Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013: Something Blue
Welcome to the Fall 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival! I am excited to share Something Blue - the wedding quilt I made for my son and daughter-in-law.
The quilt pattern is Marmalade by Elizabeth Hartman whose class I took at QuiltCon where I made two of the blocks. The remaining blocks were completed during my annual Gruber's quilt retreat. I could have rushed and finished the quilt in time for the wedding, but I chose instead to put it aside and just enjoy this special time with family and friends. I tend to stress a little ;-)
I strayed from the pattern just a little. The quilt pattern calls for half diamonds on the two sides. At one point I considered adding borders to make the quilt a little wider and the half diamonds wouldn't work with borders. As I completed the quilt top using full-size diamonds in place of the half diamonds I realized the quilt was the size I wanted without the need for borders.
I also went with one main color for the diamonds rather than two and only one background color. I really like how Elizabeth used two different colors for her diamonds and the one background square in a different neutral, but I couldn't get that to work with the theme I had in mind.
What makes this quilt extra special is the makeup of the scrappy diamond fabrics. I included old clothing of not only the bride and groom but also my grandson, husband and two other children. Additionally, there are scraps of fabrics from quilts made for said family members. When using scraps that weren't old clothing or from a special family quilt, I tried to select fabrics that would mean something to Alex and Kasi. For example, there are some coffee cup prints (they love their coffee), fabric that Kasi gifted me and fabrics she has admired in my studio. Towards the end of piecing the diamonds, I did purchase some new fabric because I was getting bored. With these purchases, I found some organic fabric in blues (organic being important to Alex and Kasi) and a camera print for obvious reasons.
The backing is pieced with the cutaways from the diamond shapes as suggested in the pattern, but instead of inserting that strip in between two different solids I used the same background solid as the top and a favorite Amy Butler LOVE print that I used in a previous quilt made for Kasi.
My daughter helped with photographing the quilt at a favorite park. I wish you could more clearly see the etching on this structure which says "Pause friend let beauty refresh the spirit" and the plaque on the bench which says "Family is Everything". Love these!
My husband and I both are blessed with very special in laws. I am thankful the same can be said of my son's in laws. They have welcomed Alex into their family so generously. Of course, I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful daughter in law than Kasi. She truly is my daughter now, and anyone who reads my blog regularly knows how much I adore their son Leo.
One more photo of the quilt and a photo of the couple. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to ready my quilt story. A big thank you is in order to Amy for hosting the festival as well as her generous sponsors. You can see all the festival entries here.
Quilt stats:
Name: Something Blue
Category: Favorite Scrappy Quit
Pattern: Marmalade by Elizabeth Hartman
Size: 64 x 73
Fabric used: KONA Aqua for background, numerous scraps for the diamonds, KONA Aqua and Amy Butler LOVE for the backing
Quilted: by me using my walking foot and Aurifil 50wt #2805
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| Something Blue - made with scraps of old clothing and special family quilts |
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| Something Blue - a wedding quilt |
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| straight line quilting with Aurifil #2805 |
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| makeshift clothesline |
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| tons of scrappy fabrics |
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| closeup of quilting with Aurifil 50wt #2805 |
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| the back with KONA Aqua, scrappy strips and Amy Butler LOVE |
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| the back where you can see the quilting lines better |
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| "Pause friend let beauty refresh the spirit" |
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| "Family is Everything" |
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| Love these two |
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| Love this photo |
Name: Something Blue
Category: Favorite Scrappy Quit
Pattern: Marmalade by Elizabeth Hartman
Size: 64 x 73
Fabric used: KONA Aqua for background, numerous scraps for the diamonds, KONA Aqua and Amy Butler LOVE for the backing
Quilted: by me using my walking foot and Aurifil 50wt #2805
Previous Festival entries:
Also linking up with Amanda's finish it up Friday....
