March 08, 2008

In-Progress Garden Quilt



To be honest, I started with a strong bias against appliqué. It is so precise and perfect (italicized words should be said with notable distaste). I never imagined I would have appliquéd as much as I have. However, when I was spending a lot of time on my tuckus in school appliqué kept my hands busy and my mind less antsy.

In my early quilt frenzy I would go the library and rent 10-15 quilt related books each week, soaking up techniques, patterns and of course, beautiful beautiful quilts. I was unexpectedly inspired by Mary Lou Weidman's book Quilted Memories. All her appliqué is free-form, and sewn with abandon. As you might guess, I loved her "who cares what color thread you have!" approach.

So, class by class and block by block I worked on a quilty tribute to my beloved backyard garden, slugs and all. I had thought I would just stitch the randomly sized blocks together, but when I laid them out together they didn't cover enough space. I wanted a laying in the sun quilt, or a picnic worthy quilt. It had to be bigger. So I added borders last week using the fabrics from other squares in the quilt. I'm not sure the layout above is the most perfect layout a person could come up with, but I am certain that I need to get over it and stitch 'em together already so I can enjoy the quilt this summer!

I will show some of my favorite blocks in close up detail when it is quilted. But I thought it looked so happy laid out that I had to share this part early...

6 comments:

QuiltedSimple said...

I LOVE IT!!! It's so bright and cheerful, and reminds me of all the wonderful elements of a garden. I cannot wait to see the finished product - and hope you have many afternoon picnics with it!!

Meg said...

I like this kind of applique---loose and lively. Good colors too!

Christina said...

Thanks gals!

Purple Pam said...

Your garden quilt is growing quite wonderfully! Can't wait to see it all blooming! Remember, applique does not have to be a nasty word! There are lots of forms of applique: raw edge, adhesive type, cut and snip, machine applique, to name a few. Find the kind you like the best and go for it! You are doing a great job so far.

Frederique said...

Boy, what a quilt! I Love it, so bright!
I'm coming from the Everything Patchwork Flickr group discussion about members' blog, and discover yours.
I will come back again !

Rascallion said...

Wow, your quilting is amazing!

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