WIP - Improv Winged Square Quilt

I've been working on a new passion project - my guild's Crayon Challenge quilt. At the June CJMQG meeting, we picked three random colors out of a hat and hot dog! - would you believe I chose my favorite, purple?! And what a brilliant shade, too.

I was stoked but completely lost on ideas. I quickly purchased a quarter yard of solid coral and green, and 1.5 yards of purple (Kona Geranium) from my LQS and meeting location, Pennington Quilt Works. I also found some matching prints in my stash. I chose to use white as my one neutral since it would pop so well. The big question... what to make?

Since this is just a challenge (and the minimum requirement is a mini quilt 12" x 12") I was actually going to go small for once. However, once the idea came about, I couldn't get it out of my head. Just like most great ideas, this one happened because of the presence of a lovely quilty friend.

Jess (@jtlevitt) and I were discussing challenge ideas at a recent sewing night, and I started talking  about how much I LOVE the traditional block I recently made (aka the winged star/Sunshine pillow from last week). I immediately started to think about a modern version of that block (I already love the one Heather Jones made, "Fly Away"). What if... it was set in a traditional layout, combined with improvisation and wonkiness? Also, what if it was NOT a mini? What if it made a BIG statement, whether you saw it up close or from afar?

I played around in Paint to figure out which layout I liked best. Usually I sketch quilts in my sketch book but this one had a lot of half-square triangles (HSTs) - it just seemed like the easier option. Copy and paste for the win! Plus, I was able to choose colors similar to my crayons.

Some of the triangles were actually facing the wrong direction here, but it did the job as a sketch.

Then, I tried it with blank blocks (below). I liked that even more! You know how much I love deconstructed quilt blocks, right? This whole Paint investigation took place after I had already started sewing... I had to go buy a little more purple fabric, but it's going swimmingly.

I've been posting the progress of this project in steps under the hashtag #improvwingedsquare on Instagram. I'll make sure to write more about the process soon, though! Now, I have all the rows laid out, and I'm just putting the quilt top together!

How to quilt it? Well, I have a couple of ideas. The challenge deadline is our September meeting; I'm looking for a late August finish. I'm so fired up!

Tell me about your latest "passion project." What gets YOU fired up - is it the fabrics your working with, the design, the quilting, the person you're making it for, or something else? For me, I think it's often all of the above, but for this quilt, it's the design (and the purple). I'm unapologetic and obsessed.

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday.