Blogger's Quilt Festival: Floating Wildflowers

Presenting
Floating Wildflowers!

Size:
60" x 70"
Quilted by:
Jo Nicholls of Thirroul Custom Quilting
Categories:
Favorite Bed Quilt
Favorite Professionally Quilted Quilt

Back when I first started 'quilting for real', circa 2009, my colour and fabric tastes were very different. The quilt shops I'd previously used were more traditional, and so most of what I saw were traditional-style quilts.

I have no idea how I discovered online fabric shopping, or the online blogosphere, but when I did, I found these wonderful 'pre-cut packs' full of a sample of a whole range of fabric! Naturally, there was nothing to do but go on a shopping spree and within a week I'd bought 3 moda pre-cut packs - a fat quarter set, a jelly roll, and a charm pack of each of Harmony, Kansas Winter, and Wildflower Serenade II.

Quite a lot of fabric, and very traditional colours and patterns for the fabrics; it would be tricky to integrate them into the more modern style of quilt I was making these days.

Then a friend of mine announced her engagement to her boyfriend - a country friend turned city girl, who fell in love with a guy who was actually interviewed to go on the reality TV show "The Farmer Wants A Wife" (they decided against him in the end). A mix of the traditional and the modern! Perfect!

I did some laying out to see how it would look:

And a lot of calculations to make sure I had enough fabric to work with, cutting up the layer cakes and fat quarters to ensure I had enough blocks!

Then it was cutting and piecing and sewing...and some unexpected edge-matching!

One thing I like about these kinds of quilts is that it's so very simple to make: just one block made in repeat over and over and all sewn together for a simple yet effective look! I'm all about the simple!

I liked the way this design made the coloured blocks 'float' above the cream/beige background fabric, a dance of blocks across the quilt top:

JAZZ HANDS!

With borders:

And a cat (she's about 6mths at this point, 12 months now):

I sent it to be quilted with Jo Nicholls of Thirroul Custom Quilting - computerised patterns, always classy, always beautifully done! I love using her for my finished quilts, even though I do hope to learn how to FMQ with my own machine.

And finally a binding of dark blue to finish it off!

One thing this quilt highlighted for me is the blurry line between 'traditional' and 'modern' quilting. The colours and patterns of this quilt read 'traditional' to me, but the look of it overall is very 'modern'. I think it's 'modernness' is helped along by the way the squares 'float' in a rather abstract manner due to the cream-beige 'background'.

I suppose purists would argue that 'modern' quilting should be done with modern colours and modern quilt patterns - my Eternity Quilt, for example, would firmly hit the 'modern quilt' mark in colour choice, fabric choice, and design.

And yet most block piecing is based upon a traditional set of blocks - HSTs, flying geese, log cabins - simple and used since someone first thought to take a couple of scraps and sew the edges together to make a bigger piece that was both functional and visually delightful.

So is it modern, or is it traditional? I guess it depends which way you're looking at the quilt - like one of those pictures - now it's a cup, now it's a pair of faces!

Either way, I'm very happy with the result, and my friend was delighted with her wedding present. Which she got four months later on her birthday because her husband managed to lop of the tip of his thumb on his wedding day! It was certainly a memorable day. :)

I wasn't going to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival this year. I was hoping to have quilted my Scrap Attack so I had something more dramatic. Maybe that will be for next Quilt Festival. Or maybe I'll save the Eternity Quilt for that one. :)

Thanks so much to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for running the Blogger's Quilt Festival again!