On the Boardwalk...

Ta da!  This is my entry in the SMQG Asbury Challenge, a mini quilt I'm calling On the Boardwalk. 
The challenge was to create a project of our choosing from Thomas Knauer's Asbury line from Andover Fabrics.  I decided to create a mini quilt that showed the fun and spirit of Asbury Park that Thomas Knauer describes here.  I wanted to use as much of the charm pack as I could and really, really tried to keep to the one and only rule - no other fabrics besides the Asbury and complimentary solids.  Because I cut them up so much in places, I've added a couple photos of the swatches unaltered so you can imagine them in your own projects!

The only rule was immediately broken - a ticket booth needs to have a ticket taker.  It just does.  I fussy cut and sewed around this little guy from Sarah Jane's Children at Play line so that he could collect the cash for entry into the bumper cars.  But he's pretty little in the scheme of things - less than 1.5" - so I've been promised that it will slide under the radar. :)

I fussy cut the dollar signs from one of the print swatches to make the sign and then added decorative stitching around it, hoping to resemble those blinking lights that are always on fairground signs.  The pink Boardwalk print was perfect to construct the ticket booth!


Asbury Floral in Red

The ferris wheel was created by arranging appliqued Jellybean swatches using a Jacob's Coat pattern, but with fussy cut pieces from the Floral swatches for the middle and outer edges and the stands added in. 

The bunting might just be my favorite part.  I appliqued triangles cut from this swatch that reminded me of the Wheel of Fortune.

Actually, I take that back.  I think the boardwalk might be my favorite part.  In our charm pack, we got 2 swatches of Boardwalk - the pink/orange and the aqua/purple colorways.  I loved, loved both Boardwalk swatches and wanted to make the boardwalk out of...well, out of Boardwalk. 



Asbury Boardwalk in Aqua

But I only had the 5" charm squares and another one of my goals for this challenge was to not buy any additional fabric.  Fortunately, I had just enough solids that were a pretty close match, so I cobbled together my own boardwalk and added in the dark Ice Cream print for fun.

I pieced the back from a couple of leftover swatches and complimentary solids. 

Didn't I just say that I didn't want to buy any additional fabric?  Oops.  But this print (again, another rule broken, but I think that binding shouldn't count) just fit in so well that I couldn't resist using it for the binding!

I also wanted to try free motion quilting - I added the wood grain pattern to my makeshift boardwalk.  How can you have a boardwalk without wood grain? 

I also free motioned the sun in the corner.  Aah, the relaxing rays of wobbly lines.  But I'm giving myself a break - it was literally the very first thing that I free motioned on a "real" project. 

I'm so happy with how this turned out and how much fun (aside from the quilting) I had making it!  I can't wait to see what the other ladies come up with on Saturday!

UPDATE:  Check out the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild's blog post to see all the other amazing Asbury entries!  I loved getting to see all the gorgeously different ideas we all came up with!

Linking up with: Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday!