Map of the States

This quilt has been finished (and in use) for quite some time, but I never did write a post about it.  (I did show two photos of the unquilted top here.)


Many moons (okay about a year) ago I was a member of the A Piece of Work quilting bee.  For my month I chose to do a quilt using the Map of the States block tutorial written by Elizabeth - who blogs over at Oh Fransson.  (Cool blog.  You should go and visit.)






I loved the look of the greens and grays that she chose to use in the tutorial.  I went a similar route, but also added a bit of orange just to keep things interesting. (Aren’t I edgy?)






I asked the group members to make me any size of block, rectangle or square, and then frame them in a thin black strip.  After I received the blocks I sashed them all with some Kona Ash.


For the backing I used this gorgeous green and gray print from Kate Spain.  I believe it is from her Verna line.


 



The quilt is quilted in your basic meandering pattern.  I thought about doing some straight line quilting, but I felt that all of the angular lines of the blocks needed some softening.  I love the end result.  You know, it never ceases to amaze me what the quilting step of quilt construction can do for the overall look of a quilt. 


Binding can also have an impact and it does in this quilt.  For some of my projects I prefer to have the binding visually melt into the quilt top.  For this one, I wanted a nice black frame for my quilt – to compete with the frames that are around each block.  The fabric I used for the binding is from the Haunted Mansion line by Sanae.





The finished quilt measures 58” x 67”  and it is currently folded over the back of my favorite reading chair.  A big thank you goes out to all of the women of the APOWA Bee that helped create one of my favorite quilts!