Monkey Business

Yes, my previous photo is a little more artsy and interesting, but all the other submission photos for this challenge have been cropped to just a straight on view of the quilt alone, so that's what I'm going with too.

I already wrote about my inspiration and the process I used to make this quilt in more detail in earlier posts, but as part of the submission, we are supposed to share the story behind the quilt.  So I'm going to include some of that again in this post so challenge participants don't have to go searching for it.

I really enjoy improvisational piecing, So when the inspiration block was revealed as the Monkey Wrench block, I immediately decided my version was going to be wonky....like a monkey did it. Thus the concept for Monkey Business was born.

I had no real plan beyond that when I started.  I designed it pretty much on the fly, making some blocks and placing them on the design board and then figuring out how to piece them together.

Once I was finished, I wasn't completely satisfied with the result and I ended up picking apart some of the monkey wrench blocks and adding in more of the red and yellow fabrics.

Deciding on how to quilt a project is usually a challenge for me.  So when it came time to quilt this, I was very happily surprised to realize I already had a plan in my head.

My quilt has now been submitted along with the other finished projects from this challenge.  So far there are about twenty of them, all very different and unique.  As we are nearing the May 31st deadline, more are being submitted every day.   You can see them here.

This has been so much fun and such a great learning experience.  I am starting to understand why artists often work in a series.  As I was finishing this up, I had several ideas on how I might do it differently if I were to do it again and it would be fun to explore those.

I am looking forward to June 1st and our new challenge.