Friday, April 4, 2014

Retro Rotary: quilt #12

This might just be my new favorite quilt:
Excuse the blue painter's tape in the photo, please....I've been waiting for a nice spring day so I could photograph this quilt outside but....the days that were "nice" were also extremely windy, which is not so good for quilt photo shoots.  And today is definitely not nice, so I gave up and stuck the quilt to the wall and snapped a few pictures.  My pictures don't quite do the quilt justice--the fabric is just so awesome and my photography is not.  The telephones are another Melody Miller design and I had fun seeking out just the right fabrics to go with it, and I found just what I needed during a visit to Winterset a couple of weeks ago: the orange print came from the local Ben Franklin store and the purple came from Fons & Porter's quilt shop, both conveniently located on the square.  (I'm thinking I really just need to move to Winterset; I mean, two fabric shops on one block, and a yarn shop across the street?  Obviously this is the town for me!) You can see a glimpse of olive green in the scrappy binding and there's a bit more on the back of the quilt, which is very simple:
I love the combination of the orange, purple, and olive.  And if it weren't for that adorable telephone fabric I probably wouldn't have thought of using those 3 colors together.  Purple isn't one of my favorite colors, but in this quilt, I'm loving it.  The purple fabric has a very subtle print and just enough hint of sparkle to do the telephone fabric justice. 

And to pat myself on the back just a bit, I will mention that this is definitely my best job thus far of quilting and binding.  I'm a hands-on learner and I can see the improvement with each quilt I make.  It's ever-so-satisfying. 

This one is quilted with Aurifil, one of the spools that came in the Tula Pink sampler pack I got for Valentine's Day.  (Yes, I asked for thread for Valentine's Day!)  The pink/purple spool was perfect for this quilt.  The colors of thread in this collection are wonderful and I am looking forward to using another one very soon.  The quilting is very basic, because you can't get too fancy on a home sewing machine, but with the help of some painter's tape I did manage to do a decent job of making my lines fairly straight.  Oh, the wonder of a walking foot!  Such a help. 

After I finished this quilt, I had to tear myself away from my sewing machine and get back to my paper trimmer to get some journals made for upcoming shows.  If you're in or near Iowa City, I'll be at Craft Your Environment, coming up on April 19 at the East Side Recycling Center.  This is a brand new show and one I am really looking forward to as it focuses on handmade items that use recycled/repurposed materials.  Stop by and say hello if you're in the area! 

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