I love mountains~

One of my favorite modern quilters to follow is Suzy Williams from Chicago.  Her quilts appeal to me for so many reasons. Two of them are that her designs are fresh and  playful.  Another reason is that her quilts have such a lovely organic quality to them. It’s hard to describe but I think some of it has to do with the effects she gets with her hand-quilting. I love that she breaks the rules by using heavier thread than traditional quilting thread and she freely creates large/irregular stitches with her lovely embroidery and decorative threads, that end up taking the quilt in an unexpected direction.  She’s not the only one that does this, but she’s the one who seems to have the most success, in my opinion, of creating a quilted effect that invites you take a closer look, to follow her spontaneity and playfulness. And it gives her quilts a unique quirky personality. Her use of color is also compelling.  She was a design student in college and it shows in her quilts! Have a look at her website if you are curious.  SuzyQuilts

But back to the subject of mountains. When Suzy released a new pattern earlier this year called Mod Mountains, I had to purchase it.  The design & technique ended up being so much fun (and because I had triangles leftover) I ended up making two of them and right now I am putting in the last hand-quilting stitches on the first one, sort of following her designs but adding some ideas of my own.  I don’t always name my quilts, but this one I am calling Rain on Gold Mountain.

As I’ve been quilting it, I’ve realized like never before how a quilt with a lot of negative space can become a sort of palette on which to highlight and express one of the crucial and appealing components of Quilts and why quilters through the ages have used negative space to express their ideas and show off their skills. These beloved fabric objects are all about theme, color and texture. If theme is king, color is queen! And texture just might (sometimes) be the jester!! It is definitely the element that brings a quilt to life.  You can see the difference (before quilting and after) in the photos.

Finally, I felt super lucky to find the backing fabric at my local quilt shop. It was on sale for 50% off … and it has pointy mountains! 

Thanks to Suzy W. for a great pattern. I may have to make a third one, this time with a dark background. I know! I’ll call it Nighttime in the Mountains.