The Forsyth Piecers and Quilters Quilt show is fast approaching. Ive been thinking about it since they announced it and the quilt challenge. I love a challenge! It motivates my creativity! When I was in DOQ it was my favotie part of being in a guild. I have been thinking, designing, and collecting red fabrics for months. I didnt have any red prints or just red and white fabrics so this was a challenge. When I want on the LQS Shop Hop last fall I acquired some good fabrics- red on white, white on red, red on red, ... I was always singing to myself "All I need is red, wah, wah, wah...."
First design,
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| not sure what happened to this file.. |
Still another
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| this was my last design |
I liked some of the elements but they weren't exactly right. Then the Swoon along happened. I have been lusting after making one of these quilts. I have some Denyse Schmidt and Kaffe Fasett fabric in my stash that would be perfectly showcased. So this lead me to a new design based on me making this last night
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A red and white swoon block.
I actually didnt use the swoon pattern but rather the Bethlehem star pattern with my Marti Mitchell set A templetes and a companion triangle ruler. I modified the center and enlarged the whole block to 24". I really wanted a large statement piece block and this came out perfect. I didn't want a layout with traditional borders or a one block quilt. I added 4 other blocks based on my favortite stars and what I am now titling the quilt-"All I need is red, wah, wah, wah...." The 3 wahs gave me the idea for all blocks to be 3' based. So I made these other four blocks.
A 3" pin wheel star, a 6" free style star, a 9" friendship star, a 12" wonky star and the 24" Swoonlike star. These are my favorite quilt blocks! This is kind of what the layout will look like. Im using that great red I got at Karen Gray's shop for the background. I have a large scale red and white print called Kumari Garden that will add a statement as a strip down the side. It will finish at about 45" by 45".
Im hoping to complete the top this weekend. I'll piece the back with whatever I have left. Im still debating the quilting. Maybe some hand quilting on the stars with red and white pearl cottons, maybe a few antique red buttons, beads... or just straightline overall quilting or maybe straightline over lapping large freehand stars or a combo? I plan this to be a small throw for my favorite chair in the den. Any suggestions?
