Friday, December 7, 2012

Fly South! A charm pack quilt

 I'm a total sucker for Basic Grey's lines for Moda. I don't know what it is about their designs, but I just can't resist them.  The "Little Peeks" quilt and wall hanging were made from an "Origins" charm pack and this Christmas it was the "Blitzen" line that I had my eye on.  I finally caved and bought a charm pack.

I was stumped for a few days with the usual charm pack dilemma: how to use the charms to make a decent sized throw, keeping them in large pieces but not just doing a boring grid.  Eventually I came up with this design I'm calling "Fly South".
 I turned my charm pack into flying geese, yielding 2 geese per charm, and arranged them into Dutchman's Puzzle blocks.  Unfortunately I only had enough geese to make 10 blocks, and even set on point that didn't make a very big quilt.  So, I improvised and thinned out the blocks, expanding the design.  I fiddled with it for a few days on the design wall and in the end it just worked.  I like how the geese are less dense at the edges of the "flock", as if some of them are breaking away. 
 If you'll notice, at the bottom of the quilt there are three geese which break the Dutchman's Puzzle block pattern escaping and flying South, hence the name :)  One of the geese is pieced in, the other two are 3D geese with a cathedral window-esque rolled edge.
 It's hard to tell, but these are actually sewn across the rolled bottom and tacked down at the nose, if that makes sense.  I can put my whole finger under the body of the goose.

I backed the quilt with double sided Christmas themed minky and decided to skip on the batting. Instead I added a layer of white flannel to keep the minky from showing through the white background.  Because there was no batting only minimal quilting was needed, and this throw was brightening up our family room in no time.  It just big enough to put over the back of the sofa or keep your toes warm.
I have a pattern for this about half way done and plan to finish it in the next few days.  If anyone is interested in testing it out for me, please send me an email!

I'm linking up to Sarah's Can I get a Whoop Whoop and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

10 comments:

  1. I love it! The 3D effect is wonderful & playful. Very modern! You should see if the Moda Bake Shop would publish it!
    Whoop Whoop!

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  2. I think it looks great and I love how quilters always find a way to "make due" with what we have. I would never look at this and think you only had a charm pack... it looks like it was always meant to be this way. Really pretty design!

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  3. Love your quilt. Nice placement of color, and negative space.

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  4. That's really cool- I love your escaped geese!!!

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  5. Love the quilt! Great choice of colour!

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  6. Whoop whoop, Kat! What a great design!! And I'd be glad to test your pattern - I've got a charm pack or two lying around waiting for a great design!

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  7. I love this! I too have a hard time resisting the Basic Grey fabrics. If you need testers let me know, I would love to test this pattern.

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  8. What a great design! I love your flying south geese! I also love how you displayed the quilt, too! It's just how I do mine - in front of our wood pile!
    Cheers!

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