard of or seen the new modern quilt magazine, Curated Quilts, started by Amy Ellis and Christine Ricks.  You can read all about their mission here, but one of their desires is to highlight the quilting community in the pages of Curated Quilts.

Curated Quilts issues a mini challenge with each issue based on a theme and and a given color palette.  For Issue 2 the theme was log cabins.  You should know by now I can't resist a challenge and you may remember this mini log cabin quilt, Off the Grid, I made back in September 2017.

I was excited when Off the Grid was chosen to be included in the mini quilt gallery for Issue 2.

I even met Amy while at QuiltCon in Pasadena, CA.  Behind us are the minis for the Minimalism challenge featured in Issue 3.

When your quilt is featured in Curated Quilts, you are generously provided copy of that issue.  I am already a subscriber, so that means I have an extra copy of Curated Quilts Issue 2.

GIVEAWAY  

To celebrate my return from Tax Land since April 15th, well this year, April 17th is finally over, I am giving away a copy of  Curated Quilts Issue 2.  Due to shipping costs, I am limiting this giveaway to US addresses only. And, if you do not live in the US, but have a friend who does, I will be happy to ship to their address in the US.

Photo by Curated Quilts

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter by answering a couple questions about challenges. By entering, you acknowledge that you are 18 years of age or older and that you have a US shipping address. The giveaway is open through Saturday, April 21st at 10:00 pm PM Eastern, and the winner will be selected randomly and emailed within 24 hours. Winner will have 48 hours to reply to the email to claim their giveaway or a new winner will be randomly selected. Good luck!

CONGRATS! The winner is Beth S. in FL!  Thank you all for entering and your thoughts on challenges!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And, now, I finally have time to enjoy Issue 3 that I just received!

Off the Grid ~ Curated Quilts Mini Log Cabin

Off the Grid is my mini log cabin quilt made for the Curated Quilts call for entry into their second issue. Curated Quilts Issue 1 has been printed and shipping has begun.

Not only was coming up with a design a challenge, working within the chosen color palette was a challenge within itself.  The pink at the top is not one I would have normally used and almost left it out of the mini quilt altogether.  In the end, I decided to incorporate it into the binding.

First, finding the right fabrics... Was that dark all gray? Or did it have a hint of navy? I ended up using an unknown cross weave from my stash.  For the background, I would describe it as stone and I used a Moda Bella solid in Zen Grey.

I added two different golds, a Free Spirit Designer solid in Solar and Cotton and Steel print, Cross Dots in yellow.

For the coral, I had a Carolyn Friedlander print from Carkai, Grid Diamond in Creamsicle Metallic.  The fabric name inspired the title of the quilt, Off the Grid.  And I know some people would like to live off the grid in a cabin in the woods.  Not me, I can't be too far from a fabric shop!

Piecing would have gone much faster if I hadn't decided to cut the Carkai Diamond Grid on the bias and match the plaid.  So I was extra careful with the bias edges and starched it well to minimize the stretch.

I pieced the top a little large, about 17" x 17, so I could trim it down to size.  I just took photos with my phone to try to audition the desired size.  I wanted less of the creamsicle grid to show and be more of a rectangle, but my overall size would have been much smaller.

Here you can also see more of the piecing.  I started out with a square center which finished at 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" and from there added various size logs around the center.  I extended some of the logs out into background.

Now on to the quilting... I decided to quilt crossing angles like the gold and charcoal logs.  Maybe you can see what I mean here.

For the thread color, at first I went to the grays on the Aurifil thread chart, but found a new to me color, 6724 Moonshine, and it matched perfectly.  At first I wasn't sure until I stitched it out.

I thought it needed something more and I added more angles using Aurifil 2630 pewter in the 28 wt. for emphasis.  I still used 50 wt. in the bobbin.  Pewter was one of the colors used in Positively Transparent.

I used a Kaffe Fassett print, Aboriginal Dots in Taupe for the backing which matched perfectly with the Bella solid.

For the label, I used my freezer paper method of hand writing the text but added a border using up the bias I had cut from the Carkai print.  As you can see the finished size of Off the Grid is 5 1/2" x 15 1/2".

Update 9/30/17- I was able to stop by my favorite gray wall today for some photos of Off the Grid on the painted brick wall.

So glad I was able to get Off the Grid finished as the deadline to enter is October 1st.  You can see the other entries HERE and on Instagram #curatedquilts.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday and Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday .