Hint of colour handbag.  The pleated panels allow the red to show through the black.
To read more click on Hint of colour.



 

NEWSLETTER JULY 2010

Ideas for a Scottish themed quilt

I hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying as marvellous a summer as we are having here in the UK.  The hot weather arrived rather suddenly and took my garden by surprise - the sweet peas, honeysuckle, roses, buddleia and mock orange are all in bloom at the same time and the scent is heavenly.


My daughter Samantha is off to Arizona next month for an exchange year at the university, so I took advantage of her being home to take photos of some quilts in the garden.

This is the first of what may turn out to be several Scottish themed quilts.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in suggestions.  My feeling from your comments is that a landscape quilt would best convey the beauty of Scotland, so that is planned in as a project for later this year.

I've opened a links page where I have listed the sites that you sent me, where I bought the tartan and other quilting links that you may find useful.  Click on quilt and sew links for more information.

I began the quilt with an applique stag's head on a 12.1/2" by 6.1/2" panel for the middle of the quilt.
Click on applique for more information.




Following the theme of the stag as Monarch of the Glen I surrounded this with crown blocks from the Cross and Crown quilt block:  1 block across the top and bottom and 4 blocks down each side. 

I began by trying to match the pattern of the tartan across the blocks but decided that I would still be making this quilt next year if I did that, so I abandoned the idea.


I chose the fling quilt block for the next round of quilt blocks because I liked the idea of using the trapezium shape (rectangle with sloped edges) which is the shape of a kilt.  The name fling also appealed to me because of the highland fling, although I know that this block does go under many other names as well.  I found the tartan a little more difficult to work with than normal quilting fabric so I used tartan for the infill rather than for the main shape of the block.  Click on fling block to read more.



I used 3 blocks each across the top and bottom and 6 blocks down each side.  When they were sewn together they seemed to form a celtic twist pattern which was an unexpected bonus.




The mountain block came next - that's just the name I gave to a block with 1 large triangle and 2 smaller ones!  This appeared to be quite a wasteful block so I hung on to the brown triangles that were cut off and used them in the border.
Click on mountain block for more details.  I used 5 blocks each across the top and bottom and 8 blocks up each side.



For the last round of blocks on the quilt top I used the thistle block with the thistle flower facing outwards and alternating so that there were 2 purple squares together. 
Click on thistle block to read more.




I used 7 thistle blocks each across the top and bottom and 10 blocks down each side.

Here again I found a secondary pattern emerging where the thistle block joined the mountain block - maybe a tree of sorts?





I introduced a darker blue in the border, partly as a paler version of the blue in St Andrew's cross and partly because I can't resist blue.  I used a 1.1/2" strip of blue and of tartan, sewed them together and then sewed them to the quilt top.  One strip each across the top and bottom and then one down each side.



It was much easier to sew the 2 strips together first and then sew them to the quilt, but it does mean that the blue extends too far at the corners.  I have the choice of leaving them like that and calling it a design choice or of handsewing a square of tartan over the offending square of blue.




The next part of the border used up the triangles left over from the mountain block (click on mountain block) and then I added another 1.1/2" strip of tartan to balance the previous strip.





The final size of my quilt top is 66" wide by 72" long. 
I haven't added wadding, backing and binding yet, but I will be binding this quilt in the blue that I used for the border.

Well, that was quite a marathon task trying to finish this quilt in time for this newsletter, but I hope you enjoy looking at it.  I think next month I'll go with a couple of smaller projects!

Best Wishes
Rose



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rose@ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk
www.ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk