Riley Blake Designs Fabric Challenge 2018: Sealed With A Kiss

You've probably heard about the KISS principle aka "Keep It Simple, Stupid," first coined by the US Navy in 1960 as a way of striving for simplicity in design.  Other fun variations include: Keep It Simple Silly (my personal favorite), Keep It Short and Straightforward or Keep It Small and Simple (sage advice for quilt challenges with looming deadlines!)  Well, call me Silly as I decided to ignore the KISS principle and create not one but two quilt entries for the MQG/Riley Blake Designs Fabric Challenge in the week leading up to the deadline! 

Creating a new Stack, Slice & Shuffle Improv quilt was one of my original design ideas for this fabric challenge featuring Riley Blake's Basics Collection.  It was dismissed early on for being too simple, having already made two variations in my Slice of Pi quilt and again with Peace by Piece.  Instead, I moved forward with improv pieced spiral blocks leading up to the creation of Greek Chic.  As I worked on the spiral blocks, my mind kept drifting back to visions of a new Stack, Slice & Shuffle improv quilt featuring the Rose Gold prints in the background and navy blue inserted strips.  I tried to ignore these thoughts to no avail.  Then I tried to bargain with myself that if I just focused on finishing Greek Chic by the deadline, I could always revisit this other design at a later date (like after the challenge deadline!)  The next thing I knew, I was happily layering background squares, slicing them up, shuffling the newly cut shapes and inserting strips of navy fabric...

"SWAK," Finishes 33" x 33"

While I most certainly did not keep things simple for myself, KISS helped inspire this companion entry in a few ways...

• The background uses both Riley Blake's Rose Gold Kiss print and Lipstick solid (along with a few other rose gold prints from their basics collection and a white on white triangles)
• In lieu of piecing the Greek letter Pi or Peace signs (aka chicken feet), I was inspired by Kay Jeweler's slogan "Every Kiss Begins with K"
• The navy stripe used for the binding brought back memories of receiving Air Mail and seeing SWAK written on the back of the envelope:  Sealed With A Kiss

This quilt came together surprisingly fast with the blocks and quilt top assembled in less than a day.  For me, the most challenging part of making this quilt was the completing the quilting.  The rose gold prints had a metallic sheen which reflected the light from my sewing machine and made it very difficult to see where I had already quilted!  Luckily I chose my favorite zig zag meander and was thankful for the patches of white and lipstick where it was much easier to see the stitching done in Aurifil White (#2024)!

SWAK Detail

Per the fabric challenge rules, all fabrics used had to be Riley Blake designs.  So as I was nearing the finish line, I had to be mindful of how much fabric I had left to piece the quilt backs and binding!!

Quilt Back and Binding by Riley Blake Designs

Thankfully my careful planning paid off as this is all that was left after completing both quilt tops, backs and bindings!!  These little fabric schnibbles may just work their way into another slice and insert quilt!

Kiss Goodbye to Challenge Fabrics

Not only did I manage to start and finish 2 quilt entries in less than a week, but I managed to complete them both with a full day to spare!!  Despite a later start, SWAK was finished first, and Greek Chic was finished 4-5 hours later, giving me plenty of time to photograph and submit!!

Kissing Cousins:  SWAK (left) and Greek Chic (right)