What is Love?

 February 1st the 'What is Love' Collab event was released on Instagram. Fifteen designers released one modern quilt block each. During the month I managed to sew all the blocks, it was a great skill builder with curves, applique, foundation paper piecing, HRTs and inset circles.

Fifteen blocks were not enough for a decent sized quilt, in my mind. One of the blocks, Grow Wild by Brooke of Eudaimonia Studio, is a HRT block where you actually make two blocks at a time. Then I had sixteen.

I found a multicolored print in my stash and that gave me three 12.5" blocks  and a few leftover pieces. From the remnants I pieced the background of the block, added the circle that was cut out from another block when making an inset circle, and put in inset narrow strips after a tutorial from Hillary of @entropyalwayswins. My improvised block looks like a planet in space! You can see it in the bottom row of the quilt.

I love taking pictures in natural light, so when there was a pause between the snow showers I got a photo shoot on my snow covered deck. (When is winter going to end?)

The backing is a fun Ikea print from 2016 that I had in my stash. 

The finished quilt measures 48" x 60".

I challenged myself to free motion quilt it on my domestic sewing machine. I chose a design with hearts and loops, perfect for a quilt with lots of hearts in the blocks.

Here's a close up picture of my own designed "planet" block. I don't like to throw away useful pieces, whether it is blocks, strips or scraps. My scrap bins tend to overflow.

The binding of the quilt is a candy striped one in pink, perfect for the quilt. A totally sweet one!

This is my fifth charity quilt for the year 2023, and number 97 all time for the children's ward at the hospital. 

Keep on quilting!