Saturday, May 14, 2011

Quilt Festival time

Some of us can only dream about going to Market, and live vicariously through those who do, catching tantalizing glimpses of new fabric lines and patterns as they appear in various blogs and albums online. What a joy it is to be able to take part in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for those of us who stay at home. Thank you Amy for taking the time to organize this again!

My entry this time is a quilt I named 'Authentic 2 by 4'. I managed to snag a Jelly Roll of Authentic by Sweetwater before it was too late, knowing the letters and numbers would be great in collages and as accents in quilts here and there. When I saw all the fabrics together, I felt that it would be a shame to separate them, and I kept wanting to sort them by pattern and colour. Rearranging precuts with their zigzaggy edges is very messy though, leaving you with lots of lint everywhere.
My idea for a sampler, using the entire line came from Jane Brocket's book "The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making". You wouldn't know it by looking at it, because her quilt is entirely different - all triangles, I seem to remember (too lazy to get up and check it...). It wasn't so much the quilt itself though, as her description of her inspiration for the quilt - samples from a haberdashery - which triggered the idea. When I was a kid we had a large department store in town with what I remember as a huge fabric and haberdashery department on the ground floor. You could browse through their selection of buttons mounted in squares on large boards. I used to love going there with my mum and my auntie, who was a seamstress, and browse furtively through the boards while the grown-ups were busy with their purchases. Funny how such memories can pop up from a hidden drawer in your mind when you get a little trigger such as Jane's description of her inspiration. Once I thought about that, I knew that I too wanted to make a sampler board. Knowing that my fabric strips were 2 1/2", I knew that triangles would be too small to show off the fabrics properly. I decided on rectangles, 2 x 4" finished size (hence the title) and used a natural cotton linen blend for the sashing.
I found a piece of rather loosely woven curtain fabric with a handwriting print for the backing and used parallell lines for the quilting. It is a fairly small and simple quilt, quite easy to make, but it has become one of my favourites. The neutral tones makes it fit in anywhere, and knowing that I have a sample of each and every one of the prints in the collection makes it much easier to cut into those strips in the remainder of the jelly roll and use them elsewhere.

That's my entry for the Festival, now make sure to visit Bloggers' Quilt Festival and see all the lovely quilts there! 

16 comments :

Jane said...

Great quilt! Love your choice of backing.

Oxford Impressions said...

Awesome quilt and idea for the back. Love all of it!

Helene | 25reasons said...

Fabulous. You're right, it's very simple, but it's oh so charming. And I adore the fabric you've used for the back! Now i'm going on a hunt to find that curtain fabric, it's wonderful.

Three Mennonite Quilting Sisters said...

I really like your quilt. The simple geometric design is wonderful and the colors are beautiful. Your quilting enhances the design. Thanks for sharing. --Julia

Three Mennonite Quilting Sisters said...

Mathea, I sure enjoyed seeing your quilt and reading about your inspiration. The backing fabric is so eye catching. Love it.
~Polly~

Valentina said...

Mathea, this quilt is so perfect. I love the stillness of it. Funny way to describe a quilt, I know, but after reading about your inspiration I totally agree: I used to love getting lost in the fabric department, just studying the threads and zippers... Things don't change That much!
Thanks for sharing! and enjoy the Festival!

Debbie said...

Very nice! Love that Sweetwater!

stitchinpenny said...

The sampler look really appeals to me the way you did it. I love the blending of fabric samples and background. Great quiult.

Kirsten said...

Love the Authentic fabrics and your pattern shows them off very well.

Linda at Roscoe's Ma said...

This is a really cool quilt. I love the fabric and the colors. I like the simple design. Well done!

Karen said...

I love the effect you have created when using these fabrics in the quilt. It looks great.

BJ said...

I love your quilt. It's wonderful. My kinda quilt. The quilting is perfect too.

Kari V. said...

I see you have trouble cutting into favorite fabrics, too. I love this idea! I've got a fat quarter stack of Authentic that I just decided what to do with.

Sarcastic Quilter said...

I love it when good, old memories surface. Your quilt is very pretty.

Eileen said...

just love your quilt. and sweetwater has some of the most fun fabrics. used their pure line for Christmas presents for all the girls--of all ages--in my family last year. needing to make a modern black and white quilte for newlyweds and this would be a good design. thanks for sharing and have a great day

Sherry said...

Love your quilt & your story!