Gap Improv, a finished quilt

This quilt started in the unlikeliest of places: in the Gap, in early January 2015. I hate malls and I hate branded clothes but I had to put on my big girl panties and brave the mall for a Christmas return. I was struck by the colours of their new line (teal, gold, grey, and a lovely floral) so I snapped a pic on my flip phone (hence the really poor quality).

Using the MQG quilt of the month pattern “Chess on the Steps” from Krista Hennebury I created the centre bit and started adding borders. I had no finished quilt in mind, just a plan to see at every step what the quilt needed next. I made the centre bit (teal and yellow) sometime in late spring 2015.

This fabric was dark on the selvedges and light at the fold. I fussy cut it to get uniform colour all the way around.

The floral border is added.

Trying out different border options.

The finished quilt top.

I put the rest of this together in July-August 2015 with the intention of hand quilting the centre bit while away on a really boring sedentary trip. Did you know the trick of folding  your backing over to the front to protect your edges?

Centre bit hand quilting finished!

And then I started this blog in September; this quilt shows up for the first time on Day 18 of blogging. You can search “gap improv medallion” for all the posts about this quilt. I worked on the hand quilting until November when all progress stopped. I was stumped by what quilting to do and intimidated by my lacking FMQ skills. I picked it up again in April and have been quilting it on and off since then.

This quilt is for sale. Price pretty reasonable. Info upon request.

Stats:

Title: Gap Improv Medallion

Lifetime quilt no.51

Started: June 2015

Finished: May 23, 2016

Size: 40″x40″

Number of pieces: 125

Quilting: hand quilted with perle cotton, FMQ with various Gutterman/Aurifil threads.

This quit was #4 on my 2016 Finish A-Long list. Ta-done!

Linking up with: