Design Wall Monday--Bookshelf Quilt, More Additions and Decisions

Design Wall Monday--See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I'm continuing to plug away on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, Emma.  I had assembled three shelves' worth of books, but this left the quilt top too small to be more than a wall quilt.  I already had plans to add a cornice to the top and feet to the bottom, and while looking around Pinterest, found a quilt with another feature to add, bottom drawers.  

I sketched out a plan and began pulling options from stash, finally settling on a compatible brown and black textured fabric. 

A bit of glam with a thin stripe of gold fabric a mock-up of some drawer handles were added to the design wall.  After looking at it some more, I trimmed down the depth of the drawers and then stitched the strip to the rest of the quilt.  

This daylight pic shows the color of the drawers better. The sides of the bookshelf now added, it looks more like a proper piece of furniture :)  The strips on the top are temporary--I will cut the correct size piece lengthwise from the solid brown to avoid seams. 

I then auditioned a number of fabrics for the border "wall" the bookshelf will be standing against.  Many fabrics were pulled from stash and I finally settled on a contrasting cream and black print that will look like wallpaper. It is from an antique reproduction line called Carmen, by Nancy Gere for Windham Fabrics.  Naturally I did not have enough fabric and have ordered more.  Lots more cutting and  sewing until this quilt top is finished, but I may actually meet the month-end deadline if the fabric gets here quick enough!  I am thinking of a solid black for the binding, but I will wait to cut that after the quilt center is complete.  

Bookshelf Quilt Assembly Progress

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The bookshelf quilt project for my niece, Emma, got a lot of attention over the weekend--this was mainly because of the rainstorms canceling baseball, as we would have spent about 3-4 hours Saturday at the park watching our older grandsons play!  I was determined to make a lot of progress. 

The bottom right section got a large reworking and some short, fat books to hold up an initial E, for Emma. I used Steam-A Seam to applique onto the black background and zig-zagged the edges. Some book spine details and staggered groupings completed this section. 

For one of the middle sections, I had framed this cherry embroidery I made a few years ago.  I wanted to pose it on an easel and there was a lot of decision making after I had already chosen the warm orange and green framing.   

This project produces a lot of messy piles, but I decided on the frame fabric and built it slowly. 

I liked the texture this brown and black print leant to the block. 

The simple easel  turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself :)  It also filled up a lot of the shelf.

After quite a bit more design and assembly, the six sections were finally ready to sew together by Sunday afternoon. 

I am happy with the focus items in each section.  There seems to be enough of the black background showing to highlight all the groupings.  The top and bottom shelf pieces are not yet attached as there is more to decide about an outer border, perhaps a crown and some feet for the bookshelf. Then, of course, will be the backing, quilting and binding to complete!

March Progress

Lots of sewing room time is being spent on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, Emma, which has lingered as a UFO for over a year, regrettably!

The Kitties got moved to the top shelf--we all know kitties like high places :).  I decided to make the top shelf a couple of inches shorter than the lower shelves, for variety.  Somehow in all the reshuffling the pieces have gotten, the shelves grew very tall.  The instructions I am working with specify shelves in the 9-10" range, but mine were at least 12".  This was making it necessary to add a lot of pieces to my precut blank strips.  While I like a lot of detail, I don't want it to be cluttered. 

The left side of the bookshelf is looking very good. Another grouping of leaning books helped fill up the middle shelf.  The pieces next to it are not in final arrangement or yet sewn to the "shelf" strips.  Emma's mom, my SIL, recently visited and felt my color choices were very appropriate for her girl. That was great to know :)  I sent a pic to Emma, too, and she was very excited with the progress. I am designing more objects for the right side of the bookshelf, including her first initial.  Since I missed my February finish deadline, I am aiming for March 31 now :)

Also seeing progress is the Winter Bouquet DMC cross-stitch kit. I had finally finished all the cross-stitches...  

...and have made a start on the outlining.  There is a LOT of surface work and outlining to do, but it is coming along. I have to reference the pattern symbols and colors frequently.  Much of the outlining is with this green shade in a single strand!  It will get finished, eventually...

Cleaning Up the Bookshelves

The bookshelf quilt for my niece Emma needed editing decisions and "unblocking" before more creative ideas could flow.  

Trimming the "framed" cactus embroidery block and removing and reorienting the books it was sitting on led to great relief in this grouping. I also moved it to the center due to its "weight".  I decided to limit the larger decorative pieces to one per section. 

The Kitty friends got some more shape with the addition of a triangle on the lower corners.  A full width patterned book and a shorter book are their resting place. More play needed for books surrounding the kitties. 

I also decided to limit the number of shelves and sections to six evenly divided rectangles 12 x 20"

This quickly added a lot of structure to the design and will help push along the project. The kitties may be happier on a higher shelf...we shall see :)  Still a lot of sewing and editing to come--more wide books are needed to fill up the shelves and break up all the skinny books.  I like big books! The cherries embroidery will get an easel frame.  There may need to be a quilt block framed too, and maybe a vase or plant added. My sister suggested an E letter block for Emma.  Pinterest is full of ideas too.