Friday, October 19, 2012

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

I volunteered to make a quilt for a benefit recently. I actually thought that I had a quilt finished and ready to donate, but the quilt that I had in mind wasn't really in proper condition to donate. (It was a red and white quilt that I finished awhile back. After I finished it, I washed it and put it away to store it. The reds had bled into the whites in the wash, but I didn't notice it until recently!)
I had a lot of other projects going on, so I let a few ideas roll around in my mind for a bit while I worked on other things. One night I realized that I had quite a few HSTs left over from another quilt (which I haven't finished yet, but I'll share as soon as it's done!).
Within an hour or so I had the HSTs sewn into this top!

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

It's a lot of fun to play with color value! The other quilt I'm working on has a different look to it, but I couldn't resist the simple, stunning effect of this layout.
With the top done, I set it aside to think about how to quilt it. I think I set it aside for a bit too long, because suddenly I realized that I had a week to finish the quilt and ship it to Illinois. Plus there was a 3-weekend with no mail delivery!
I started out with a free motion quilt design that I found in Angela Walter's book, but I didn't feel like it flowed with the quilt top. I had less than 1/6 of the quilt done, but it still took me several hours to pick out the stitching!

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

I ultimately went with straight line quilting, which was my first instinct all along... I chose a purple variegated thread for the quilting, but with less than half of the quilt done, I ran out! At this point I just wanted to finish the quilt and send it off, so I decided to simply finish with another color thread. I had a pink variegated thread, which was the same brand and style as the purple, so I chose that.
Just when I thought I'd never finish this quilt, I ran out of thread AGAIN! By this time I was actually laughing out loud. I had yet another variegated thread in my stash (this one was green, and a different brand), so I pulled that out. I figured that by changing thread colors twice, it would look more intentional. Right?
In this picture you can kind of see that there are different colors of thread.

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

Here's another shot showing the different threads:

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

I was able to finish the quilting without running out of green thread (victory!). For the back of the quilt I chose an ikat print by Amy Butler and a blue print from my stash (sorry, I have no clue of the designer!). The blue print worked out really well for binding, too. I'm really happy with how well these two prints play with the Kaffe Fassett prints!

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

Here's a close up of the two backing prints:

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

How fabulous is this ikat? I love it!

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

I'm happy to report that the quilt did make it to Illinois in time for the benefit. I'm not sure how much money the quilt itself raised, but I do know that the benefit raised a bit of money to help a friend of a friend with her cancer treatments. It was quite a rush to finish this project, especially with all of the other sewing I had going on, but I'm so glad I could be involved in this event!

Beautiful Disaster Quilt

Finished size is 36" x 41"
Prints are mostly Kaffe Fassett with a few Brandon Mably prints.
Backing is an ikat print by Amy Butler and an unknown print from my stash.
Straight line quilting in several thread colors. ;) Purple and pink are Signature threads, the green is Wonderfil.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I love all the colors in this quilt! You did a really good job and I think using the three different variegated colors worked very well :) I am also working on a benefit quilt and wondered if you wash the finished quilt before donating? Thanks Amy :)

Heather D. said...

It's wonderful, and the threads are a lot of fun. I've never done a project with different thread colours.

Re: picking out FMQ stitches. YES, I've been there and it takes sooooo long. Especially if your stitches aren't all the same length and some are really teeny. Ugh.

Carla said...

It is so so fabulous! I am sure it fetched a tidy sum ; )

Charlotte said...

it's gorgeous! The thread changes look totally intentional. They were variegated anyway! I am sure that it raised a lovely sum.

Marla said...

The layout is perfect!

Pat said...

Wow, it turned out beautifully. You would never know that every step wasn't totally intentional.

Pat said...

Wow, it turned out beautifully. You would never know that every step wasn't totally intentional.

Teje Karjalainen said...

So beautiful! You have the most beautiful fabrics there and the pattern is so good! I would love to make that pattern, too! x Teje

Becky said...

Very nice!! I love it!

Kristie said...

What a pretty quilt, and I am sure the different threads just added to the charm!

Sondra said...

Totally amazing quilt, WOW! Love it!

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Beautiful indeed and the thread drama gave me a giggle! Funny how things work out! I adore that Ikat :)

SeeingStars said...

You are too funny! I kept looking at the quilt and reading and wondering why this quilt is a disaster. Your first and second and third thread colors look great with this one. And although I love to free motion quilt, this one looks terrific with those straight lines. Great job!

barbara woods said...

it's beautiful all right

Ginette said...

What an awesome quilt! I love everything about it!

Annabella said...

It's amazing!! I love the pattern and perfect fo Kaffe Fasset's gorgeous prints. Absolutely beautiful!

jane said...

Beautiful. You did a great job with the color values.

Kris from Duke Says Sew What said...

Such a pretty quilt and wow...that quilting!

Kelly said...

It's beautiful. The quilting must of taken ages. I love the Amy Butler ikat too! It's gorgeous!

SIMPLESEW said...

Linking up , love the value style, I am studying this for my next quilt.

Cindy Jo said...

Love how this quilt looks.

Abbybeth said...

Looks great! And if it helps, the unknown blue print is from Gypsy Bandana by Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller - I think that particular print is Kaleidoscope, but I'm not 100% on that detail (I did a wedding quilt for my bestie out of that line, so I recognized it right away!)

Carolyn said...

Beautiful quilt! Love all those HST's! The quilting suits it perfectly