LMQG Modern Elements Challenge

Okay, I know I've been MIA lately, but I assure y'all, I'm here and I'm fine.  I simply haven't been sewing in the last month or so.  I've simply been too exhausted.  Work has been more demanding as of late, and there's the whole I'm-growing-a-human-inside-my-belly thing going on too.  So let me try to preemptively answer the usual barrage of questions:

The culprit at 8 weeks.  Say hello, #babyschep !

Yes, I'm having a baby.  Yes, my husband is the father.  (I'm kidding, no one's really asked me that one!)  It's due on November 24th.  No, I don't know if it's a boy or girl yet.  Yes, we are planning on finding out before it's born.  No, we weren't really planning on having one right now, but yes, we're glad it's happening now. 

Okay, sorry to be curt, but let's move on to the sewing, shall we?  The one item I've managed to complete recently is my entry into the Lakeland Modern Quilt Guild's Modern Elements Challenge.  Northcott fabrics was so kind to give us some fat quarter bundles to play with for this challenge.  You can view the Modern Elements fabric line here.  The rules were simple:  make something quilted between 12"x12" and 24"x24" using all three fat quarters and matching Toscana blenders.  Simple enough, right?

Well...I had issues.  My instinct was to applique this thing and get it over with.  After all, applique is my thing.  I did, however, want to challenge myself.  Piecing is not my strong suit, so I thought that following a pattern might help.  Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine has done a mini quilt series this year featuring our local "sewlebrity" Elizabeth Dackson.  I decided I just HAD to make one of her patterns.  One issue: I found myself with two days left in the challenge, which is not the time to teach myself paper piecing.  I ended up choosing one of her non-FPP patterns. 

My hubby is a trooper.  He helped me get organized so I could finish my entry in time.  The hubster is extremely type-A, so here's the stacks of pieces he made for me, organized by size:

Cutting the pieces out was the most time consuming part.  Afterwards, the piecing came together fairly quickly.  I had some leftover fusible batting, so basting was a cinch:

I haven't finished very many projects, so I gave my free motion quilting a whirl (a design I learned from Elizabeth by the way!):

The swirly loops went very quickly and didn't turn out all that badly in my opinion.


Well, here's my finished entry:

I didn't win any prizes (not that I was expecting it to!), but it was fun to try something new without a huge time commitment.  Many thanks to the LMQG, Northcott, and the prize sponsors for a fun time!