PMQG Kona Cotton Charms Challenge

At the Philly Modern Quilt Guild we decided to host a challenge for May using Robert Kauffman Kona Cotton Solids charm packs.  The Kona Cotton Solids are a dream for quilters because there are SO MANY colors available!  Several other modern quilt guilds around the country have already conducted similar challenges and each one had a different spin. For our group, we decided to allow only prints to be added to the charm pack - so no additional solids. We chose the "brights" version of the charm pack and I quickly started agonizing over what to make!

So, as it turned out, I came up with an idea I was really excited about, but in order to do it properly, I needed two charm squares of each color ... As it turned out, I actually had two identical charm packs for the challenge, so I decided to cheat and use two rather than the one pack we were given. Technically, I guess that means I added solids ... But at least they were the same ones we already had to use! Haha.

The pattern I ended up using was a slightly modified version of Julie's Flying in Formation pattern, which I had seen months ago and really liked. Rather than use all solids as Julie had, I used striped fabrics for the "goose" part of each block. I was inspired by all the stripes Rita had been using over on Red Pepper Quilts (especially THIS one), so i went over to Whimsie Dots' Etsy shop and bought a fat quarter bundle of reclaimed striped bed sheets! The colors and varying stripes were so much fun, I just had to use them in this quilt.

So, without further ado, here is a photo of the finished product:



The colors aren't coming out that well in this photo - I think my iPhone was not happy with all the confusing stripes.  Below is a closeup of a section of the front so you can see some of my favorite stripes better.



For the back I used this adorable Japanese fabric and I pieced in the rest of the charm squares I hadn't used.



And because the pattern I based this on was called "Flying in Formation", I'll show you a closeup of the "Engrish" text on the back, which relates back to flying: