Thursday, February 9, 2012

Autumn Chevrons

I started this quilt a few months ago (in autumn, actually!), before the holiday rush. I began by pulling some autumn-colored fabrics from my oft-neglected fat quarter stash. I knew that I wanted to make a chevron quilt, so I cut strips in various widths and started to piece them together. I was staggering the ends of my strips (like this) so that I could trim up the edges later, but I soon realized that I wasn't staying consistent in my staggering. I was aiming for 45-degree angles on my strips, but soon decided to cut the pieced strips at (somewhat) random angles.
DSC_0042 After I had a few strips pieced and the edges squared up, I played with layout options. I didn't intend to use a sashing between the strips, but the variation of color, print, strip width and angle resulted in a horrible eyesore when all of the pieced strips were butting up against each other. Still unwilling to admit defeat to this quilt idea, I auditioned some solids for sashing. My first instinct was to use kona snow, but it read as a fairly bright white against the darker prints. I initially pulled out the khaki simply because I had enough yardage on hand, not expecting to use it. Boy was I surprised when that ended up being my favorite!
DSC_0045 To quilt this piece, I followed the angles of the pieced slices in the strips and formed a horizontal zig zag pattern across the quilt. The quilted lines are spaced (somewhat) randomly apart, but I did make sure that every slice within the strips had a quilting line running through it. Why? Because I'm a tiny bit obsessive compulsive like that.
DSC_0051 I couldn't imagine binding this quilt in anything but the khaki solid. I wanted the piecing to really stand out, and I think that any other binding would have distracted from the piecing just a bit.
For the back I used a DS Quilts print from JoAnn's. The colors worked really well with the fabrics on the front.
DSC_0050 I'm toying with the idea of re-opening an Etsy shop this fall when Addy is in school all day and and I have a bit more free time. My intent was to save this quilt for the shop, but while I was sewing the binding down I found a flaw in the material on one of the borders. So lucky me, I get to keep this one! We don't have a lot of space in our house, so Autumn Chevrons is currently hanging in the stairway leading to our basement. It's just the touch of homemade that my stairway was lacking! DSC_0053

6 comments:

Heather D. said...

It looks so great! Perfect for that stairway. Also, you have the coolest phone ever!

Natalie said...

Beautiful! I love this design, it looks great!

Live a Colorful Life said...

Really beautiful quilt. Love the khaki. Looks great on the wall!

Chelsea said...

That's so pretty! And I have phone envy!

Lucy | Charm About You said...

I absolutely love this quilt!! The quilted angles and strips look wonderful. It looks fabulous on your wall :)

felicity said...

It's beautiful! What a lovely way to dress up a stairwell!