Crosshairs Quilt

When I found this ribbon at Tai Pan I was thrilled!

It sat on my craft table for a day before I thought,

"Hey, that ribbon is fabric and I could use it in a quilt."

I got started cutting off the wire edges and attempted

a slice & insert technique on a few blocks and pieced 

them together and I came up with the quilt top 

that is below. (I started on this project in March 2014)

As I was piecing the 

5 blocks together with the

mustard colored fabric I decided

that I needed another fabric to use for 

sashing.I really wanted to stay in the same color

scheme so I used the back side of the mustard 

fabric for the lighter colored sashing.

I decided to treat the burlap sashing the same

way and use the back side of it in the sashing too.

Here is the completed quilt. I decided to call it Crosshairs first of all 

because burlap is full of fibers that cross each other. Secondly I 

gave it that name because of the quilting motifs criss-cross all over

the surface of the quilt.

Since I was already using the back side

of the fabric and burlap I wanted to do something else unique for the 

binding. I decided to use a faced binding, that is invisible from the 

front, but I shredded some of the burlap and put it on the left side.

There aren't any tutorials on line for how to shred burlap ribbon and

attach them to a faced binding. I was on my own for that one. 

(Quilting was completed in September 2014, just in time to enter

it into the Road to California show, only to get the reject reply from

them a few months later.)

Here are some close ups of the quilt.

This quilt is probably the 3rd quilt I actually

quilted myself. After taking a Free Motion 

Quilting class and attending Road to California

this year I am working on my quilting skills and

I also have a better idea of what quilting looks

like on a quilt accepted into the show.

Now my question is, "Do you quilt what you 
like and know? Or do you quilt what the 
judges want and expect?" I think all artists 
struggle with being true to what they know
how to do, and wanting to meet the expectations 
of what a client expects, (in this case...a judge).
I think that both can work together, but it's 
through time and experience that we gain 
the knowledge that we need. 

I noticed at Road to California there were lots
of quilts with every square inch of fabric filled 
with quilting motifs. Is this what the judges 
look for in a good quilt? Or is this what separates
show quilts from the others? 

One thing I have learned as a graphic designer
is that all good design needs to support and
communicate the message of the artist.