Lime Green 3-D quilt - part One

It takes a few months of staying at home and staring at your fabric stash to come to the conclusion that some of that fabric should be USED and not stored.  I've known for a long time that I had two stacks of lime green fabric.  And that it was too much.  I know, you're SO surprised!  My mantra has always been that there can never be too much lime green... in anything... clothes, dishes, jewelry, decorations, and of course, fabric.  But, now, I've decided that it just has to be used and reduced to one stack, like all of the other colors.  Many of the lime green pieces were just scraps, but others were 1/2 yard or more.  This screamed out to me to make a quilt using as many of these different fabrics that I could fit into the top.

The other color that I had a lot of was gray.  Normally, I wouldn't think to combine gray with lime green, but I consider them both to be neutrals.  Yes, lime green is a neutral for me!

I looked through the file where I had been saving scrap quilt ideas.  And I also looked at the quilts that I had pinned on Pinterest.  A couple of them popped up as possibilities.  In the end, I landed on a quilt with a lot of circles on it that had a real 3-D effect.  The original quilt was named "Forca Barca" and was made by Rosa Rojas and Olga Gonzales-Angulo.  I believe it was exhibited at QuiltCon in 2018.

Here is the drawing of that quilt which was blown up to 54" x 54", with one row of background fabric already pinned in place.  I traced the entire circular part of the design onto a tear away stabilizer.  Then I cut it into horizontal strips.  If you look closely, you'll see the stabilizer on top of the drawing.

Here it is with a few more background rows in place.

 I traced each horizontal strip onto freezer paper and used that for my templates.

I ironed the freezer paper to the front of the fabric, turned under the top edge where it would be appliqued to the next piece, and pressed it, using the edge of the freezer paper as my pressing guide.

Then, I pinned it into place on top of the stabilizer, making sure to line up the pressed edge with the seam line on the stabilizer.  When all the pieces were pinned in place, I removed the freezer paper and stitched it with invisible thread and a narrow zig-zag stitch (1.4 mm W x 1.0 mm L).

Here is the background with all of the strips done, and some of the templates ready for the lime green applique.  You're probably wondering why I have been referring to it as the lime green quilt.  Don't worry, it'll get there.

Stay tuned for further posts about the making of this 3-D lime green quilt.