(Mid-Century) Modern

When I was given this very rectangular pieced quilt by Jenny at the Lil Red Hen Quilt Shop, I frankly was stymied for some time on how to quilt it. I really didn't want to do lots of straight lines. The quilt presented some challenges--first, the smaller patches were all rectangular--but needed some "rounding". Secondly, there was sashing, but not on all sides of every block--so more traditional sashing treatments didn't seem to work well. With sashings, it's nice to be able to travel from block to block easily. And with sashings on one, two or sometimes three sides, the sashing design needed to "fit" with the block quilting . The third challenge was that there were scattered 12" rectangles of solid gray. These needed a large design, but not one that is so complex that it wasn't really modern.

So I sat and stewed--and finally noticed that the plaid was just like one of my Dad's shirts from the early '60's; the turquoise background with cream and mustard roses I swear were just like my Grammy's curtains; the navy with cream roses sparked a vague memory of a skirt or maybe shorts (or both) of my Mom's, and I swear that the mustard with the little tic-tac-toes floating around was the same fabric as my Grandaddy's shirt (or maybe P.J's!)--all from the early 60's. Thus this was truly a Mid-Century Modern quilt!. With that in mind, I looked for designs that reminded me of that era.

Love this squared flower! And the rectangles worked well with Space Age orbits. The sashings? Needed simple with travel ease, but also something that could go all directions and not look like an "oops!"--thus the simple arches and zigzags. Hope you like it as much as I do!