Lenten Twelves : Easter

Seven weeks ago my mom challenged me to feast into creativity this Lent by creating one twelve-inch quilt per week. Thus began Lenten Twelves. Finishing up quilt six and the final week, I consider it a success. My creative dam has broken. From exploring new techniques to pushing personal boundaries, these last weeks have been fun adventures in quilting with the wonderful gentle pressure (of texts from my mom with her finished weekly quilts) to just keep sewing. Thanks, Mom!

This week's quilt was a mix of experiments. First up: curved piecing. I went for minimal this time, cutting the pieces on a whim at Wednesday sewing night and whipping it up just as the evening came to a close. It still blows my mind that I hadn't ever tried curved piecing before Lenten Twelves One ! Curves are almost easier than half-square triangles!! Second on the quilt docket: printing. This week, I opted for my childhood favorite, periwinkle, and I love it. Thanks for the suggestion, Yvonne! Experiment three: free-motion quilting. I'm rather rusty and inexperienced, but the pattern came together better than I was expecting! I'm not sure I love it with the printed design. (It reminds me a tad of wheat rather than foliage.) However, I realized that I also shouldn't be overly intimidated by it! And that is enough to make it a success.

This series has truly been about working through my quilting hangups. Colors. Circles. Curves. Applique. Minimalism. Printing. Free motion quilting. With the celebration of Easter, I am bringing Lenten Twelves to a close until next year. Thank you for joining me on my journey. I hope I can encourage you to push even just one of your quilting boundaries. After all, after the forty days of Lent...come the forty days of Easter!

If you missed the Lenten Twelves Intro Post, follow the link and read it now for background on the challenge my mum and I took up this Lent. Find her finished Lenten Twelves here. Or find my Lenten Twelve One, Lenten Twelve Two, Lenten Twelve Three, and Lenten Twelve Four, and Lenten Twelve Five. Happy exploring.

Lenten Twelves : Five

I never thought I'd be one to love a quilt of mine so imperfect as this, but I do. Several of the corners don't quite match up and in an attempt to beat them into aligned submission, I ended up not catching the edge of the fabric. Of course my favorite closeup below displays the slip. Ah well, c'est la vie. On a whim, I decided to finish the edge by folding it over a quarter inch and stitching along the edge. Mostly successful. Very wobbly. I may have whipstitched a stray inch or two that I missed catching there as well. Nobody look too closely. We're all human, right?

I am, however, pretty excited about the composition. I'm loving the grey on grey pistachios look that I started with last week's lenten quilt, and my all time favorite bit is the quilting. I didn't want an all over quilt pattern so I sat and stared and squinted for quite some time until Brent suggested the matchstick quilting. I love it. Can't wait to see where this series takes me next!

If you missed the Lenten Twelves Intro Post, follow the link and read it now for background on the challenge my mum and I took up this Lent. If you'd like to join us or just follow along you can find us on instagram with #LentenTwelves or just check out her blog Fibermusing and her Lenten Twelves. Find my Lenten Twelve One, Lenten Twelve Two, Lenten Twelve Three, and Lenten Twelve Four.