The first prompt for Season 17 of Project Quilting is based on the Pantone Color of the Year: Cloud Dancer. When Cloud Dancer, which is white, was announced as the color of the year in December, I was not impressed. From a marketing perspective, it certainly garnered a LOT of social media attention, so in the Kardashian view of the universe that all press is good press, I suppose it was a good choice for the company. Regardless, I thought that Trish’s take on the challenge for this week was a smart way to think about it:
I’m letting you decide how you’ll start this year with the proverbial “clean slate”[.]
Rule One: Your project should represent 2026 creativity starting from a clean slate. You get to interpret what that means. Start fresh, stay loose, and listen to your muses.
Okay, with that in mind, on Sunday just after the prompt was announced, I dove right in.
Sunday
I spent Sunday making sure my studio was a clean slate. I lint rolled my design wall, I dusted out and cleaned my iron, I dusted and oiled my sewing machine and gave it a fresh needle, and I replaced all of the blades on my rotary cutters. All the while, I pondered what “A Clean Slate” might mean in terms of fabrics or designs. While I was cleaning, I noted that it was time to tidy away the remaining scraps from the Highland quilt. While I am piecing a quilt top, I like to keep fabric scraps handy in case I need to re-cut a piece or if I mis-cut the number of pieces (which happens fairly often as I am pretty terrible at following my quilt patterns, but I digress). Well, instead of putting the Highland quilt leftovers in the scrap bin, I placed them on my cutting board and started designing.
Monday
Monday after work, I finalized the design based on the amount of scraps that I had on hand, found enough white solid in my stash to pair with the prints, cut all my fabric, and got through the initial chain piecing to make a slew of half-square triangles (aka 72).
Tuesday
I didn’t have much time to spend in my studio on Tuesday afternoon, but I was able to get the HSTs pressed, trimmed, and up on my design wall. For those curious, I trimmed the HSTs to 3″ square. Progress!
Wednesday
Wednesday was for piecing the quilt top together and sitting back down to consider a quilting plan. The quilt top measured 30½” square, which should make for a good future baby quilt or wall hanging.
Thursday
Not every week at work is the same for me, but this week my work week ended on Thursday. After logging out for the week at work, I marked out the quilting plan I selected using a Hera marker, basted the quilt using the last of the Highland quilt background fabric for backing, and got about 25% of the quilting finished.
A Clean Slate
Those who have been following along with my journey to piece the Highland quilt might recognize that I did not have any scraps from one of the 4 main prints used in the quilt top. Friday I was able to finish the quilting, make the binding from remaining yardage of the unused 4th print, and get all but the last 20″ of the binding stitched down to the back of the quilt. I’m curious if the quilting plan I chose is the quilting plan you liked best from my mockups. :) To preserve the points at the edge of the quilt, I trimmed to leave between ¼” and ⅜” beyond the points when I squared up the quilt after quilting. I used 2¼” wide double fold binding and sewed it on with as close to a true ¼” seam allowance as I could. I am especially pleased with how well the piecing angles go into the corners of the quilt – sometimes it can be hard to really get the corners of a quilt square in relation to the piecing lines.
A Clean Slate – Back
I pieced the quilt top using 50wt Aurifil in 2600 (Dove), quilted using 50wt Aurifil in 2021 (White), and stitched the binding down using 50wt Aurifil in 2860 (Light Emerald). The bright white quilting shows up nicely on the back of the quilt. It was fun to try to puzzle out as few starts and stops as possible as I quilted using my walking foot.
A Clean Slate + Yvonne
I really enjoyed the extra nudge to consider how to work with Cloud Dancer, a color of the year that I had not found inspiring. Thanks for a great way to kickstart my creativity, Trish and Kim. I look forward to what our next challenge will be!
Linking up with PQ 17.1 A Clean Slate, Needle and Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Friday, and Beauties Pageant.
This is absolutely gorgeous! I can’t tell you how much I enjoy seeing what you create each season for the challenges!
Lovely finish Yvonne. I had the same thought of using up those leftovers right away instead of adding them to my scrap bin. Great minds think alike.
Oh, I absolutely love your little quilt. It is so pretty, and features my favorite color, green.
You definitely do not take the easy way out when it comes to your challenge quilts! I appreciate you sharing your thought process regarding responding to this challenge prompt. You ended up with a lovely green and white quilt that you put together in a short time frame.
Very cool project. The white looks so crisp with those greens. The quilting works really well. Congrats on the quick finish.
Wonderful way to use up your scraps and incorporate the white challenge color. I don’t find white inspiring either. It really is only January that I think of featuring it in my home decor. But one can only have so many snowflakes, LOL!! Great job.
To me, it’s always satisfying to be able to use scraps from one quilt to make another. The design of this quilt is so pretty, and I do like your quilting design choice, echoing the piecing. Is the quilt back a leftover bit from the Highland quilt, too? Well done on the first challenge, Yvonne. Maybe I’ll join in with the next one, we’ll see!
Very nice! I think the quilting you did really elevated your piecing design. And I loved how you started with a clean slate in your studio!
Well once again, you took to the challenge and you killed it. It is lovely and no more scraps! I am envious.
Lovely little quilt Yvonne! Yay for using up scraps and making something useful and pretty!
Brilliant! I love the gentle reminder that we need to clean in the crevices of our irons, a spot I often overlook, but shouldn’t. And good to think about new rotary blades for the new year, too. But most of all, I love that quilt you made, using the white as an integral part and the scraps (which will remind you of the Highland quilt). So do tell: when you machine quilt, what speed is your usual: slow, medium, or a little more quickly (I’m pretty sure you never do Top Speed). As usual, your quilt is just wonderful!
It came out wonderful and I love the immediate use of the scraps.
I love that you gave your studio and tools a bit of a clean slate service as you percolated over the prompt! Your finished piece is very striking and the variety of greens add sparkle!
Your design of Clean Slate is fantastic and your quilting is perfect for it! I love that you were able to trim and bind so as not to cut off the points. It’s always nice to be able to use leftovers from previous projects to begin the year off with a few less scraps – so another clean slate, so to speak, in addition to your studio!
What a lovely quilt. Your designs are always so balanced and I really like the way the quilt design takes inspiration from and adds to the patchwork shapes. From an uninspiring colour to an inspired piece of patchwork quilting :-)
You had a SUPER Clean slate!! way to go in the tidying up and cleaning of the studio !
Love the Clean Slate project you came up with – its very fresh!
Hi Yvonne, I had to laugh when you started your clean slate by cleaning your studio….it never crossed my mind (which is good because I’d still be at it!) I love your finish – using up the remaining scraps was also about keeping your scrap bin clean. Take care.