finishes

happy panic: mqg riley blake fabric challenge.

Leland Ave Studios Submission MQG Fabric ChallengeBy the hair of my chinny chin chin, I submitted an entry to the Modern Quilt Guild’s Riley Blake Fabric Challenge.  If you’re not familiar, MQG provided a 3/4 yard cut of Riley Blake’s Sashing Stash fabric and we had to make something quilted using that print mixed with Riley Blake solids. I chose to work with the HST sashing print as well as the checkerboard pattern, which I incorporated into my binding.

Happy Panic by Kim Soper/Leland Ave StudiosHappy Panic is the ultimate quilt resulting from one “happy accident” after another. My initial design for the quilt would have taken me far past the deadline, so, while I may still make that quilt some day, I had to change my thinking if I was going to get this one done in time.

Happy Panic by Kim Soper/Leland Ave Studios

As I worked, I realized I was dangerously close to running out of white fabric. I officially ran out of white thread (yup, it’s actually quilted with cream–and it totally works!!). At one point, I was afraid that the spool of cream would run out, too,  so I added some quilting in blue, to save the cream if I needed it at a later point!  I decided to use the checkered print from the Sashing Stash collection as my binding — but guess what? There was not enough of that either! So again, I added some blue to pick up the blue in the quilting and get the job done.

Happy Panic by Kim Soper/Leland Ave Studios

In the end, I am happy with the result! But the process was not without anxiety. Hence the name, Happy Panic!

I must admit I was hesitant to participate, but I really feel like working within the parameters of the challenge forced me to come up with solutions I would otherwise not have settled for. And in the end, I think it made the quilt more interesting!

So now, tell me: did you submit something for the challenge? I’d love to hear about your process and how you thought about using the prints in the collection if you did!

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  • Yvonne (Quilting Jetgirl)
    June 1, 2016 at 4:22 pm

    My rule for challenges is to participate if I feel particularly inspired. I did the Riley Blake fabric challenge last summer and loved my results. I really like the touches of blue you added and it really sounds like this quilt was an adventure and journey. I am glad you like the outcome; I find it to be a very striking quilt!

  • Sue
    June 1, 2016 at 10:14 pm

    It sounds like this was more of a challenge than you bargained for but your out of the box solutions have come together to make a great quilt.

  • Jayne Willis
    June 2, 2016 at 9:33 am

    Love the name of your quilt, especially after reading all the hurdles you had to jump over! The quilt is beautiful, I love a good black and white quilt. I didn’t participate in this challenge. Previous challenges were not that successful for me…so I decided to cut my losses and not persue this one!

  • carrie wikander
    June 2, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    I opted out of this one due mostly to lack of time. But this is a winner, I would say. I love that you had all those troubles but just kept on sewing. That’s kind of how I roll, most of the time, too. It’s great.

  • Brianna Robertson
    June 3, 2016 at 10:19 pm

    I like it! A nice, graphic design.

  • Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts
    June 5, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    It looks great!! I really believe that constraints (imposed or accidental) are wonderful for creativity. I see them as an invigorating challenge and I think you’ve risen to it. Your brain has been forced to work out a way to make this a success and now you’ve got a cool quilt you’d otherwise never thought of making. Yay!

  • Judy @ Sew Some Sunshine
    June 7, 2016 at 5:06 pm

    Love the blue pop in this, the quilting looks great with the blue crosshatch, nice touch!

  • Afton
    July 21, 2016 at 10:03 pm

    It’s fantastic how creative you were in dealing with your scarcity issues. What a fun, modern design!