Mod Block Paisley Quilt

I know I have been quiet this past week. I have managed to get a custom project, working on stuff for my upcoming paper n' stitch exhibit at the end of the month, and creating gifts for the family. Since my husband and I have decided move by the end of October I know I won't have time to move, unpack, and make gifts for the holidays. So I've decided to work on those fall birthdays and Christmas gifts now. I think it's a good plan.

First up is a quilt for my mommy. Yes, I still love to refer to her as my mommy. She's been crying for one of my quilts for years and she's pretty much the only one who doesn't have one. She even bought me fabric when I was in high school to make into what I thought was a cool design, now I find pretty awful quilt. I had even started but just didn't have the heart to make it. It was comprised of a leaf green, sky blue, dusty purple, white with paisley, and a purple paisley calico. I ditched the green and blue to make an entirely purple and white quilt. My mom loves purple. I love modern quilting and find Denyse Schmidt my big inspiration. I like the deliberate crookedness and slightly askew of the squares and the simplistic design of the quilt work but using color to give it dimension. For my mother's quilt I used the contrast of the solid purple fabric with the stark white paisley as a bold statement. The backing is the purple paisley calico. I referenced it to make the free motion drawings in the middle of the squares on the front. The thread alternates with the squares.

Now I do realize I'm sharing this on the world wide web, but she's so busy she rarely checks my blog and so what, she'll flip she's got one on the way over the surprise.

Here are some progress pictures.

Laying out the squares to figure out where I want them.

The free motion embroidery sketch lines. I love quilters chalk especially when you have a lot of drawing to do because I find the washable markers run out fast. I have a pen that can change the chalk color. It's great.

I stabilized the back of the squares with Super Solvy water soluble stabilizer. Then I put it in an embroidery hoop to stitch on the machine.

I had some help pinning the layers together. The orange is Tabitha and the calico is Matilda. I generally don't let them on my projects but since it's for my mom I know she will love that they helped. Pinning is so much faster than basting. Those are special quilter's safety pins that have a small kink in the center to make them pop back up through the layers easier than a straight one.