QDAD Challenge Quilt, "Reflective Windows"

Finished! I plan to submit this quilt to the QDAD Special Exhibition at QuiltCon 2017. It will be my first QuiltCon submission, and also first time I've made a quilt expressly to submit to a show. Exciting!

I joined the Quilt Design A Day (QDAD) group on Facebook several months ago, and it has been a great boost to my creativity. I don't actually make a design every day, and I don't always use their "sparks." Sometimes the thing that inspires me is a beautiful rug, or an arrangement of patio tiles, or a stained glass window. But finding the time to sit down and design three or four times a week has really helped to strengthen my "creative muscle."

So when the group's excellent moderators, Anne Sullivan of Play Crafts and Michelle Wilkie of Factotum of Arts announced the QDAD Special Exhibition challenge, I couldn't resist joining!!

QDAD Group members were challenged to design and create a quilt, using a photo as a "spark." After a few (ahem, a few DOZEN) attempts, I eventually came up with a design that I was really happy with. (Actually two, but that's another post!)

I love playing with transparency effects in fabric, and the variation of the colors in the windows fascinated me. I was excited to find a way to interpret that reflection in my design.

I was so excited to take a picture of the finished quilt that I think I may have erred a bit on the "arty" side, LOL. It's hard to even see the quilt in the top photo because it's so small! Here is a better picture of the whole quilt (although a little grainy):

I'm really happy with how the quilt came out in the end, but I do have a few things I want to work on. My straight-line quilting could be straighter, for one. The colors were selected by the challenge, but I would not choose to work with Kona Shale again -- the warm gray tone was not my favorite. Next time I'd choose a cooler gray. This was also the first time I've quilted with 100% cotton thread, and it does not play nicely with my vintage 1970s sewing machine. I had so many thread breaks! I'll be sticking with polyester thread for the time being.

Hopefully I'll be posting a tutorial for this quilt soon! Along with a better photo, LOL.

Title: Reflective Windows
Finished size: 48x48
Pattern used: Original design
Fabrics: Kona solids in Charcoal, Shale, Snow, Prussian and Meditteranean
Thread: 100% cotton thread in black and white, and Coats polyester thread in turquoise blue for quilting
Batting: Soft n Crafty 80/20