Madrona Road Fabric Challenge - Dia

Today, we are sharing Dia's lovely Madrona Road Challenge quilt with you!  Her quilt is called Journey.  It measures 37" x 43" and her favorite elements of the quilt are the words inset into the binding and the cobblestone quilting.

Journey

This was my first Guild Fabric Challenge.  It was bound to be an exciting adventure. We chose Roads and Bridges as the loose thematic for the challenge. This was derived from the narrative on the fabric Memoir by Violet Craft, for the Madrona Road line.

Journey - Quilting Textures

Journey detail

City Weekend

I loved the story from the fabric and knew that my quilt would be a literal interpretation, about a journey and pathways.  I began my quilt journey by dreaming big. I was going to draft the quilt using a centre point in a kaleidoscopic like fashion with connecting colours and negative space to express pathways .  Then there was the reality check on the yardage of fabric that I had to work with and the intricacy of drafting the pattern, figuring out seams and a short production window. That mission was aborted and gave birth to what I have. 

Block Layout

I incorporated paper piecing patterns by  Cyrille Zellweger  Little Red Riding Hood (“the little Gypsy Girl”) and Grandma’s House (“the place to call home”)  and Liesl Gibson’s City Weekend.   I had some concerns that my quilt would not read “modern” and may be boring.  While I liked it at this stage, I wasn’t sure I was in love with it. I mimicked the city weekend pattern by using 5” x 5” White Square and setting the “ roads” in using the challenge fabrics. I wanted that gypsy girl to be on a journey and I wanted those roads connected.

The Little Gypsy Girl

Like any journey this quilt had a few bumps in the road. There were the many redesigns of the quilt top, paper piecing techniques that usually come easy were a struggle, the binding… I thought it would be really fun to inset specific words into the binding, from the memoir.  It looks cool but it was challenge. Even under the wonderful guidance of some excellent quilters. The biggest hurdle was the quilting, as the top came together. I knew that my quilting skills and time frame, were not going to be able to do justice to the quilt and I consulted my Longarm Quilter for advice and assistance. Together we planned the quilting, I still had mixed feelings about but the quilt but it turned out spectacular. The quilting really brought it life. 

Journey - Back

Journey - Binding Detail

Thanks for sharing your project with us, Dia - it is lovely!  Stay tuned for three more lovely Madrona Road quilts!