Breeze – a Friday Finish

 Introducing Breeze, my entry to the Michael Miller MQG challenge:

This quilt was NOT a breeze to make. I remember getting the fabric and having absolutely no clue what to do with it. It’s not my usual palette, though I thought the prints were pretty, they didn’t send me in any one direction or another. So I left it in a pile for a month (or three) and waited for inspiration.

It didn’t come.

I must have absorbed the fact that the fabric line is called “Petal Pinwheels” into my subconscious, because when it came time to make some blocks, I started making quarter circle pinwheels. (I used Jen Carlton Bailley’s awesome templates, Etsy shop here.) It was only when I saw so many others in the challenge thread that I saw the name of the collection. Summer brain, anyone?

Anyway, the blocks were adorable! I decided to use coordinating Michael Miller solid charm squares for one petal of each pinwheel to add some interest Then I set them a little wonky, hoping it would add motion.

This quilt was an exercise in plugging along. Just keep working on a design until it’s done. Once July rolled around, there was no time to be precious about it. So I kept moving the blocks around until they looked right. I used lots of negative space and quilted a breezy texture (using a technique from my SMS walking foot tutorial).

I like that it was a little minimalist, so I decided to extend the blue into the binding. But that seemed like a LOT of blue. And I foolishly used all the remaining scraps of challenge fabric on the back.

So I decided to use some tiny scraps from my solid petals to make a little rainbow in the binding.

 It’s a little sticky sweet, but I love the detail, and it reminded me a little of my Rainbow Brite childhood. I’m going to try this again for sure.

Finished, the quilt is 32″ square. It would make a nice stroller quilt or baby play mat.  I’m happy with how it turned out, even though inspiration never struck in the way that it can, and it served as a good reminder of how I try to break out of a creative block. Just keep making.