Something entirely different

Some time back The Girl asked me to make a quilt for her study. I had made my Lazy Punk quilt for her and she tells me it is her favourite quilt that I've made for her.

Lazy Punk, 2013

Although I've got more than enough to keep me busy I told her I would be happy to make her a quilt! So what to do? Well think about it for starters! Apparently I've spent an excessive amount of time thinking and she is now asking when she can have her quilt! Thinking time is over and now it is time for action! I saw an episode of the TV show Quilting Arts and Heather Jones was the guest. She featured a very simple quilt made of 2 1/2" strips and it is called Around the World. You can find a link to Heather's pattern here. I liked the basic idea which is to start with a rectangle of fabric and sew 2 1/2" strips of fabric all around with each round  being a different colour.

I showed it to The Girl the and she quite liked it but she did not like the fact that each round of fabric is a single solid fabric. She liked the idea of throwing in some scraps in the same colours as the strips to break them up. At the same time she had bought me a little notebook with gold embossed owls and she asked if I could quilt owls. I wanted to do straight line quilting however I have a piece of fabric with owls and I've been saving it for just the right project. Looks like this is the right project! Here is the notebook and the fabric.

The next step was to pull some fabrics that worked with the feature fabric and that would also suit The Girl. I thought some or all of these might work.

I start by cutting the center panel. The instructions called for a panel that measured 4 1/2" by 14 1/2" so the finished size would be 4" x 14". I cut mine a little larger so that I wouldn't decapitate the little owls so I cut my panel 5 1/2" x 15 1/2". Then I started cutting strips and sewing. Keeping in mind that she wanted the solids broken up I pulled out some modern scraps and started throwing them in. The beauty of adding the scraps, especially as the quilt got larger, was that if I need say 4 1/2 strips to go around the quilt I would cut 4 strips and then use my scraps to make up the extra 1/2 strip. You can see some turquoise scraps in the blue round and a little owl in the bottom right hand corner in the pale green round!

I kept cutting and sewing and in no time flat I had a quilt top! It took a little more than two half days of sewing! The addition of the scraps of fabric to break up the solids added visual interest. I sure hope she likes her quilt! It measures 57" x 67".

I will do straight line quilting on this one and I'll use my walking foot. I found a Heather Jones tutorial for this method and she recommends increasing the stitch length and decreasing the pressure on the pressure foot which will she says will reduce puckering as I quilt. She has loads of other interesting straight line quilting tips which you can read about here. You know I'll let you know how I make out with the quilting!

I can take a bit of a break until I hear from The Girl about what fabric she would like on the back of her quilt.

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H