Blogger's Quilt Festival: Slopeside

Welcome to my contribution to the Spring 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival! Thanks, Amy, for putting this all together again!

Here is the quilt I've named Slopeside. This quilt is special to me. I immediately loved the graphic simplicity as soon as I sketched it. I've never seen anything like it. It is totally doable without any templates or special rulers, despite the fact that it uses an odd angle.

It is also my submission for the Colorful Colorado Modern Quilt Challenge, organized by my friend Melissa through the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild. All of the quilts submitted will be shown at a show in Berthoud, CO this June. The only requirements for the challenge were that we had to use a recognizable piece of 4 solids we were given, the smallest side could be no smaller than 40'' and the theme was Colorful Colorado. To me, it honors our lively and eclectic state and all Coloradoans' connection to our beautiful mountains. I can't wait to see how all my fellow Colorado modern quilters interpret that theme, too.

So many gems hidden in this fabric, including some miners and the Sleeper House!

The back also uses some crazy, kitschy Colorado toile fabric from a 2010 shop hop. I picked it up at the time knowing that some day I would use it on a quilt back and this was the perfect place to use it. I love the way all the neutrals and print fabrics on the back contrasts the front. I used an oops block from the front to be my label.

The quilting is new to me but I definitely see myself doing more of it. I wanted something that had curves to soften up all the angled edges in the piecing, but something that still had structure and regularity. My first idea was baptist fans and I think that would have looked awesome, but I've never done them and they felt too daunting for the limited time I had left to complete this. I snooped around on Pinterest until I saw some clamshells and realized that would be perfect too. I ended up elongating them and that works really well for two reasons: 1. it complements the elongated block and 2. it makes it go more quickly. Win, win!