The Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023 and May OMG is done

This is my first time participating in the Pantone Quilt Challenge.  Many thanks to the hosts Sarah Ruiz and Elizabeth Ray.  I am working with Paintbrush Studios fabric in the color Cherry Blossom and Raspberry.  Here is my original fabric pulled for this project.

I ended up not using any yellow or white/grey background. I did add Moda grunge green, and different black and white fabric.  The constructions of the quilt top was painless and went pretty fast.  Basting was done next, and I determined to do the best I could so that I wouldn’t have any problem during the quilting.  I have to admit, in the past, I didn't pay much attention to this step, hence I often had problems with puckering.  This time I spaced the pins a little closer than usual and it seemed to pay off.  The quilting went well and was finished with plenty of time to work on the binding, so I thought.  

After squaring up the quilt, I saw that the edges of the quilt were rippled like a wave, especially the area where I used my Juki machine.  How could it be?  Did I stretch the quilt too much while sewing?  What to do then?  I decided to block the quilt by laying it on my design wall on top of a big table and spraying water along the rippled edges.  Then I put pins about an inch apart along the edges to flatten them out and left the quilt to lay flat over night.  The next morning, I was pleased to see the ripples were gone and all the edges were flattened out.  Then I proceeded with the binding.  What a great feeling when I put the last stitch on the binding!!  Here are the finished quilt pictures of the front and back.

 

 

For this wall hanging, I used 100% cotton muslin and Kona Silver on the back.  While I was taking the pictures, I realized I love the back as much as the front.  Don't the pictures above look like I made 2 minimalist quilts?  I love how the shadows from the front came through the back so much that I will explore this design concept more in the future.  

Quilt Stats:

Size:        42.5" x 52"

Fabric:    Various 100% Cotton and 

                PBS - Cherry Blossom and Raspberry

Bating:    Hobbs 80/20

Quilting threads:    Wonderfil Specialty Threads 

Quilted on:    Juki TL98E and Bernina 1080

I love doing challenges.  It gives me an opportunity to do things that are out of the ordinary for me.  Before this project, Magenta was not a go-to color for me.  I found that many colors look amazing with it too.  I still need to improve my basting and quilting process.  About 60% through the quilting, I had to change a machine from Juki to Bernina.  I like using the walking foot on both machines.  Even though the Bernina is a lot older machine, it's still sewing great and produces amazingly smooth stitching lines.   Go to here to check out other great OMG finishes.

On to the next project; I think I like to work with Denim fabric next.  What's under your sewing needle?  I hope you're having fun working on something. 

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.

Margo

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

Monday's Sew & Tell

Link to To Do Tuesday here hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt  

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese

June's Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup at Meadow Mist Design