Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Jungle Gym


I'm seven for seven.  This weekend I put the finishing touches on my July Aurifil 2015 designer of the month block challenge.  This month Pat Sloan's featured designer was Ebony Love and along with a great interview (you can read it here) she gave us a cute little mini she called Jungle Gym.  Ebony's quilt is full of bright vibrant colors;  green, red, purple, yellow, orange and white.  It just makes you want to jump up and play, like a jungle gym.  I wanted to make a version just as playful, but put my spin on things.  And I'll admit, it took me a day or two to figure out where this little guy was going.

Ultimately, I landed on a color pallet of turquoise, hot pinks, blacks and white prints.  I think there are two reasons for this.  One, I couldn't get Sandra @ Musings of a Menopausal Melon's Heart Quilt out of my head.  She created a wonderful quilt for a dear friend of her's using dazzling turquoise and pink squares and the quilting she chose for her quilt made this heart pop even more.  I hope you will take a few seconds and check this beautiful quilt out.  The second reason, is subconsciously I just love those colors so much and didn't realize it until Sandra's quilt revived them in my head.  Several years ago I created a quilt I call the Death Quilt (if you have time check it out here) and it used these same colors.

So after picking through my stash and grabbing a few filler in fat quarters I was ready to get started.


Poor Oliver was so tired he crashed right in the middle of my project.  The past few mini quilts went together pretty quickly.  This one took a bit more time with all the different colors and small pieces that made up the blocks.  I found myself following the pattern line by line and taking it block by block to make sure I didn't place something in the wrong spot.  I even kept Ebony's quilt up on my phone for a quick color reference.


Slowly all the blocks came together.


Now it was time for all of the real fun to begin...how to quilt it.  One thing I knew for sure was I wanted it to be covered from head to toe in quilting.  Every bloody inch of this 20 inch quilt.  I love dense quilting and some of the seams may not have been the straightest and I knew visually it would help to be a bit distracting.


This is a mock up of my quilting plan drawn out on Plexiglas.  I wanted the quilting to add lots of texture to the quilt but not detract from the prints on the fabric so I decided to match my threads as close as I could to the fabrics.  For my backing I went with a light gray.  The light gray would subtly show all of my thread changes and give the back of the quilt an almost whole cloth look (or at least that was my rationing).


Let's talk about the thread for a minute.  And let me start with, no one is paying me to say this...it's just my opinion.  I discovered and started using Aurifil 50wt thread about a year ago and I am in love with it.  I'm not sure how many spools I have now but lets say more than ten.  I love it because it is great to piece with as well as quilt with.  It is strong enough that I hardly ever experience thread breakage and light enough I can travel stitch over it with out things getting messy.  How about this, Aurifil thread is like a great lover, it is beautiful to look at, strong enough to hold you yet light enough to give you what you need.  (Am I full of it or what??)  No really, it is just a great product.   

For this project I ended up using five different colors.  I stitched in the ditch (every stinking seam) with Aurifil #2605 (gray).  This color blended into the backing fabric and was soft enough to blend into the seams of the front.  I quilted the front using Aurifil #1100 (pink), #1148 (turquoise), #2021 (white), and #2692 (black). 

I'm on a scrappy binding kick for no apparent reason right now, other than it is fun.


And so may I present to you...Jungle Gym...






I hope my pictures were able to capture some of the fun quilting.  I really wanted to get a picture of the quilt with a jungle gym, but sadly I think all of the parks in our town have done away with them.  Kiddos of 2015 I mourn the fun you are missing.  However, my cousin was nice enough to let me grab a few pictures with his son's amazing play house area.  

With us being over half way done with the year, there will still be five more designer interviews and five more free mini quilt patterns.  I love all of the ones that have been released to date.  If you would like to view my minis from January till now you can hop over to my 2015 Aurifil mini's page.  Thanks for stopping by.

Today I'm linking up with















14 comments:

Sandra Walker said...

FAB-ulous. 7 for 7. You rock. As does your quilting. I saw this in the piecing stage; seeing it in the finish stage is even more beautiful. I love the half-clamshell(?) in the very centre aqua strips. Love the lover metaphor! Great idea for the photograph; and yes, so sad for kids there; we still have jungle gyms here in Canada. :-) My grandson can now go hand over hand across!

Anonymous said...

I second Sandra's FAB-ulous! You have amazing skill at FMQ, comparable to Lori's, at the Quilt Musings blog in Macau!!! Your lover analogy is something special for a guy's soul, too :)

You will Quilt Musings at: https://quiltmusings.wordpress.com/

Just like Shop disappeared from school curriculum, it is sad that jungle gyms are going the same route.

Stitchin At Home said...

Wow you did a fantastic job! I love the colours Sandra used too.

Julie said...

Excellent job, Tish! Your pictures really are beautiful, but I'm sure your quilt is even more so. It's wonderful how things come together when we can picture them in our minds. You did well.

Peta - SheQuiltsAlot said...

Beautiful quilt! It looks fantastic :)

Cathy said...

Wow. It is gorgeous! I love your fabric/color choices.

Renee said...

What a great pattern to use these fabrics with! But the quilting just makes this quilt sing!

Margo Yang said...

What a beautiful quilt! I really love the back of the quilt, I can see all the quilting, so awesome.

Gina said...

Great quilt and I love the fabric palette. I love turquoise and pink together. The quilting, as normal, is fabulous

Ebony Love said...

I love how this turned out! Such a happy quilt. Thanks for making it and sharing! :)

Debbie at The Quilt Journal said...

Looks Wonderful- great job!

Bobbie said...

Beautiful and I love the whole cloth look on the back - I'm not brave enough to show off my quilting like that yet but yours looks awesome

Lisa in Port Hope said...

The colours you chose set off the pattern wonderfully. Definitely worth a whoop-whoop. I love your little furry helper in the first shot too.

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Beautiful colors and wow is your quilting awesome! Thanks for sharing!

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