Modern Quilting
Inspirational projects and educational tutorials.
Today, I started on a new quilting project. This is going to be a very special gift for my mother-in-law. She has always been a huge fan of my quilts and loves photos of family. So I decided to create a black and white quilt with family photos. I was planning on starting this quilt sometime in the next few months, but due to an extremely unfortunate accident, it is now top priority.
My sister-in-law Autumn tragically passed away at 21 years old, leaving behind a 1.5 year old daughter and fiancé. This has not been easy on any of us, but especially my mother-in-law, so I would really like to get this quilt to her to help with the grieving process and to show her how much we love her. My husband will be leaving in 5 days to be with his family during this tough time, and my goal is to have the quilt finished and ready for him to take. Am I crazy or what? This will definitely be the shortest amount of time I have had to create a quilt. Here are some challenges I foresee, this is the largest quilt I have made, I have never printed on fabric, and I have a 3 week old newborn son, and a 2.5 year old daughter. Bring it on!
I knew that the best design for this quilt would be something very geometrical, that way I could easily incorporate the photos. Instead of designing my own, I decided to look through my list of inspiration and came across the Lemon Squares Quilt, designed by Faith at Fresh Lemon Quilts. Faith offers this quilt pattern for free on her website. She also has many free tutorials and some really great patterns that are very easy to follow. Thank You Faith! My plan is to replace the center square of 3 of each of blocks A, C, D, and F, with black and white images. I will make this quilt 6 blocks by 6 blocks.
For this quilt I originally decided to go with all solids of black, white and gray, but as I stared at the quilt pattern longer and longer I decided I might throw in a few black and white prints as well. I will make that final decision when the pieces are on my design wall. I had just received a bunch of coupons in the mail from Joann's so I decided to check out there solids. To my surprise all their quilters cotton was 40% off. I really wanted to use all Kona Cotton, but they only had one shade of gray in stock. So I ended up with white and medium gray in Country Classics Cotton, and then black, and coal in Kona Cotton. After I got home I decided I needed another light gray and ordered ash Kona Cotton from the folks at Fat Quarter Shop. I actually had started planning and shopping for this quilt weeks ago, knowing I would like to work on it in a few months. So that helped save me time, in my 5 day deadline.
Now that I have the pattern picked out and all my supplies purchased its time to start working. More to come!
My name is Alyssa Williams, I live in sunny Prescott Valley, AZ. I am a front end developer and avid sewist. I write modern quilting tutorials and share techniques and inspiration here at Pile O’ Fabric. Learn more…
Alyssa Lichner
Creator of Pile O' Fabric
Alyssa Lichner is a graphic designer turned avid sewist. She writes modern quilting tutorials and shares techniques and inspiration on her blog, Pile O’ Fabric. Alyssa has a passion for exploring different techniques and applying them to modern designs. She is thankful to have the opportunity to share these techniques, through her tutorials, patterns, and classes with quilters around the world. She always encourages her readers and students to challenge themselves to try new things and to approach quilting with a fearless attitude.