Righty Tighty - Monkey Wrench–A Focus Through the Prism Project QUILTING Challenge, May

My reality has been crazy lately and work has been taking me away from blogging lately.

I have been sewing here and there, though.

During the month of May I accepted a challenge from Kim over at Persimon Dreams

and

Righty Tighty is the result.

The Challenge: Monkey Wrench

• Each final project should read predominantly as one color in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet. 
• A ROYGBIV hand-dyed color bundle of fabric must be purchased from Cherrywood Fabrics  Hopefully you already have your bundle but you can join in the fun anytime … just make sure you have your quit done by the end of the month!
• You must use ONE fabric from the ROYGBIV challenge bundle in each quilt which should correspond with the color you want your quilt to ‘read’.
• Any other fabrics from your stash may be added.
• You must use the month's block
• Quilts must finish 20” square.
• Share the story behind your quilt and how the block ‘Monkey Wrench’ was the inspiration.
• Your quilt must have a name.
• Pictures of your FINISHED 20” square quilts must be LINKED UP by 11:55pm CST on Sunday, May 31st (Trisha’s actual birthday). 
• A 4" quilt rod pocket will need to be added to the back of the quilt before you send it to me January.

After the challenge was posted I went to work right away drawing up my plan in EQ7.  I wanted to go industrial and really wanted to contrast the traditional quilt block with an actual monkey wrench.  I wanted to work with dimension and add shadows to the blocks.  

This is what I started with.

Hubby pointed out that my wrench looked more like a crescent wrench than a monkey wrench.

So I redrew the wrench and now it is correct.  lol

The quilt block monkey wrenches are paper pieced and the wrench is appliqued.

Cherry Wood Fabrics Blue from my ROYGBIV bundle was used for the paper pieced monkey wrenches.

The dark blue background added a little contrast with tiny flowers in an industrial setting.  It's from Connecting Threads.

The black and white stripe worked perfectly for the screw adjuster on the wrench.

I worked with shadows again trying to make the blocks more industrial by making the monkey wrench blocks look more like nuts holding a box in place.

The quilting is block type stipple.  I just meandered in square shapes instead of curves.  

Here is a picture of the back to show the quilting.

The binding is blue measuring tape fabric from the She Who Sews series by Quilting Treasures.

Monkey Wrench–A Focus Through the Prism Project QUILTING Challenge, May

Righty Tighty

Made by Carla in Dodge City, Kansas

http://www.createinthesticks.blogspot.com/

Size: 20" x 20"

Prism color: Blue from the ROYGBIV fabric bundle by Cherrywood Fabrics

Paper piecing and machine applique

Quilting - block shaped stippling  by me on my domestic machine with Aurifil 50 wt 

The photos needed to feel industrial and I had so much fun getting out of my "pretty" comfort zone.

This quilt represents many challenges I had in my head.

Now I've put them to fabric and want to work with shadows and geometric design a little more.

Friday (or so) Finishes

I haven't been sharing much

but I have been sewing a little.

I finished this quilt top for the

Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge.

There is Miss Molly, my little (big) helper.  

Out here in western Kansas the wind never stops.  To take a photo of a flimsy, you must allow for the wind and just get on your knees to take a shot looking up.  lol

I finished this bed quilt for a friend.

She had the denim squares and the blue fabric and asked me to put them together for her niece.

This will be for a high school graduation gift.  It's big enough for a full sized bed, but will be plenty large enough for a dorm room bed for next year.

My friend had purchased the denim squares from an individual.  I think they were all supposed to be 6" but some were larger and some smaller.  Ugh.  That was a challenge.

Some even had spandex in them.  Another ugh.   I didn't use those.... 

My friend will let me do the designing and purchasing next time she needs a quilt.  This one took WAY longer than it should have.

My friend also wanted a quillow  (quilt with a pocket to fold it into a pillow) for another niece.

This time I chose the fabrics... wink.  This is for a photography buff who is graduating this month.  The camera fabric is Michael Miller.  I used minky fabric on one side and camera fabric on the other.

I was queen of my modern block party in April and have been receiving blocks in the mail.  It's so fun and I hope to start putting the quilt together as soon as all the blocks arrive.

Have a happy May day!