"My Answer is Yes" is my first big finish of 2016 - it is 96" x 108". I started it in October when my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild had young modern quilt author Amy Garro as our speaker. Her book is
Paper Pieced Modern. During her lecture/trunk show I struggled with whether paper piecing is a good tool for the modern quilter. But then I saw her quilt
The Bachelor and decided to give this paper-piecing pattern a go.
This block is one of six paper-pieced blocks that are 12.5" square. Here's a link to the
first block I did and a picture of Amy's suggested layout. I struggled with what do do with them - whether to
incorporate additional fabrics, and what to use as
a background. By mid-November the backing arrived (a gorgeous Art Gallery grey with a shimmer of gold), and by the end of the month
it was pieced - almost. By mid-December it was delivered to
Terri and Frank Karls for some custom long-arming.
Frank took a picture of the quilt, and we talked about how to quilt this. I loved Amy Garro's pebbles - this linear quilt needs the softening, and I am so pleased with what Frank did. He did minimal quilting in the six big blocks, so that I could do some hand-quilting in them.
This is the entire back of the quilt. This quilt? It's all about the texture. The wool batting gives additional definition to all the quilting Frank did.
As a modern quilter there are so many tools and techniques available to us. Did I use paper-piecing in this quilt? Did I use improv piecing? Did I use some plain fabric for blocks? Did I use new fabrics? Did I use some old fabric? Did I machine piece? Did I do some hand quilting? Did I have the quilt custom long-armed? Can a modern quilter use paper-piecing and improv quilting in the same quilt? Can a modern quilting combine long-arming and hand stitching? Will the results be overwhelming and breathtakingly beautiful?
My Answer Is Yes.
