It's been a really long time since I bought quilting fabric, even longer since I bought any specifically for a project. But here I am, looking for inspiration for a quilt to go to my goddaughter's latest baby, and I find it in two places: An AQS pattern called Rainbow Rails and a new line of Moda fabric with Noah's Ark theme at my local quilt shop. You can spot the two designs I picked from the line peeking out from under the pinks I mentioned a month ago that had me all in a tizzy and confused. But living with them out like that for so long has helped me calm down and see what is going to work. The more muted pinks go better with the raindrops fabric on the left, the blue fabric in the middle has animals and will be the backing. I ended up getting 3 yds each of the new fabric, unsure of which would be backing and which background, and got it washed and ironed, along with the batiks in the last post, over the weekend. Straining my brain to remember how I set my newer washing machine, digging out the Synthropal, reminding myself how to use Retayne on the batiks. It really has been a long time.
 |
| EQ layout print out, Original AQS pattern directions, Graph paper cutting guide |
So Saturday was National Quilting Day - did you remember? Did you devote any time to quilting? - and getting started on this quilt was how I planned to spend it, but the fabric prep took up so much time I didn't even get any cutting done as I'd hoped. But because I needed to make changes to the Rainbow Rails pattern to turn it from a big quilt to a smaller one, I was on my own in terms of cutting dimensions and number of pieces and blocks. Another thing I haven't done in ages is use my EQ software to help size things and decide on a layout. But I soon got the hang of it and printed out two versions along with its estimates of fabric requirements. In the end, I decided on a reduced size block of 12 inches set 3 x 4. The raindrops fabric that will be background/sashing/borders is directional so I opted to get out graph paper to determine how best to cut the longest strips since some will run parallel to the selvage while others will run selvage to selvage. It just felt like it would be working in the dark if I didn't do this and now I can confidently start cutting. Not sure if I'll mix in another color other than pink like I did in the mock-up but do like how that looks.
2 comments:
That's going to be a treasured baby quilt! The pattern will show off all of those beautiful, soft colors. Fabric prep & re-sizing the pattern count as National Quilting Day activities in my view! I worked on a quilted casserole carrier for a friend on Saturday, but hadn't remembered that it was a 'special' day. Jan in WY
Well, Jan, National Quilting Day must be in your genes or something - lol. Those casserole carriers are such a practical gift. I bet your friend really appreciates it. As for the baby quilt, when I saw the original pattern it struck me as looking so fresh with the white background and rainbow colors. I was a bit disappointed that the rain fabric had a more off-white background than I expected, but I went with it anyway and think those muted pinks look good with it. Maybe not as fresh as a white background but perhaps more practical in a baby quilt. ;-)
Post a Comment