Olivia's baby quilt

I made this flying geese quilt improv-style for the MQG Riley Blake challenge.   

Olivia's mom is a colleague.  Olivia is obviously the Gisele Bundchen of baby quilt models.

The challenge fabric colors were not my scene, so I bleached the fabric.   The blues dimmed and suddenly it was all sherbet-y goodness.

The colors called to mind a print I've been hoarding, which I used as the backing.   I drew my solids from this inspiration.

I did a free motion leaf pattern all over, and bound with a grey-and-white stripe.

I didn't have high hopes for this challenge, but was in love by the time I finished.

Couldn't have gone to a cuter recipient!

Madrona

Our guild was one of the many that participated in the MQG Madrona Road challenge.

Challenge participants were given a handful of pieces of the Violet Craft "Madrona Road" fabric line and asked to complete a project, preferably a quilt, using only additional solids.

I found this challenge difficult, primarily because some of the colors in the line aren't favorites of mine, particularly the mustardy yellow and tan.  In addition, I was sad we didn't receive any of the small-scale florals, which were my favorite from this collection.

I borrowed the concept for the quilt and the quilting from this insanely good quilt. 

I didn't want to buy additional fabric, so I plumbed the depths of my stash and wound up pulling a series of polyester and wool apparel suiting remnants, silk remnants, and other solids.  I prewashed to make sure I wouldn't have weird shrinkage.  The quilt is backed with the lowest thread-count sheet I could find at Target, and bound with a black-on-black dot I bought because I'd run out of stashed fabric. 

Clearly my quilting, done on my genius friend Linda's longarm, is not as precisely done as the inspiration, but I think it turned out pretty well.  The solid bars were supposed to have been inset with circles, but precise circles are HARD on the long arm, so mine are more freeform-y and blobular.   I am describing them to my friends as "mod marshmallows" in the hope their lumpiness will seem intentional.