Playground - three years in the making

This quilt started as a personal fabric challenge. I am almost exclusively working with solids today, and that change from 'all prints' to 'all solids' started about three years ago.

I picked these fabrics and made a pillow for my friend - back in February 2017. I loved that unusual fabric selection so much that I decided to make a quilt out of it.

Soon I realised that 'a quilt is not a pillow'! I found out that the use of fabrics and the effect they have depends on the size of the project that you use your fabrics for. The pillow was 24x24" (60x60 cm), the quilt is 55x84" (140x214 cm).
I wrote a blog post about my selection process and what I had discovered about using all these prints.

I finished the quilt top in May 2017. Since then there were just so many other projects that I never really found the time to finish this quilt. I selected the fabric for the back and picked this beautiful Tula Pink widescreen called  ''Free Fall'.

In December 2019 I decided to send the quilt to a quilt service to have it quilted for me. And what a quilt service that is! Rachel Hauser of 'Stitched in color' has moved to the Netherlands and is therefore very close to me.

I went with an endless- 8- pantograph and picked a light mustard thread colour. The curry coloured binding finished off the quilt very nicely.

I can highly recommend Rachel's quilting services, the quilt was back within one week, it looked exactly how I had envisioned it and came in this lovely box. The text on it couldn't be more suitable for the excitement I felt when it did arrive back home!

I had the binding attached to the quilt quite quickly after it arrived but it took weeks before I had proper photos done. The quilt isn't even washed yet, so it is still very nice an flat.

Even though I work with mostly solids now, I still have more prints than solids in my stash. I guess that comes from buying solely prints as I started to quilt. So I have decided to make at least one quilt per year using only prints - and that quilt will be for me. To snuggle up on the couch. And if I don't have time to quilt it myself I'm going to send it to Rachel.
Sounds like a good plan!

So, now off to wash 'Playground' and get it on the couch! Finally!

Linking this to 'Patchen und Quilten' 

A Quilt is not a Pillow

After I made this pillow for my friend I knew I wanted to make a quilt out of the fabrics I selected. The selection was challenging, but I managed to make the pillow look good and somehow the fabrics all worked together.

I was aiming for a strip/ coin quilt because I loved the look of the pillow but as I cut my fabrics and arranged them at the design wall I quickly became aware: A Quilt is not a Pillow!

What worked so well on a small scale just wouldn't look good in bigger pieces. I just didn't like the way it looked.

I wanted to even arrange the fabrics more randomly and in different widths but that didn't work at all. So I stuck with an even width of 12.5" for each strip.

I had the layout up on my design wall for quite some and stared at it. I remembered what I heard in the QuiltCon lectures and so I was identifying what I liked and what I didn't like and why.

I first identified the different types of fabrics I was using.

These are the high volume fabrics. All very saturated in different colours. The prints are sometimes very busy with stark contrasts.

These are mid volume fabrics but they are also very calming. There is hardly any colour difference in the print itself. I used these for some kind of neutrals in between busy prints.

These are the low volume prints (well, maybe apart from the second from the left). These fabrics are light in colour and low in volume despite the prints on them.

I have seen pictures like this in books before but I think for the very first time in my quilt making process I truly understood the use of so many different prints and the visual impact they have on a quilt. I guess you can read colour and volume theories as often as you like; if you haven't experienced it yourself you haven't truly understood it.

I also identified which fabrics didn't work in the mix:

I love those fabrics, but they are just too busy in the mix. The colour difference in the print is very stark and all in all too busy for what I was aiming for. I'm sure I will use these beauties in a different project in the future though!

So, here is a detailed before and after shot:

Before: Busy, too busy for my taste.

After removing the two too busy fabrics: Better! Amazing what a little change can do to an overall appearance!

After the photos I also removed the lovely turquoise/ white stripy fabric under the BlockM logo. Too busy.

I carefully selected fabrics for each row and there was also a lot of editing towards the end where I would take out strips and replace them with others to achieve a visually pleasing design.
 

The quilt top is finished an I'm very happy how it turned out. This quilt truly was a challenge but I have learned so much! I also had fun, so I came up with the name 'Playground' for the quilt not only because I used some of the beautiful fabrics designed by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery Fabrics called 'Playground'.

I also love that now I look at the same fabrics than my friend when she looks at her pillow!

My personal fabric challenge

I've always adored the Quilts by Emily and her awesome fabric selections. She puts together fabrics which at first sight don't seem to match up. But then those fabrics create the most interesting and beautiful quilts! Like this one, or this or this, or this.

So I was pulling fabrics from my stash and came up with this selection:

Yes: brown, mustard, pink and turquoise. Ui!

I was very skeptical myself but as I started to cut some strips and placed them beside each other they actually started to work.

I wanted to create and interesting design but kept it simple. I opted for a coin layout with 5 rows in different widths. Much to my surprise I think it turned out really well! 

The pillow is in my favourite size 26 x 26" (65 x 65cm) and is going to be a gift for a friend.

I was unsure of how and in what colours to quilt it. I had several colours to chose from but opted for white, light grey and mustard, all beautiful Aurifil wt 40 thread!

With all these different colours I think there is so much to look at and despite the big variety of fabrics it still is harmonic. I'm in fact so happy with the pillow that I want to make a whole quilt out of it and keep that for myself since I'm having a hard time giving this pillow away.

Linking this to Finish Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Modern Patch Monday at the Modern Cologne Quilters
Farbenspiel