I'm so excited to share my quilt for DQS13!
First up is the quilt that I made. I was super excited and nervous when I received my partner assignment. I've known and respected Elizabeth for years. We were in a bee together for two years (I still don't know how I got into that gig!), and we've generally known each other around the blog / flickr world forever. I really love Elizabeth's style and her quilts are fabulous. We have a lot of things in common, our fabric choices are similar, and she loves paper pieced stars too. (she's pretty much the modern paper piecing guru with her BOM!).
I was first inspired by this quilt that I found in Elizabeth's flickr faves / pinterest. I've adored this quilt too so I decided to try my hand at doing a sampler of sorts - but with the twist of the low volume background that it seemed Elizabeth likes (texty fabrics too).
It proved to be a lot harder to really do it justice given the size constraints. In the end I used some improvisational piecing to put it all together. And major sad face here, I managed to lose my hand sewing kit on a trip back home - inside the kit was a finished (not photographed) attempt at the "Camelot" blocks. If you know me you know I don't particularly enjoy hand piecing.... I didn't have it in me to sew another 30+ 1" pieces together. :(
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| Fake piped binding and prairie point signature. |
I bound it using the fake piped binding look... which was a bit annoying. The last time I did this sort of binding was years ago and I remembered loving it... I think I've grown a lot in precision since then. This wasn't as precise as I would have liked it to turn out. I do love that jolt of pink though. And I'm proud of myself for remembering to include my little signature, the three prairie points. They always make me smile.
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| Some little extras, a boxy pouch and some AMH ribbon. |
In the end I hope that Elizabeth likes it. I decided I don't really care for the scrappy low volume look for backgrounds, it feels so busy to me. I can't get over it. It was too late to change it though. I do love the look of the text prints if they were used individually as a background.
Well, your quilt turned out great, so I'm sure Elizabeth loved it!
ReplyDeleteIt think it's interesting how our tastes and visions sort-of change as we go along :)
Sweet prairie doodles ;) and sweet dolly quilt! I love the symbolism of Friendship Stars, and I like the scrappy background - it works really well!
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great mini inspired by the original. :) I love texty prints and the improv pieced background look in other's work, I just have a hard time embracing it with my own work!
ReplyDeleteBoo to losing the sewing kit and the hand pieced block!! That stinks. :(
Oh em! I love your mini so much and I'm so touched to be an "inspiration". That was my first real attempt at "improv" piecing. To me improv is composed blocks free pieced into the background. I'd say you succeeded fantastically! Kepp up the good work lady
ReplyDelete<3 Ale (aka GoldWillow)
Oh Em! I love it!
ReplyDeleteI think that you totally captured the feel! I'm so touched (seriously) to be an inspiration. To me, improv is composed blocks free pieced into a top. I let the fabric do the talking. I love what you've done here! bummer about the hand sewing kit :( maybe it will find its way back to you somehow
<3
Ale
Weird, I thought the first post got lost so I did it a second time. Oh well rock on lady :)
ReplyDeleteI love this mini quilt to pieces. Your interpretation of the types of quilts Elizabeth loves and the colors, which luckily are ones you love too, make this so special. So sorry you list your hand sewing kit and the block you had hand stitched as this part is not your favorite thing to do. But what you stitched is just spectacular and my favorite block is the paper pieced one. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete