Saturday, August 1, 2015

The same, but different

Take a look at these two quilts made using the same amount of fabric and the same basic techniques.


Both are made from a jelly roll ( pre-cut 2.5 inch strips of fabrics from a single manufacturer's line) so construction was fast and easy.  I arranged the strips on a design wall in an order that I liked, stitched them together, then sliced the finished piecing about 1/3 of the way in.  And no, I didn't measure - just eyeballed what looked about right and cut carefully with a long ruler.  The inset piece features some appliques using the same fabrics.  In the top quilt, Sunnyside, I happened to have a charm pack (5 inch squares) of the same line, so that worked well to make circle appliques.  The second quilt, which I call Furball, features a dog and cat motif in a Basic Grey line -- name escapes me at the moment.  With this one, I only had the jelly roll strips to work with, so I made orange peal appliques just the right size; the orange peal motif just happens to tie in with a repeated design in the fabric print.  With both quilts, I found that adding a thin border to outline the inset panel pulled the overall design together better.

Because the jelly roll strips translate to a very busy design, I just did a loose stipple on both quilts.  But in the applique panel area, I chose to do a more detailed, specific free motion quilting approach.  On the Sunnyside quilt, I did pebbling, which works well with the circles.

On the Furball quilt, I mostly echo quilted, which in turn created its own secondary pattern.



These finish as  large crib quilts, or a pretty standard lap or throw size.  No pattern -- you don't need one.