Targets!

Oh Kaffe, Kaffe, Kaffe. How you inspire me so! My newfound thrill at my newfound skill of pinless circle piecing met up with my fabric design hero for this cute lil' wall hanging I'll call Targets -- after the lovely Kaffe Fasset-designed fabric of the same name.

Delighted as I was at learning this new technique, I immediately started grabbing and pulling fabrics out of the Stash of Density. The size of my creation hinged on the amount of linen fabric I had, so taxing my brain with math, I figured I could cut 25 6-3/4" squares of the stuff, which meant I'd need to unearth 25 disparate orange-themed fabrics. I tried, Lord, I tried, to do it all with stash, but ended up sneaking of to my LQS for  3 or 4 other little hunks of orange-y goodness..

Initially, I had intended to have the colors radiate out from dark to light, but I ultimately didn't have enough range of value to achieve the look I wanted. So I scattered them randomly, ultimately satisfied with the way the values helped the eye to move.

I was trying for a sort of plaid look with the quilting - and used a range of colors, some variegated, some not, the result I thought, although simple, seemed to serve the quilt well, as it didn't detract from the kind of homespun look of the linen.

And oh! The back. Sheesh, did I overdo that! First I stitch basted some crisp white Quilter's Cotton Sateen, and then I tried tea-dyeing it in a dark bath of way-expired English Breakfast (I guess I don't drink that much caffeinated tea.) The shibori effect didn't show up that well, and the tea-dyed portions were very subtle. So, I rinsed the tea out, pulled out all the stitch-basting, and threw the fabric into some Dharma Trading deep orange. It's a little eye searing now.

Just for fun, I made and stitched on an entire bias binding made out of the lavender and orange font fabric before deciding I hated it and ripping it all out. Using some of my precious remaining Targets for the binding instead -- pleased me. Yay! I'm glad I made the change.