Wednesday 8 May 2019

Shuttles Quilt top is finished

As I was making my Shuttles quilt I kept looking at the photo on the cover of Quilts in Morocco.  I worked out that the pieced border worked on their quilt because most of their blocks were made from solids. My blocks were highly patterned, so I decided that a fancy border wasn't going to work for my quilt.


The beauty with Kaffe Fassett prints is that they are so rich and densely patterned, they can do all the talking for you.  Who needs to spend days making fancy borders when you can just choose a gorgeous print and move onto the quilting?

I knew I wanted something lighter on the borders to contrast with the dark (Chocolate = brown) Aboriginal Dots I'd used on the corners and on the skinny border.


I remembered the crazy Jumble print in yellow that I'd seen at my local quilt shop a few months ago.  I liked it then, but really didn't know how I would use it.  Now I knew I had the perfect quilt for Jumble in Gold.  So I rushed out an bought enough to make nice wide borders.

I think it works really well, and will certainly make my quilt unique.


Now I'm thinking about the quilting.  I'm going to hand quilt this top, but just with simple diagonal lines like they've done in the book. I know I could do that on my domestic machine, but I love hand quilting - both seeing the stitches on a quilt, and the soft finish it gives a quilt. I'm going to use the bright yellow Aurifil 12wt for the hand quilting.

This quilt is about 63" x 70" because that's when I ran out of Aboriginal Dots. 

I love making straight forward Kaffe Fassett quilts.  They make me happy and provide a break from the long involved patterns I have bubbling away the background.



10 comments:

FlourishingPalms said...

This is a perfectly wonderful Kaffe quilt, and your bright yellow border makes it even better. I love knowing you're going to hand quilt! Will you making "regular" hand quilting stitches? Or do something along the lines of big stitch? I have never worked with Aurifil 12-weight thread, though I know you have recommended it before. In your role as Aurifil Ambassador, can point me to a reliable US supplier for it, so I can look further into it? I want to test several brands of heavier-weight quilting, and Boro stitching-type threads, to make comparisons.

Terry said...

Such a cheerful quilt. Love your colour choices - as usual.... can't wait to see it all hand-quilted

Linda said...

Gorgeous Kaffe quilt. Love your colours. I agree that mustard border is perfect. Enjoy your hand quilting.

audrey said...

This is a fantastic looking quilt! LOVE your border so much. Great choice. I really enjoyed what you said about making a straitforward quilt and how it makes for a good break from the more complicated quilting in the background. So true! I feel the same way many times with my quilting.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely gorgeous! Your quilt is far prettier than the one on the magazine cover in my opinion. Love it!

Quilting Babcia said...

This is truly gorgeous Wendy! You chose the perfect border fabric for all those lush fabrics in the shuttles, and the aboriginal dots ground everything. It will be truly special after hand quilting.

Gretchen Weaver said...

Pretty quilt! I like the idea of simple quilting, let the fabrics shine!

Mystic Quilter said...

Can't beat the KF Collective fabrics - this is amazing and the yellow Jumble is just perfect.

Anne / Springleaf Studios said...

Another fantastic Kaffe finish Wendy. You are so right about not needing a pieced border with all the active prints in the center. That's why I love Kaffe fabrics myself. So visually stimulating and colorful.

Josie Avery said...

Love your work so much!
What's the width of the dots border and the jumble border please?
My stash is calling me to make this one.

Wendy, again, such beautiful work and you have a wonderful eye for colours.