Whew, this quilt turned into a bit of a whirlwind! It all started with some inspiration from the Quilt Du Jour book by Marny Buck and Jill Guffy* (see my review of this book here) Then I needed to find the perfect fabric and my eye wandered onto these 2 bundles of Karen Lewis Textiles' Blueberry Park and things took off.
Initially I sketched out the block shapes I wanted to see if they would work as a collection, then made a paper rendition of each one (actually 3 different sizes for the circles) so that I could fling the constituent parts down on my cutting table for each block, shuffled them about a bit and decide if I liked the arrangement.
I decided to give myself a couple of rules, one that I wanted to alternate the top and the bottom blocks, and the other that I wanted the rainbow gradation to go diagonally across the quilt, following the arrangement of the fabrics in the bundles. With 25 fabrics per bundle, I decided that to give them all the best chance to both shine and coalesce I would use 49 of them and do a 7 x 7 arrangement, so I hoiked out one of the mustardy coloured ones (which I admit are not my favourite) and then sat there with some gridded paper and having assigned a number to each fabric in the pile worked out what number to put in which location to try and spread things out. In total there were 4 units x 49 blocks, each of which were represented by a different place on the gird and each of which could be a different colour. I had no idea when I did this what colour would end up where, but I trusted that Robert Kaufman's arrangement in the stack would give me a gradual enough gradation that things wouldn't end up too clashy and off the wall.
With each number in the grid 4 times, I propped that up against my hardware storage boxes on my cutting table and then having cut masses of white bits I started randomly arranging block units, only ever pulling fabric and cutting the KLT for one block at a time, so I never knew if, for example, I would end up with the same shapes coming point to point on the diagonal, or crowded in a meeting of block corners (each unit was off centred, so as to create good amount of white space). My inner planner would have ideally regimented them, but the point was to try and not regiment things, so there we go, things have clumped and colours are adjacent and the world did not end. Yet.
I used the Shattered Lines quilting technique from my favourite Christa Watson book, Machine Quilting With Style* (see my review of this book here) because I wanted something simple that wouldn't interfere with the block shapes but was also a bit off the wall, rather like the quilt.
* Affiliate link which gives me a few pennies if you decide you want similarly fabulous inspiration.
The waiting was tough but seeing the KLT quilt in all its glory makes it worth the wait. Well done Katy.
I had intended on waiting to get a copy of Quilts Du Jour before starting another quilt but after spending three weeks with my sister we're each making Double Wedding Rings quilts. It's been awhile since I've made one without using a rotary cutter and I can't wait until I'm done with the cutting.
Love what you've done here, and especially that you let a few details out of your control – the result is really wonderful!!
That is an amazing and beautiful quilt. It is truly a showstopper, Katy! Personally, I have yet to cut into any of my Karen Lewis fabrics, but I only have one of the FQ bundles.