chicago flag

A while back we were given a challenge at our Naperville Modern Quilt Guild to make a Modern in the City quilt.

I was quite lost and almost decided not to participate in the challenge at all. I thought of doing skyscrapers, windows, busy roads, or urban gardens, but the whole time it felt like I was trying to come up with a quilt that simply was not "me".

And then I came across a picture of our Chicago flag. Amazingly I've lived in Chicago + Chicago suburbs for over 16 years and I never really noticed the flag. Who knew cities had their own flags!?!?

I drafted my own pattern for the star, I broke tons of paper piecing rules and wasted lots of material making it, but I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

Thankfully this aqua circular outline was also a lot less nightmarish than I thought and it all came together pretty well (all those geometry classes I had to take in high school are finally paying off :) ).

Then it was on to quilting. I first quilted straight lines about 2.5" apart to stabilize the whole thing and then gradually filled in all the matchstick quilting. I must say, the transformation was amazing.

My quilts are usually all about piecing and quilting is there just to hold the layers together, but this matchstick quilting totally makes this quilt. ♥♥♥

And look, no more snow!!! Yay, spring has finally decided to show up.

Finished size of this quilt is 36" x 36".

Thanks for reading friends. Hope you too are having a beautiful spring day. Svetlana