Finish: Mod Pop
One of my goals for 2012 was to try a quilt-a-long, but it took me a while for my free time to match up with a QAL that I was interested in. Fortunately, Leanne at she can quilt decided to host a QAL for the Mod Pop quilt pattern at just the right time, and I had totally fallen in love with the pattern, so I decided to join in. As an added bonus, I’d also vowed to tackle curves in 2012, so I’d have that off my list as well!
I knew I wanted to do something with navy, because I have really been loving that color but hadn’t had a chance to do any projects with it at that point. (Now of course I have 4 projects recently finished that used navy and I’m ready to move on, I swear!) But what to go with it? Then I remembered that my personal trainer (Bill)’s favorite color is navy blue, and I realized I really owed him a Christmas present since he’s also a friend and trains me for free (!!!), and it all came together.
Bill’s other favorite colors are white/grey so I decided I would use that as my color scheme. But then it came down to whether I wanted to do the design as grey on navy or navy on grey. And wow I tried a lot of different visualization methods to figure out which I’d like better.
After a lot of feedback (thanks everyone!) I decided to go with navy on grey, and I’m really glad I did. I think if I had more navy tonals (instead of mostly white on navy) I would have been happy with the navy in the background, but I don’t have them, so I’m glad I went with the grey background. Because there’s not a lot of contrast in the greys, it tends to blend together and get out of the way and let the chains really pop.
Finished top
Once the top was done, it sat for over a month as I figured out what to do with the back. I had a lot of curved pieces leftover (I actually STILL have some leftover… maybe I should have bothered trying to count what I needed..) so I decided to do a reverse chain–more out of curiosity of how it would look than any real design focus. Then I surrounded it with two different navy solids (the darker is Cotton Couture in Indigo, and the lighter is Kona Nautical) and called it done.
Finished back
I tried a few different things for the quilting, but in the end I liked the look of the simple echo quilting the best. I didn’t want the quilting to be too dense, because I wanted it to have a lot of drape. While strong-arming the quilt through my poor machine, I had dreams of getting a long-arm. I don’t really NEED a car, right??
Echo quilting
Finally, the quilting done, it was time to pick binding! I knew I wanted to do lime green to pick up the pops of it in that showed up in a number of the navy fabrics, but also because Bill’s partner’s favorite color is green. After pulling about 10 bolts of different green fabrics at Intrepid Thread‘s new physical store (yay!), I went with my first instinct which was V and Co’s lime green ombre in the Simply Color line. The ombre is fairly subtle as a binding, but I really am happy with how it comes together, and it really pops with those dark navies on the back!
Lime green ombre binding – V and Co – Simply Color
There are a lot of imperfections in this quilt (including one “humility block” which is rotated the wrong way) but I really love the way it looks now that it’s finished. I gifted it to Bill yesterday and I’m happy to say that he absolutely loved it! There are a lot of fabrics in the quilt that are little nods to his tastes and inside jokes, and I’m really pleased I was able to finish it!
All done and crinkly from the dryer!
The back, all crinkly!
This was the biggest quilt I’ve completed to date. Maybe next year I’ll dare a queen?!
Quilt stats:
Design: Mod Pop – pattern by Julie @ Distant Pickles
Dimensions: Twin sized – 60″ x 80″
Fabrics: So many. I believe there are 23 different navy fabrics, and 27 different white/grey fabrics, but I lost count at some point.
Humility block location: Lower left corner
And a few close-ups from before it was washed!
Love the binding from the back!
Pre-crinkled front.
-Anne
There is SO much I love about your mod pop! The colors of course. And your quilting! And your reverse chain on the back! And the binding!! Wow – it’s really really special. And love that you did your first sew-along AND tackled curves to boot. Congrats on an awesome finish!
You’re so sweet! Thank you for your kind words!
I had a lot of fun with this quilt, and I’m so glad I tackled those things! Just a few more things that don’t intimidate me anymore. 
It’s fantastic! Such a beautiful quilt is sure to be treasured
Thanks so much, Charlotte! I’m happy it’s done and gifted, but now I really want to make a quilt for myself!
That’s such a great quilt! I love the colors and the quilting. You’ve definitely achieved some of your 2012 goals with this one.
I really appreciate your kind words, thank you! I’m really glad I tackled curves, because now they’re not intimidating at all!
it´s just beautiful and love your fabrics choice and design.Great job.Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas to you, as well!
Thanks for the kind words! Picking out fabrics is my favorite part of quilting…that and the hand stitching of the binding. Too bad there’s so much else in between. HAhahaa 
Anne, this one turned out wonderfully! I really love it!
Thanks Jen! I am really happy with how it came out! Now I want to make one for me! But without doing all that work again. Where’s that cloning machine?!
This is just wonderful! I love how it turned out. Congrats on the finish!
Thank you! It feels great to have this one completed and conquered! And I am over my fear of curves, to boot.
That is an amazing quilt! Curved pieces, the reverse colors on the back, and the echo quilting are all fabulous!!
Thank you! I had a lot of fun working on this quilt! With that said, I’m also glad it’s completed. I’m ready for a different color palette for a while! hahaha
This quilt is totally awesome! I love the colors you picked!
Thank you so much! I’ve been really loving navy lately, and I feel like I was able to work through that with this quilt.
Now I’m ready for more color schemes!
So glad you linked up on LAFF, so I could see this great quilt. I love the contrast and the shape.
Sorry I didn’t respond earlier, I have been traveling for the holidays.
This was my first time linking up with LAFF, it’s such a great link party! I’m looking forward to seeing more of what people make every week. 
Thank you so much for your kind words, it was a really fun quilt to make.
Love your quilt! The front, the back, fabulous! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you as well! I’m sorry I didn’t respond earlier, but I was traveling for the holidays.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I really enjoyed making this quilt and had my doubts in process, but really ended up liking it once it was done!
Love your quilt the colors and backing, you did a wonderful job. I also love your Palette Builder, it is so helpful, thanks.
Thank you so much! I went through a lot of doubts in the process of making this quilt, so I was really happy when it came together at the end! Also, I’m really pleased to hear you love the palette builder! Please feel free to share any palettes you make in our flickr group, I love seeing them.
Love this quilt it is fantastic. Those are curved quilted blocks right? Such a fantastic design. Thanks for linking up.
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Thanks so much! Yes, they are curved pieces. I used a template made for this pattern, although it’s fairly similar to a drunkard’s path.
I discovered your AMAZING quilt last night when I couldn’t sleep and was wandering around the quilting blogosphere. I was so smitten, I HAD to blog about it and share it with all of my friends, here with links back to here, Julie Pickles blog and pattern and the Flickr QAL … yes, I loved it that much. (But if it’s not OK with you to have shared your photo, just let me know and I’ll take it down ASAP.)
I’m sorry you had insomnia, but I’m excited you’re planning to make a mod pop!! It’s really a lot of fun.
You should totally share your pictures in the flickr group as you go along, I love seeing all the variations. 
Thanks so much for asking permission, and it’s totally fine that you used an image. I am going to follow your blog so I can follow your progress and follow along in all your quilted prettiness! Also, because I am totally in love with Santa Fe.