Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Shades of Green - a finished quilt -

A finished quilt.... at last. That did take a while indeed but I am truly happy with the result. So prepare for lots and lots of pictures. My original inspiration for this quilt were Spring greens and it is kinda apt that I have finished it when we are once again moving into Spring.  For all those in London, the quilt is on show at the Village Haberdashery from tomorrow onwards for a while.




The quilt has about 30 different fabrics in various shades of green cut into simple squares and arranged on point in a uniform way. I love that it is riutuos in its colouring but still ordered and organised.




I had some pretty fabric in my stash that lend itself to fussy cutting and these little flowers create a real focal point in the quilt.



To combat all the vertical and diagonal lines I decided to quilt in a concentric circle that I so love and I think this worked out really well. Quilted circles always get me!




It has been quilted densely with barely a half inch between the lines which gives the quilt its typical texture.




























I used an off-white Aurifil 40w thread for the quilting rather than a 32w given the quilt is quite densely quilted. But either would have been fine. It's just what I had a hand to be honest. Generally I prefer to quilt with a thicker thread and never quilt with a 50w for example. Though I use 50w or 60w for piecing.





The quilt is 70in x 60in and thus big enough for a good cuddle on the sofa or a double bed indeed. I prefer my bed quilts not to be the entire length of the bed but to just cover 3/4 of it.



The back fabric is a gorgeous and fun print by Riley Blake and I have the same glasses pattern in a deep yellow in stash too for another exciting quilt.



I so enjoyed playing with those greens (and the occasional pink popping up) that I am actually thinking of making 3 more seasonal quilts in this way, one in yellows for the Summer, one in deep reds for the Autumn and one in white/greys for the Winter.



Well, let's see if my enthusiasm will translate into actual quilt making or being hampered by more knitting....



The quilt will also be listed in my Etsy shops in a few days time.

Sunday, 20 November 2016

Shades of Green - part 2-

It's been a while and it certainly isn't Spring any more but my inspiration is certainly at the moment in that season. This weekend I finished the quilt top I started back in June.




And the colours make me smile and inject a dose of much needed happiness (so did by the way "Fantastic Beast and where to find them" that I watched Friday night !). There are so many Spring and a few deeper Summer greens in this quilt, all of which not so much take me back but forward to the next Spring.



And true to Spring there is the odd bit of bright pink, yellow and some pale blues and whites coming through.



I love working on a quilt like this. It is simple from a cutting point of view, just squares, but you need to think about the arrangement of the patterns and colours and you need to lay out the entire quilt before it can be assembled as the piecing is done on the diagonal rather than row by row. This by the way, in case any of my students are reading this post, is a very good skill builder quilt still using the humble square but with a more advanced piecing techniques and with a bigger design challenge.



I might baste this beauty today but quilting will have to wait a while as I have a very busy week coming up.

Happy crafting everybody !