MQG Michael Miller Challenge

Finally finished up my quilt for the challenge today…whew!  It was a whirlwind of sewing and I’m hoping to get some good photos of the quilt tomorrow.  Unfortunately the rain kept me from getting any today.  So in lieu of good photos, I thought I’d share a few process photos from along the way.

It all started with putting up a temporary design wall.  I marked out the sections and sizes with painter’s tape so I had a good idea of the spaces I needed to fill with patchwork.  Immediately my human helpers started using the wall for their very own projects.

I really wanted to use some text fabric in the quilt.  The rules state you can use any kind of Michael Miller fabric, so I dug out some Madrona Road from last year’s challenge and decided it added just the right dark depth to the Petal Pinwheel collection for this year’s challenge.  Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.

Why not use some “text” fabric in the form of selvages?  I’d never sewn with them before, but it couldn’t be that hard, right?

The pieces were teeny tiny, plus keeping the letters lined up was easier said than done.  But overall, the effect is what I was going for.  My husband had the piggy-back brilliant idea of putting a huge strip of “Michael Miller” across the quilt.  I was digging through my stash trying to come up with enough pieces, but I settled for this strip, about 12 inches long in the finished quilt.  Unfortunately, a few inches of the original strip had to be amputated while trying to fit together the center panel.

I tried to pay homage to all the designers of the fabric I used in the quilt.  Patty Young’s name got bisected, so one selvage reads “Young Michael” but I thought that was kind of funny and left it in.  You can see I gave Violet Craft a shout out this year.  Too bad I didn’t think of this last year…

I got pretty excited when the pieces started going together and I could get a feel for what the quilt was going to look like.  My daughter made me a cute “good luck” sign that she pinned to the design wall.  I wanted to make sure a few signature pieces were included in the quilt, like a bunch of wonky churn dashes.

Then I wasn’t sure if I had enough recognizable “blocks” included in the quilt top, and I added flying geese even though they aren’t part of a churn dash.  I wanted the judges to see that I could piece points very accurately.  These babies are pointed (except the top point, which had to be sacrificed to make it fit).  There’s also an impromptu curved piece I made just winging it.  Just so they know I can actually sew…lol!

Then it was finally time to sew the nine patches together!  My trusty non-human helper inspected all the seams and fastidiously cleaned up any errant threads.  The bird fabric in this quilt reminds me of him, so this quilt is dedicated to him in thanks for all the quality control support he’s given me on this and many other projects.

Yay!  The top was finally done and I could sit back and relax, maybe enjoy a celebratory glass of wine?  Uh oh, not so fast, this was Tuesday, and the quilt had to be finished by Friday…

I got the backing on the long arm.  The center strip of the backing is pieced with the label in another churn dash and the two fabrics other fabrics are Michael Miller Birds of a Feather “Tweet” and Atomic Tabbies.

See, this quilt is dedicated to a cockatiel, but also to a cat.

The photo is a little fuzzy because it was taken around 6am this morning as she was helping me finish up the quilting.  She loves scraps almost as much as my children.

And that’s the end of the story.  Oh, and here’s the finished quilt right before it started raining again this afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!