Mostly Modern {June IBA Challenge}

It's my favorite month for us Island Batik Ambassadors -- it's Modern month! I started plotting this project as soon as we got the schedule for this year!

The Modern Quilt Guild provides the following definition of modern quilting:

"Modern quilts are primarily functional and inspired by modern design. Modern quilters work in different styles and define modern quilting in different ways, but several characteristics often appear which may help identify a modern quilt. These include, but are not limited to: the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space, and alternate grid work."

Last year I designed and made my Ombre Everest mini quilt which focused on improvisational piecing but also included alternate grid work.

This year, I decided I wanted to use the pink fabrics from my Sunflower Serenade bundle (below) combined with cream for a very bold mini quilt.

This is the design I mocked up with some of the fabric swatches:

This "30 Pearls" design is inspired by the fact that pearl is the birthstone for June and a traditional 30th anniversary gift, in honor of my upcoming 30th birthday. The simple drunkard's path block "pearls" are scattered throughout the grid semi-randomly with lots of negative space for me to free motion quilt.

I'm done with the cutting for the blocks and have sewn the first two rows of drunkard's path blocks.

Next week I'm hoping to have a finished top to show off! I'm already thinking about the quilting for this one -- I think the white areas should be filled with pebbles (obviously!) and then I'll use a few different fillers for the pink fabrics. What do you think?

Don't forget to check out what my fellow ambassadors have been working on by checking out the Island Batik Facebook page! Sharing at Finished or not Friday!