Skip to main content

The Great Aunts [a purple finish]

Over the last few weeks I have been working on quilts for two of my Great Aunts - I posted about it in quite a bit of detail here. A purple quilt and a blue quilt. Both are now finished. I'll post about the blue one a bit later on, but for now may I present The Purple One.

I can't  think of a better name.

This quilt started life in March 2012 when we celebrated my Mum's significant birthday with a big family party. I cornered my Great Aunt and asked her what her favourite colour was. Purple and pink. Bugger. My purple stash at the time numbered about three fat quarters. Roll on to October 2012 when I was Queen Bee for Stash Bee and I decided to ask my Bee Mates to help me out. I posted this tutorial and asked for four 7.5" blocks from each. My Bee Mates did me proud and I got loads of blocks back.


The problem was that all of the blocks needed trimming - it was my own fault - it was what I'd asked for. But the task didn't appeal, so the blocks sat there for a while. Funnily enough it was Mia's birth that kicked me into action. I don't get to see my Great Aunt often, but I knew with a new baby, there was no way I wouldn't be catching up with her when I visit home at the end of June, so that was an ideal time to give her the quilt.

Many hours of trimming, some crawling on the floor to get the layout right, lots of long seams, piecing a backing fabric, basting.... it could be a list of the tasks I like least when quilting. But all necessary steps...


With the quilting, I knew what I wanted to do. Because of the scrappy nature of the quilt, I felt I had lost the pattern created by joining the blocks, so I wanted to reinforce this. I quilted in all of the "squares" created between the trellis lines. Originally I had planned something more detailed. But that didn't happen. I outlined each square and then quilted a square spiral. It's not my best quilting ever, but it has the desired result.



The quilt is backed with a cotton poplin in dark purple and I used the trimmings from the backing to make the binding. The quilting and the binding is all done using 40w Aurifil 2545 dark purple. The finished quilt is 62" x 55" before washing.

Finishing this quilt was a goal for the Q2 Finish Along! You can find my list of goals here.

Finish Along 2014

Comments

Vera said…
That is lovely color combo. Interesting pattern too.

Popular posts from this blog

365 Quilt Challenge 2016 [A finish]

I can't believe I've just typed that heading! When I made the block for January 1st 2016 I could not have imagined the journey this quilt would have taken me on. So make yourselves comfortable and grab a cup of tea, because this blog post may get lengthy! I'd seen the 365 Quilt Challenge on Facebook. I think every quilter on Facebook must have been aware of it. Loads of my friends had signed up and it kept popping up as a "Page you might like" thing. In the end, in November 2015, I joined the group, had a poke round. Decided it wasn't for me. One of the things that really put me off were the fabric requirements: you needed x amount of dark dark fabric, x amount of medium dark fabric, x amount of dark medium, medium, light medium, light, background.... I just couldn't get my head round those requirements. I'd looked at the mock ups on the wesbite and couldn't bring myself to pick a colour. I put it to the back of my mind. But I had obvious...

Tula Nova [A Finish]

I can't believe it's been nearly two years since an epic day out in Huddersfield with the amazing Tula Pink. That day at Simply Solids was pretty close to the best day ever: a morning lecture by Tula where we got to see some of her quilts - and the amazing quilting by Angela Walters - and then an afternoon workshop with her starting work on the Tula Nova pattern. The centre that I made that day became a cushion, but I redid my centre and kept going with a rainbow or stars around it to create my final Tula Nova. All of the print fabrics are Tula All Stars with Pompoms and Stripes. The solids are all Kona. This was my first real time working with Tula Pink fabrics. I'd long been a fan of her patterns, but not her fabric. After this day I was a convert. We won't discuss how much Tula fabric I now have, nor how many of my current WIPs are Tula WIPs! But this was the start. The medallion is all hand pieced using English Paper Piecing. I learned about fussy cutting to...

All the Little Finishes

 I've had a few recent finishes - mostly smaller pieces and mostly not on my list to finish this year (because I've only just started them!) - lots and lots of pouches! Here's a round up... Three pouches I made for the kids for our holiday - all are the Seamingly Sane Pouch pattern, but I used the pattern add-on to adjust the sizes and customised with some straps and in one case, a pocket. These three pouches are made for our work Yubikeys when we travel to protect them - it's a slightly adjusted Aneela Hooey pattern - the peas are an inside joke! I knew I had pea fabric for a reason! A couple more Seamingly Sane pouches - the smaller one was a birthday present for my Dad, and the floral one was for me to protect my diary when I travel. Seven pouches made entirely from my scraps to hold EPP pieces pre sewing! This is the Peekapouch pattern by Sweet Cinnamon Roses. This is the Not So Little Zippy Pouch by Fabric and Flowers. The pattern is a bit of a challenge, but this ...

Labels

Show more

Archive

Show more