The Beginning of My Maps/Mapping Challenge

This is my most recent finish -- EPICENTER.

48" wide x 64" long

Created using the free from Rail Fence design

from Sujata Shah's Cultural Fusion Quilts book.

This is the fifth free form rail fence quilt I've made

and I challenged myself with a not-shown-in-the-book

layout that involved four different versions 

of the basic freeform rail fence block.

My off center bulls-eye design named itself

almost as soon as the blocks first went on the design wall.

I quilted this with an outward-moving circle,

like ripples on a pond, using a liberated wavy line

rather than the usual smooth evenly-spaced version.

You can read the story on my blog 

behind the decision not to add 

traditional binding HERE

and you can see more photos 

of the quilt in process in THIS POST.

* * *

Click here for image source

I've thought a great deal about Ann's challenge

for the second half of this year.

Rather than creating a new-from-scratch quilt 

based on a map or to represent the mapping of something,

I want to explore the mapping of my own quilting journey

using the quilts I've made along the way

as well as Epicenter and two or three more

that are waiting in the wings.

I want to go back through my annual quilt journals

and choose the quilts that became milestones 

on my now fourteen-year quilting timeline.

I'll share these in a series of posts here

over the next few months.

I think this will be an interesting 

(and perhaps unexpected way)

to explore Ann's challenge 

on a very personal level.

Quiltdivajulie