Free to Quilt: Cool Colours

Duck Egg Blue and Peter Rabbit

This beautiful quilt, pieced by Pat H, is the latest thing off my frame and I have held back from writing this blog until she saw it, which she did today. It is called simply 'Maple Leaf' and was designed by Lynne Goldsworthy, featured in Issue 40 of Today's Quilter magazine (and demonstrated on Sewing Quarter I believe).

A so-called 'one block' pattern, it was very complex and tricky, with lots of biases and mitred corners to achieve. But she cracked it!
The original version was made with Edyta Sitar's Little Sweetheart range in reds, pinks and beiges, which was very pretty. But I absolutely love Pat's fabric choices - admittedly she got a lot of them from me - but that just goes to prove what excellent taste she has!

But seriously! How sweet it looks in these soft duck egg blues and creams with a darker accent on the tips of the leaves.

Shortly before, Pat had asked me to help her finish off a UFO from our own Janet S, who had made many blocks for this project, so long ago that she had fallen out of love with the fabrics. Pat couldn't bear to see all this work go to waste and took on finishing the final assembly. I took the opportunity of mastering a new (to me) quilting motif - a sort of paisley hook and curl. You can see it fairly well here, but on some of the busier prints the multi coloured thread blended in so well, it was like trying to quilt blind folded! But it turned out ok and I think I really have it in my muscle memory now. I added the paisleys in to the all over flower design on Pat's Maple Leaf quilt.

Despite the somewhat out dated fabrics, the overall effect of the patchwork is very striking. It's all about the contrasting values.

Then there was this delightful little diversion pieced by Val. A set of Peter Rabbit mini panels laid out with simple, crisp, white on white sashing and navy posts with a smart navy flanged border. Beautifully done! A perfect opportunity for me to work on improving my ribbon candy technique. (I got the Micro Handles out for this one- it was so narrow). I learned that it is definitely easier to do vertically than horizontally.

Now I have another 3 on the pile, which I will get on with as soon as I am able - all very interesting and different in their own ways.

Meanwhile, the Annual Garden Fete for the NSPCC is taking place on Sunday 14th July at Schopwick Place in Elstree. I will be organising the traditional display of quilts made by members of Connecting Threads and Studio Quilters, together with a few items for sale for the cause. (As always I will be making a coffee and walnut cake for the refreshments stand!) Let's hope the weather is a LOT kinder to us this year. PLEASE come and support it if you can.

Lastly, here is my second sweet little strawberry, which I have made as a gift for a very dear friend who is in need of little extra love right now.