Colourwash Quilt

Wow, two finished quilts in the same week! Of course these were both finished months ago but at last I can share them here!

This quilt features in the latest issue (12) of Today's Quilter and there's a bit of a story behind it that involves a feature I've contributed to! (so not just sewing this month!).

That gorgeous schoolhouse quilt on the cover is by Lynne Goldsworthy and there's also a wonderful article all about Scottish Quilts by quilt historian (and very old friend of mine) Janet Rae, to accompany her new book, 'warm covers'. There's always so much to discover in this magazine!

Another real life friend of mine (and with a coincidentally similar name!), Jane Rae, happens to be the features editor on the magazine, and earlier in the year we discussed working on a something together. I had the idea to focus on quilters who were very influential when I started quilting back in the early 90's but who newer generations of quilters might not have heard of.

Jane would write about the quilter and I would design a quilt inspired by their style.

We put together a short list of 'quilt heroes' and approached Jen the editor. She suggested we try one out to start with and so we chose Deirdre Amsden.

Deirdre was very famous when I started quilting and her colourwash quilts were greatly admired. You'll have to get the magazine for the whole lowdown, but with this quilt I've tried to update her style by using brighter colours and larger units than Deirdre would have done (there simply wasn't really bright fabrics around then, things have changed a lot due to digital printing).

I'd tried the colourwash effect in quilts in the past, like this double wedding ring I made about 8 years ago, the smaller pieces and more delicate colouring are far more reminiscent of Deirdre's quilts.

But when you are working on a pattern for a magazine you don't want to make it too daunting and put people off, so I used a 3 inch square and added a touch of monochrome Irish chain to break up the colour.

I FMQ'd it with a double circle in ever square which gives it a great texture and is also nice and quick!

I think it is one of my favourites so far this year and it's also a good size at 75in square. I also really enjoyed writing the feature side with Jane. In fact I might just be doing a bit more of that soon...

The back is a confetti type fabric by Valori Wells for Kaufman.

I do hope you get a chance to read the article, Deirdre's story is so interesting and there is lot's more about how I tackled the colourwash challenge! Plus Deirdre seems to like what I've done with this quilt, in fact she says it makes her want to quilt again!