Cottage Windows

In case you have seen enough of the Liberty 'Stile' prints then just skip this post (but really who would ever have enough of Liberty fabric ?).

I still had a fat eights of prints left from the commission and wanted to make it into a quilt right away rather than letting it disappear in my stash. My intention was to make something entirely different to the appliqued quilts. But I also wanted to do something that worked with the noveau art movement on which the collection is based. So I did a bit of research and found that stained glass windows were used as part of the art movement. That got me thinking and let me to create a simple pattern using squares that are set as little four part windows.

I kept the colourways together rather than mixing them up within the windows. Each window has 4 prints and hence each colourway yielded 16 windows. These are obviously not as sophisticated as art noveau stained glass windows with all their curves. In fact they do remind me a lot more of English cottage windows (hence the title) that really have next to nothing to do with the art noveau movment....but there you go. One inspiration usually leads to another.

I framed the individual windows with a wider sashing strip to separate them a little from each other. The arrangement is entirely random though I made sure the colourways were nicely mixed up.

I quilted in straight double lines which took for ever and used about 8 bobbin wheels. But it was well worth it. This is a huge quilt with 72' x 82" and thus needs stability. Another reason for quilting it narrowly along the seam lines was to keep the individual prints largely free from quilting lines.

The back is simple. I used Kona Ash, a strip of left over 'Stile' squares and some off-white cotton. As much as I love a print quilt back I do appreciate that the quilting lines come out much better on solid backgrounds.

I bound in exactly the same prints as I used for the first quilts. I simply scraped every last bit of it together and joint all the colourways which gives it a slightly scrappy look.

And that was the last of the 'Stile' prints, all used or given away, nothing left at all BUT the good news is that Annie from the Village Harbedashery just got a shipment of 'Stile' in before anybody else!!

This quilt can be found in my on-line shop here has sold.