Stone-Snow-Arcadia Quilt

>> Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Adventures in neutrals commenced with this quilt. I've always been fond of bright colors, but it was time for a challenge. And I had some jelly roll strips of the circle print from Arcadia and wanted to design a quilt around them. Enter the neutrals: Moda's Snow (which is more off-white than white) and Stone.

Only after I finished the quilt did I realize that my default quilt has become a variation of wonky square-in-square blocks. Not that that is a problem, but I honestly thought that most of my quilts didn't repeat patterns and yet I've made quite a few wonky squares (or wonky log cabins). They are both quick and time-consuming. While they require very little planning, they do take a while to put together and adjust as necessary. In this quilt, I love the little floating pieces on the center left as well as the stone strip conjoining the bottom right and right middle blocks. A willingness to insert those little pieces and see what happens is, I think, a new stage of my design thinking and quilt making.

As soon as I pieced together the top, I knew I would stipple it. Luckily, my darning foot cooperated this time and the stippling went smoothly (with off-white thread).

Before I pieced the back, I picked out the binding (Slate Dots from Amy Butler). I didn't have any obvious binding fabrics and therefore auditioned quite a few before opting for the slate dots. Once I figured that out, I picked the fabrics to piece together for the back. I decided on a new quilt labeling strategy: piecing the block I would use for the label into the quilt back. That white rectangle at the bottom became the label. Since I make the back a little bigger than the front for ease of basting and quilting, I had to make sure I positioned the back in a way that was definitely included in the quilt and didn't run into the binding. A few extra checks as I pinned and it all worked out.

Hmm, the back porch stain has taken quite  a beating in this summer's thunderstorms but I like the weathered look for quilt pictures! This quilt arrived in California for Erez, the third child of friends of mine. As a family, I think they've amassed the largest two.hippos-made quilt collection at 3 and, as Maya noted in a lovely email to me, they mark my progress (from this to this to the present) as a quilter.

6 comments:

Abby and Stephanie July 6, 2010 at 4:42 PM  

A very lucky family! That is my very favorite line of Amy Butler fabric! Wonderful job working the the neutrals.

Carla July 7, 2010 at 11:26 AM  

It always feels good to push ourselves to try new things. I'm the same way with brights and neutrals. Your quilt is amazing and your friend's are very lucky to have such a treasure.

Rebekah July 8, 2010 at 4:39 PM  

This quilt is so cute! I say you should stick with whatever works.

I love the neutrals mixed with pattern in this one.

Micki July 12, 2010 at 6:37 PM  

The quilt is so pretty...I love the way you used the neutrals.
Micki

Emily July 29, 2010 at 12:03 PM  

Oh thank you for posting this! I have a few honey buns and a jelly roll of Arcadia (which I love - wish more was available!) and I wasn't sure what to do with that little bit of fabric. I love the way you matched the colorway with the other fabrics. Won't you please share with me what the orange one is? I recognize the blue/brown Lotus by Amy Butler fabrics. Anyways you've opened my mind that it doesn't have to be Arcadia yardage that I use with those! Thank you! :)
Emily

two hippos July 29, 2010 at 5:47 PM  

Hi Emily! The orange is Michael Miller's trellis in Sunset. Happy Quilting!

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