Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Plan B - My pillow for March FMQ Challenge

Em, of Em's Scrapbag, calls it a Plan B when you use blocks made for a different purpose in a new project.  I like that.   Here's my Plan B pillow, made for the March FMQ challenge.

March Pillow for FMQ CHallenge

And here's how it started.

The ideaAfter a demo and presentation of improvisational piecing at the Modern Mini-group, I wanted to try something more abstract than my usual.

At the time I had just finished Jenny's Welcome Spring stitchery design and thought I could improvise some borders, so I gathered some fabric scraps that would coordinate.

After playing around a bit, I had created a border that I thought looked interesting on it's own but ... absolutely horrible next to the stitchery.

I considered (and dismissed) a few ideas for using the improvised strip with the stitchery.



My Improvised Border   Ugh


Plan B

And then, Plan B was born.

I put a simple print border around Welcome Spring and combined my improvised border with another fabric and use it was the background for the March FMQ challenge.

I chose option #1:

Use the free FMQ tutorial provided by Patsy, from the 2012 FMQ Challenge, to create a FMQ Pillow adapting her border approach to your pillow design.  To clarify, you get to decide the number size of your pillow, the number of borders you wish to use, as well as which of the designs Patsy shared in this free tutorial, as you feel appropriate.

It was suggested that we sketch out our plan and practice first, but since this was my Plan B (and dangerously close to the end of the month), I just went for it.  Here are photos (front and back) of the quilting, before it was assembled into a pillow.

Quilted - before assembly into pillow

Quilting from the back

9 comments:

Indigo Blue said...

Love this design espcially the colour combination.
I use the PLan B concept most of the time! I once made a lovely table runner that was intended to be a quilt but I knew it would not get finished so I changed direction and actully ended up with something I can use. I like to call it design development.

Sheri said...

Lovely.

Dena@LivingWaterQuilter.com said...

The improv piecing looks like fun! Thanks for showing the back of the back so we could see your lovely quilting.

Needled Mom said...

That looks beautiful.

Marei said...

Love it when a Plan B works out. I'm a little less happy if I have to get all the way to Plan Q.

Terri said...

I like when your plan Bs work out. This one is lovely. The colors are great, and the quilting inspired. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs

Karen Ackva said...

I really like that one! It looks like plan B was a great idea! I will have to keep this one in mind. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Lovin' the Plan B!

Anonymous said...

Oh, that looks great! So does Jenny's stitchery. Serendipity, that is.

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