Project Quilting 8.2: Lustrous Lily

This past Sunday kicked off a new Project Quilting Season 8 quilt challenge with the theme of "Carolina Lily."  Like most quilt challenge adventures, this journey began with my usual search via Pinterest.  There I founds images of the traditional Carolina Lily block along with images of the actual Carolina Lily flower, North Carolina's state wildflower--neither of which evoked a new quilt design.  But soon images of other lilies started to appear, including the Stargazer Lily, which is one of my favorite flowers.  Just then I remembered a fat quarter bundle of Patty Young's Lush that I purchased years ago that included printed lilies!!

Game Plan A:  Lily Print Fabric Bundle

I was so giddy about this new revelation that I went to the studio and pulled out that bundle, along with some coordinating hand dyed fabrics!  And then I wondered:  now what?!?  How the heck would I incorporate these fabrics into a cohesive quilt design?  I pondered the possibility of doing some improvisational piecing, but nothing seemed to capture the essence of the Carolina Lily theme.  And so naturally I stalled by pressing and organizing the fabrics; hoping they would speak to me.  After 3 days of total silence, it was now Wednesday and panic started to set in.

I revisited my Pinterest board containing gorgeous photographs of lilies and found myself drawn to the geometric design of the petals.  I wondered if I could create an abstraction of the bloom by using only triangles, diamonds and hexagons.  Using isometric triangle grids (both on paper and in Electric Quilt 7), I sketched out a few different designs.  I got pretty excited with the sketch below, especially once I started coloring it in using different values of pink along with some dots!    

Design and Construction Progression (clockwise starting with top left)

Thursday morning I went to work drafting up two different diamond-shaped foundation templates for the petals.  Once my designs were drafted and copied, I raided my stash of pink fabrics that would capture the essence of the Stargazer lily:  striped centers surrounded by dots!  I chose an organic strip for the centers, along with a variety of polka-dotted and small spiral prints in a light, medium and dark value.  Once my petals were pieced and laid out, I started to audition green fabrics for the three leaves and background.  I chose two directional prints with contrasting designs for the leaves, and a variety of yellow green prints for the background.  Originally I had planned to cut out triangles from different fabrics for the background.  Wanting to add more visual interest, I cut out 2" strips that were pieced into strip sets from which I then cut out the large background triangles.  This extra step really adds so much drama and sparkle to the background!

By 10 PM Thursday night, my quilt top was completely assembled and ready for quilting!  Friday morning I went to work on preparing my backing and creating my quilt sandwich.  Soon it was time to add some quilted texture to transform my lily!!!  Drawing inspiration from the photographs, I had a lot of fun stitching both lines and pebbles into each of my petals.  I incorporated my favorite motifs into the background (zig zag meander), center stamen (loop de loops and figure eights) and leaves (feathers with echoes).

Details of Quilted Textures

Including so much variety into my quilting made it both fun and fast!  Later that night I finished up by adding the binding.  Many thanks to Jaybird Quilts for her wonderful "How to Bind 120-degrees" tutorial that greatly helped with handling the six corners, as well Sharon Schamber's Perfect Straight Binding video where she demonstrations how she uses Elmer's Glue to achieve perfect bindings on her award-winning quilts!  I've used this technique on the past 5-6 quilts and absolutely love the results!!

"Lustrous Lily," 33" x 29" Finished Size

I absolutely  love, love, love the finished quilt!!  Despite the slow start, this little beauty was assembled and quilted in just 2 days!!  I had so much fun putting this quilt together that I am even considering turning it into a quilt pattern.  Already I see potential for different colorways, different sizes and even repeating the basic block to create a larger finished quilt!  I welcome your feedback and please let me know if you might be interested in helping out by being a pattern tester!  You can leave me a message below or send me an email (melbeachquilts@yahoo.com).

Online voting will begin Sunday 1/22 around 10:30/11 AM PST.  Please be sure to check out all the amazing quilts that celebrate the Carolina Lily and vote for your favorites!!  Lustrous Lily is #73 (hint-hint!!)