I haven't been blogging quite as often recently because, in between doing talks & workshops & events like trading at Region 13's Quilters' Guild Regional Day last Saturday, I've been moving more of my things up to Scotland. For the last three weeks, we have had a transit van, so the bigger pieces of furniture, like my antique wardrobe (where I store a lot of my quilts) and my sewing room table, could be moved up to Kettins. I feel like I'm having to become an expert in logistics, making sure the correct quilts etc. are in the right place for the various workshops I'm teaching, so most of my Japanese quilts are back in Wales at the moment.
I haven't been including the 'Taisho Variations' quilt (above) in my talks for a while, as it was hiding under some other pieces in my workroom ;-), but I'll be taking it out this Friday and, of course, I'll be including it when I do my three day residential course in Bridlington at the end of the month. It isn't a sampler quilt, because some of the blocks are duplicates - some blocks are more economical made in pairs, like the kimono blocks. The sophisticated colours and patterns of Taisho (1912 - 1926) era kimono and obi were an inspiration for this, but all the fabrics are modern patchwork fabrics, so no antique kimono were cut up to make it! The sashing is only on two sides of each block and reintroduces some of the bolder colours used in them.
Speaking of sampler quilts, at the Guild Regional Day on Saturday, I found the perfect fabric for sashing a sampler quilt using the paler applique blocks from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' - thanks to Dot Sherlock's Quilter's Needs once again for coming up with just the right thing! It is an ombre print in shades of light dusty pink through to a very greyed out rose pink. Originally, I planned to set the blocks square, something like the arrangements above.
Now I think I would prefer to make two smaller quilts, separating the blocks that have an obvious direction (like those shown above) from those which can be turned through 45-degrees (below). One quilt would have the blocks set square, the other on point, perhaps with a big stitch quilted motif based on one of the appliques in each 'plain' square.
1 comment:
Hi Susan,
Just wanted to say thank you so much for commenting on my Japanese blocks post! You are very right - my 1/4" seam needs to be more accurate, but I can also partly blame the fabrics as they're a range of different types. I'm determined to use as many original Japanese fabrics (not just quilting cottons) as I can. As such, I need to invest in some starch, haha!
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