21 Modern Solids Challenge: Woodcut Quilt.

Update: You can now purchase the Woodcut Quilt Pattern in my shop!

My quilt for the Modern Solids Challenge is finally finished! (You can vote for your favorite quilt in the #modernsolidschallenge on the FreeSpirit blog, facebook page, or pinterest board!)

I designed at least five different quilts before deciding on this one, which of course was the first one I came up with. Funny how that always happens! I was inspired by a few different traditional quilt designs and combined them a bit to come up with this block design. I wanted to make a variation of a traditional log cabin block, but somehow incorporate half square triangles into the design as well. I also love clamshell quilts and wanted to achieve the look of clamshells without curves. In the end, the blocks remind me of trees in a forest, so I'm calling this the Woodcut Quilt!

I used 12 different colors solids on the front of the quilt, along with Arctic White for the background fabric. I wanted an edited color scheme, so I chose my favorites from 75 colors in the Denyse Schmidt Modern Solids box. I am happy with how all the colors look together! I wasn't completely sold on the color scheme until I started hanging the blocks on my design wall.

The blocks are all paper pieced, and finish at 8" square. Each block took quite a long time to piece one at a time, so I made them in batches of 12 (one in each color) to make it go a little faster.

The quilting looks deceptively simple here. I didn't want to distract from the graphic lines of the blocks, so I opted to just quilt each block in the skinny white strips. This meant there were more than 246 knots to bury, as I really don't like the look of backstitching while quilting on my sewing machine. Burying threads alone took me at least 5 hours, and that didn't include the quilting part! It does look pretty neat on the back of the quilt now though, so I suppose it was worth it.

I bound the quilt in a light pink. I was scrambling to finish the binding before the sun went down so I could take photos! I don't like binding quilts by machine, so I managed to somehow hand stitch it down in an hour and 15 minutes! Not bad for a 60" square quilt. Definitely faster than I've ever done it before.

The back is just some random coordinating fat quarters from the box and more pink yardage, along with a few of my favorite Chicopee prints that seemed to match.

It's been really fun watching everyone's quilts come together for this challenge! They're all so different, even though we were using the same fabric.

 This quilt will be made into a pattern very soon! I will let you all know when it's available.

Thanks to FreeSpirit Fabrics/Coats & Clark and Denyse Schmidt for the opportunity to participate in this challenge! Please vote for your favorite quilt in the #modernsolidschallenge by commenting on the FreeSpirit blog, facebook page, or pinterest board!)

Update: You can now purchase the Woodcut Quilt Pattern in my shop!