Habitat Challenge Quilt

When I joined the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild one and a half years ago I thought to myself... "Why am I joining a modern quilt guild? My style is far from modern!" After the first meeting, I realized that anything can be modern. My favourite explanations of modern were the following: Modern can encompass the self-taught/just wing-it approach to quilting. It can also describe technology used in this modern age such as blog, flickr & facebook. OH! That's totally me! I guess I'm a modern quilter!

It was definitely a challenge to work with the Habitat fabric line by Jay McCarroll. The Vancouver branch of the Modern Quilt Guild decided that any quilt or quilted object could be made as long as only more Habitat fabric or solids were added to the fat eighth packs donated by Free Sprirt. Read more about the Habitat Challenge here. These were definitely not colours or patterns that I would choose... ever! However, I did like the light blue polkadot since my usual style is Country Chic and how can you not love polkadots!

I managed to scrounge a few extra fat eighths from unclaimed packs for my quilt as I needed more of the polkadot fabric for my border. I also can't make anything lately without throwing in some natural linen! I liked how the neutral linen toned down the busy patterns and added a warm feel to the otherwise cool colours.

I decided to continue the leaf silhouettes from the fabric by free-motion quilting them into the linen background. It was a daunting task but once I got going it was pretty easy! My stitches are by no means consistent but no one will be looking at it that closely... This is definitely not something I would have tried before meeting Janet!

I hand-appliqued the tree, apples, and circles on the back of the quilt. I also stuffed the trapunto apples to give the quilt some dimension.

I used my extra fabric to make an interesting backing totally inspired by Paul's many fabulous quilt and equally fabulous backings.

I am very pleased with how this quilt turned out. It's probably the most modern quilt I will ever make!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)