A while back I was commisioned to create a wedding quilt as a gift for a couple using whatever technique I liked, as long as the colors were soft pastels.
My fabric colors are sorted according to seasons but in order to get a large enough selection of soft pastels I decided to sort my fabrics according to depth of color ranging from 1 - 5 and patterns and solids.
That took quite some time and it was interesting because some of the shades could fit into more than one season so I had to be decisive, cool, warm, neutral? After finally finshing I came up with this selection.
A range of soft pastels, solids and patterned. Its not that easy to create an adult pastel version which is not girly when using pinks and peaches in the mix. I balanced them by adding beiges, creams turquoise and blues.
I have a rule that I never buy new fabric so it is a challenge to create using what I have. I had pieces in many different sizes. Strips, rectangles, squares. sheets, pillowcases and men's button down shirts.
The quilt was going to be huge. 3 metres x 2.5 metres. The possible techniques for this project were a classic squares quilt, a rag quilt or a crumb quilt. I had a limited amount of time to devote to this project after all my other obligations.
Making a classic squares quilt would have entailed cutting 100's of squares to size. Even more work was entailed for creating a rag quilt. For that I would have had to cut squares for the front, for the flannel batting and for the backing. So of course I chose the crumb quilting technique.
I stitched together elements,
Which I then stitched into equal sized squares
After stitching the squares, I then needed to place them down to acquire a pleasing visual outlay. I pushed 2 tables together in the garden, stood on a ladder and examined the overall placement.
What I look for when placing the elements down is for a flow of color. I saw yellows, turquoise, pinks, creams and blues flowing through and not grouping up anywhere, then I was happy with the result.
The squares were then stitched into rows.
And then the rows had to be joined into the quilt top. This was quite cumbersome as the quilt was huge. I finally finished joining the top .
I had to place a second table next to the sewing machine table on which I could rest the bulk of the quilt when sewing it together, otherwise it would have rested on the floor and dragged on the sewing machine.
I then had to lay it down on the tables outside in order to sandwich all the layers, top, batting and backing together before quilting it.
I pinned all the layers together, turned my sewing machine around so that it no longer faced the wall and placed a third table next to me on which I rested the bulk of the quilt while top stitching it, stitch in the ditch.
I created a pastel rainbow binding from more remnants and stitched that all around the quilt.
The end result, a huge soft pastel rainbow quilt.
Upon arrival at its new home in Africa.
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