My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival is a quilt I made for our youngest daughter, Erica, and gave to her when she moved away to attend college in Arizona. The pattern I fell in love with was from Quilt Sampler Fall/Winter 2009, called "Material Matters", from the shop Honey Run Quilters in Chico, CA. It featured the use of dupioni silk and velveteen with Bear's Paw blocks. Having never worked with these materials before, I was interested in seeing what would happen. Erica picked out all the fabrics, with some help from me with scale and color, and we searched high and low for the right mix.
The dupioni is the "claws" and was machine washed first and then attached to an iron-on stabilizer, per pattern directions, before being cut and sewn into the HSTs. I let the grain run this way and that to maximize the shine edging the big 8" squares of fabric.
Layout of all the blocks and setting triangles. That was a lot of points to match!
We could not find any velveteen that would match, so ended up with this luscious purple "suede" from the home decorating department, for the outer border. It had the desired texture and same weight.
Prepping for basting in my mother's studio. I used a wool batting for the first time in this project, which was recommended by the designer due to the extra weight of the unusual materials.
Erica likes the fleur-de-lis motif and I used it in the big blocks. I had her trace the design 24 times onto tracing paper with a light box, then I pinned the paper to the quilt and free motion quilted on the lines.
It was a bit tedious to remove the paper but I felt the design looked great. I stitched a "cornerstone" in the center and in the ditch around each block.
All the white parts were stippled and I left the dupioni unquilted.
The finished quilt required two tall men standing on a curb to hold it off the ground. This is a big one!
On the back, I used leftovers to piece Erica's initials and add some interest.
Lots of texture from the quilting.
The cross-hatching I did in the suede border shows up better here on her queen sized bed. My girl loves her quilt although she recently mentioned that it doesn't have a label. I told her I don't know what to name it. "Erica's Quilt", said Erica. Well, okay then, that's simple enough!
See more amazing quilt stories on Amy's Creative Side, Blogger's Quilt Festival. Thanks for visiting!
32 comments:
I don't think I had seen Erica's quilt before. You are brave to use all those different fabrics. It turned out great!
I love that you included the process and progress of this gorgeous quilt! and I learned something new from you blog name! An Ort, eh! or rather many orts...
What?!? No label on such a wonderful quilt treasure!!
Get on that my friend!
Thank you for sharing your quilt. It is awesome.
That is an awesome quilt with so many different materials I would be really scared to try! Honey Run is relatively near to me about a 2 hour drive! Another family heirloom, you'd better get a label on there.
very nice quilt; I even love the back.
Gorgeous front and I love the scrappy personalization on the back.
Beautiful quilt! You were brave to work with the "nonstandard" quilting fabrics.
What a gorgeous quilt! I've never used silk in a quilt but I sure like the way it looks in yours. And your back is so creative - what a totally great package!
Beautiful. Love the quilting!
This is a very special quilt. Lucky daughter! and how sweet that she helped with fabric selection. Thanks for sharing the steps you followed as you tried so many "firsts." I like the creative back of the quilt too. All it needs is the label. :)
Outstanding quilt, and I love the initials on the back!
Very nice, Annie--I will have to try that quilting method sometime. You did a beautiful job!
The personalisation on the back of this quilt is so clever. I am in awe of those who do big quilts like this. Lovely job.
Wow what a stunning striking quilt - really bold and modern looking
Just beautiful!
What a lovely quilt! I think it was cute that you had your daughter do all the tracing of the fleur-de-lis. I bet it was fun to work on it together.
Love the colors and the use of duponi and suede. Would make for interesting textures. Great job.
Your quilt is lovely!
Hope you visit my blog too,
margaret gunn
www.quiltsoflove.blogspot.com
I love ghe quilt but i love the story more!
This is such a beautiful quilt, and I am so impressed that you used fabrics that were new to you. I also made a quilt for my daughter when she left home, and I think this is a wonderful way to preserve a memory, and to give your daughter a way to remember home. Thank you for sharing this lovely quilt.
I love the colours and design of this quilt. For me it's a mix of modern and traditional. Just makes me want to wrap myself in it and cuddle down for the day with a good book!
Brilliant job Annie!
I finally catch up with your blog beautiful quilt
Ann
Such a personal quilt. I think all of the different fabrics probably made it feel very homey for Erica in some ways. Neat.
Judy
Bello sia davanti che dietro
Ciao
It's so gorgeous with the different textures! Wow.
It's beautiful and I love the back as well!
great quilt! lovely front and back and interesting story. nice quilting! thanks for sharing and have a great day
FANTASTIC QUILT! Hey, that's a reversible quilt! The back is lovely too!
OH ME! OH MY! How in the heck did I miss this one???? KaPow! I LOVE this! The back could be a whole nuther quilt on it's own!!
Girl, you just got down with your bad self on this one!! Great colors too!
I guess I missed it 'cause I'm a bad blogger....yes, bad bad blogger!!
Mom my bed is a KING! So the quilt is extra huge!
This turned out beautiful :) I made about a hundred or so four patches to try and use up some of my stash (and of course, didn't make a dent), and then decided I didn't want to do what I'd planned to do with them. Now I'm looking at your scrappy bear paw and thinking, HEY! That would work! :) Great quilt, and thanks for inspiring me!
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