Magical Geese Finished!

The East Cobb Quilters' Guild holds a challenge for their members every year, and this year it was a Paint Chip Challenge. To participate, we started by selecting an envelope with a paint chip inside. The theme of our quilt had to be based on the name of the color. Our entry must feature the color of the paint chip (or other values of that color.) We could also include one additional color plus neutrals.

The paint chip I received was Valspar #1001-2A Magic Wand. This photo is from the Valspar website. As you can see, the color is a pink that leans a bit toward lavender.

Coming up with a quilt design inspired by the name "Magic Wand" took some thought. In the end, I realized that my personal version of a magic wand has got to be a needle. Being able to sew led to my career making costumes for professional theaters, plus my all-time favorite hobby of quilting.

There are so many "magic tricks" that quilters can produce like optical illusions. I considered many different design ideas, then stitched up two test samples with fabrics from my stash. The first was my version of a 3D design that I've seen in a variety of places, including the quilt patterns "Entwined Illusion" or "Entangled Sky". My sample piece measures 20.5” x 23”.

3D Boxes, 20.5" x 23"

Besides 3D and optical illusion designs, I have always been fascinated by quilt designs that are pieced entirely with straight seams but have the appearance of curves. Think about a Storm at Sea quilt or a Bargello quilt. My second sample was a block from a quilt pattern by Judy Martin called “July Fireworks.” 

That single block isn't terribly exciting, but when you put several of them together along with sashing and border units, suddenly they are transformed into circles of flying geese! I named my quilt Magical Geese.

Magical Geese, 43.5" square

The pale pink solid was the closest match I could find to the "Magic Wand" paint chip. The fabrics are all Century Solids by Andover: Sugar (lightest), Girly Girl (medium), and Raspberry (dark). The backing fabric is "Fairy Rings" by Sarah Maxwell for Andover.

quilt back

The quilt was finished with stitch-in-the-ditch quilting along all of the pieced seams. I also added rings to emphasize the circles, orange peels in the centers of the stars and elaborate feather designs in the background.

I'm  linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Put Your Foot Down at A Quiltery

I Quilted This! at Quilting and Learning

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Slice of Pi Quilts 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA