A little bit of improv?

Haystacks

Having given up with back to back viewings of "Homes under the Hammer", I decided I would get the machine out today and see what my jelly roll workings from last Sunday's outing was going to turn into. As I had not bought a jelly roll for Fiona's class last week, but cut some fat quarters which I had bought on holiday, I had originally thought I was just going to make a mini quilt. But having stitched together the first three rows I fell in love with the combination of colours and fabrics and knew I had to take this a bit further and make something a bit larger. My problem was though the white background fabric I had used. I hadn't really measured it before starting and had no idea where I had got it from or what brand it was so it would be a nightmare to match. So lateral thinking was needed. The white was really working for me so I thought I would go for a big area of negative space and then it just sort of grew. I suppose this is what you call improv? 

It is ready for quilting now and bear with me if you think I have gone mad with the large white rectangle. The plan is that the quilting will make this work into the rest of the quilt - perhaps charcoal? What do you think?

 

I am sorry the picture is a bit ropey, but today is probably the worst day to show of a quilt top that is meant to remind me of sunshine on the beaches of Oregon. The sky is grey and dreich and feels like we have definitely seen the last of summer despite it still being August.

Oregon fun 2013

 Oh and to add to the misery my iron spat a bit brown manky blob of water out just as I pressed it before hanging it out to photograph, so it is currently washing very gently on a cold cycle. I have never washed an unquilted top before. Terrified? That's an understatement...

Half a jelly is twice as good

You would have thought after so many years of quilting that I would have filled every room in the house with throws and blankets by now wouldn't you. Well you would be wrong.  Somehow the only room in our house which remained quilt free turned out to be our bedroom, which is pretty surprising really, given it would be the most obvious place for a quilt. This sad state of affairs came about when we moved north to Scotland and moved from an old farmhouse to a "new build". Somehow the older style of our previous bedroom just didn't suit our new house as the new room is a very airy and bright room and definitely needs a more contemporary look and none of my existing quilts suite this at all. All the wonderful modern fabrics we can find now hadn't quite come to the market at the time of our move and as I had lived in homes which were both well over 150 years old for the past 15 years or so, most of my quiltings had quite obviously very traditional. 


My other problem was that I wanted to hang in our room a wonderful gift our children had given us as a 1st wedding anniversary present and the colours were becoming something of a challenge to me .  The gift was a large long photo canvas which had been cropped from one of our wedding photos and showed my bouquet laying next to the two bridesmaids' versions, surrounded by wrapped gifts and envelopes and if you looked very carefully you could see one envelope showed our new Mr & Mrs title. 

It was an inspired gift and brought a little tear to my eye when I opened it. The problem was the beautiful flowers were pink roses and tulips and the green stalks of the tulips and the tartan wrapping stood out boldly from the canvas against the stone coloured background. I think it is a cracking picture but I knew I definitely did not want a pink bedroom!  So you may now see my dilemma. 

In the end I settled on a very simple and crisp cream and pale green theme so that the canvas stands out as a focal point and the room does it justice. I managed to find some nice matching green pieces but kept the room pretty simple and fresh. 


But no quilts- it didn't quite seem right really, so I decided to right this terrible wrong and make a small throw to hang on a  Lloyd Loom chair which stands in the corner. The choice of fabric proved so hard again, because of the boldness of the canvas, but I fell upon a Freedom fabrics William Morris Jelly Roll and thought this would suit really well, with its subtleties and mixture of colours, but not an obviously flowery design. I had not used a Jelly roll before so chose a design from "Two from One Jelly Roll Quits"  by Pam and Nicky Lintott and its a wonderful book. 

View this book from Amazon now

The book has 18 patterns and shows you how to make throws, cot quilts , wall hangings and the like , each from half a jelly roll, or in other words 20 strips of fabric. I think this is a great idea as sometimes you want a smaller piece and so this book gives a touch of versatility but still with the jelly roll approach. I found the writing enjoyable to read, the art work gorgeous and the instructions clear- just about all you want from the perfect publication I reckon. (Mother and daughter Pam and Nicky run "The Quilt Room" in Surrey and is definitely on my list of shops to visit when I am down in the south of England.) 

I am pleased with the resulting quilt, which I backed with a matching William Morris floral. A little expensive for a backing but I think the back of the quilt is as important as the front and it makes this as a complete piece of furnishing for the room. 

The quilting is swirls in a very pale pink and is a good contrast against the squares and straight edges and because of the busy pattern I chose not to add a border, but to just bind it simply in a coral colour picked from the print. All in all I am very happy with the results and can now be content that proper order is returned to the house without a quilt free room to be found. And of course I still have half a jelly roll to use for another day?

ready for relaxing...