Playing with scraps

After "abandoning" my FMQ Adventures for a while, I decided it was about time to give a try, but this time in a serious project - and that's why this one is made out of a bunch of scraps!  I got a box of little pieces left from a previous experiment (WAY too experimental to be posted in any decent blog) and the Drunkard's path runner I finished about a month ago.  

My crafty bone started tickling with new piecing techniques and FMQ ideas, particularly after watching two Craftsy classes.  The scraps from my Drunkard's path runner would give me the great opportunity to try Improv Pods, a composition by Elizabeth Hartman, which you can see in Craftsy class, Inspired Modern Quilts. Angela Walter's Craftsy class, How to Machine Quilt Negative Space, was the second source of my inspiration for this quilt. 

When it comes to the quilting itself, something that really stood out for me was the texture of the quilting.  So far, I had only FMQed by using a contrasting thread, as you can see in previous posts, but this time, I had to try and see first hand how blending thread would look.  So... (drum roll, please) here is the result!

I'm really pleased with the finished look, but I also like how the back looks.  It's a great way to see the finished texture.  Also, I still haven't decided if it will end up as a runner; I thought it could be a pretty wall hanging, so I also sewed folded fabric squares to the back, just in case...

  

And the pictures started rolling... In here, you can really appreciate the unbalanced effect, by having a chunky blue frame at the bottom and a wider negative space at the top.  Also, I have seen here and there some quilts with a binding that has little piece of a different fabric than the main part of the binding.  I like the way that looks and decided to put some of the green away from the chunkiest blue to help balance the composition.

 

And here is a close up of the quilting. Another big idea I learned from the class is that the quilting can emphasize the piecing, so I tried to do so by quilting lines on the "frames" of the end pods. I micro-stippled the connecting strips and the frame of the middle pod. The inside of the blocks (excepting for the solid blue pieces of fabric) has a looser meander (or larger stipple).

And just because the wood looked so cute after the rain, here is another angle of the finished runner.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this post; I will probably make another scrap pod runner soon and I will be taking pictures of the process, so don't forget to stop by and see what's going on here at the Hill!!