Pink, Green and Brown Checkerboard quilt

Ferret mentioned yesterday that my quilt is currently on the frame. She's freehand longarm quilting it with a central design inspired by wrought iron swirls in browns, then leaves and flowers in pinks and greens, followed by more brown thread towards the edges and corners. Can't wait to see it. I'm entering it for the National Quilt Championships 'In the Pink' charity challenge at Sandown Park in June. EDIT - I forgot to menion that the fabric range was 'Sultry' (by BasicGrey) for Moda.


The quilt was inspired by one in the V & A's collection, and I made a scaled down 'replica' version of that first, which will be hand quilted (sometime!) -


The main theme category is 'Garden Party' and it would almost have fitted that too, although I have another quilt that I might finish for that - one I started for Wrexham Quilting Circles first theme challenge, 'Split Nine Patch'. That will tell my WQC friends that it's a quilt that's been on the go for a long time. I tacked it and started quilting it a long time ago and it's a quilt that always ends up on the back burner. We got it out of my UFO pile a couple of months ago and I decided it really should be finished asap, as I still really like it. Lots of shaded greens and, surprisingly for me, plains - I don't use a lot of flat colours in my quilts, but these shade from turqouise into purples. I'll have to find my stash of Steph Francis threads to finish this one.

Frame quilt centre patchwork

Inspired by a quilt that was in the V & A exhibition last year, the size of the units in the centre have been redrafted so I could make the best use of 5in charm pack squares. The next border is a series of rectangles on 45-degree diagonals, then nine patches on point. The new version is on the left below with a (low resolution) detail from the original quilt on the right.

"Dryslwyn" quilt top

60in square, made with the equivalent of one Jelly Roll plus the polka dot fabric.

The Jelly Roll was Moda "Collection for a Cause - Alliance". I removed the plain bright yellow and plain cream strip and substituted these with some charm squares from the same range and a few from another Moda range (pale blue fabrics).

The original quilt is in Jen Jones's collection, founder of the Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter, and is illustrated in Janet Rae's "Quilts of the British Isles". The strips in mine are slightly smaller than in the original and the prints include more paisleys compared to the floral cottons in the original. "Alliance" includes some patterned stripes very similar to some in the antique quilt. I tried to get a similar effect with the placement of colours and patterns, especially the red/pink and yellow pieces, but without making a facsimile.

The patchwork was incredibly satisfying to make. After sorting the fabrics into light and dark values, I cut and arranged pieces for each round as I went. This is a much more logical way to deal with a "scrap" pattern than cutting out all the pieces and then trying to sort them out. It also meant I was much less likely to loose any pieces along the way. There are 420 patterned strips and they are not all the same size - that's an illusion! - and 421 pieces of polka dot, including dozens of narrow strips between the patterned pieces. Patchworks like this, arranged in a 'frame' design from the centre outwards, include a lot of rotational and reflective symmetry in the arrangement of the patches and this subtle repetition is one of the things that appeals to me. There is so much of interest as you can't help start 'twinning' the patterns, playing Snap with fabrics.