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| ESPECIA TILE 49 1/2" x 49 1/2" |
I took a design I made last year (Connections) and revamped it using bright jewel tone Peppered Cottons. Reworking old designs to make them new again is something I'm obsessed with these days.
All of the blocks are paper pieced and finish at 2 3/4" square. It's a very simple block to piece, the hard part is making sure all of the seams match up. I was very aware with every single block and took an enormous amount of care to make sure I managed near perfection.
The fabric I used is Studio E Peppered Cotton. With the exception of the lightest yellow which is a Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton. If you aren't familiar with either of these fabrics, what makes them unique and different is the warp and weft of the weave. There are two colors woven together to make the fabric almost appear iridescent and gives a depth that you don't get with regular solids.
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| ROUND 1 |
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| ROUND 2 |
Once a round was finished I would run to my laptop and add another round in EQ8. I would experiment with the colors until it was right. There was a balancing act with the colors because some of the fabric I had very little to work with.
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| ROUND 3 |
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| ROUND 4 |
Another month later I pieced the backing and pinned all the parts and pieces together. It was finally ready to quilt!! But you know what came next, right?! It was tossed aside (carefully of course!) because I didn't want to quilt it.
First of all, I didn't have a plan. Secondly, I was not looking forward to quilting it. The thing about Peppered or Shot cottons is the weave of the fabric is looser than regular fabric. If you don't pin or spray baste the heck out of it...it can become frustrating to quilt. It might stretch, pucker or move. And I didn't want to deal with it...at all...never if I had a choice!
So, imagine my surprise when I finally did quilt it and I didn't have one single issue, problem, frustration or aggravated moment! Naturally that made me happy, but also slightly mad that I hadn't finished it sooner!
There was that part about not having a quilting plan though! It just got to the point that I was going to go for it. With my big girl panties on, I went for it. The usual straight lines here and there, and a bit of FMQ for the texture effect.
The back shows some of the design elements in the quilting. A few different thread colors were used throughout, but I tried to limit the thread changes to some degree.
With the purple binding added I could finally relish in a finish that was in the making for far too long. Now that it's finished I wonder what all the fuss was about! I can't say that it won't happen again though!
Are there certain fabrics you dread using or quilting? As long as it's quilting cotton I'll give it a try!
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