My father does both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal crossword puzzles on a daily basis. When Lynne offered me a spot on the Oakshott Lipari Blog Hop and I saw the brilliant, rich colors of the shot cottons I thought it'd be fun to use it to make a quilt for my father for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Dad (he reads my blog)!
I added four neutral Oakshott fabrics to help the colors pop, and chose Jay McCarroll's Center City fabric by Free Spirit as the backing — a sort of silly nod to the years my spent as an architect.
The Lipari fabrics glow from within due to the shot cotton weave. The base color warp is black and the weft is the vibrant color. It can be tricky to photograph as the light plays on it. Don't you want to just dive into this pile?
This is the Fat Eighth bundle I received, and the neutrals (these fabrics are 54" wide, so the fat eights are 10 x 27" instead of the typical 9 x 21"!). I saved the Stromboli (deep red) for the binding.
All 18 colors in the Lipari line ironed and ready to go!
It's a simple quilt of 5" squares, so it's a great project for beginning quilters. Finished size is 54 x 63".
Cut 114 5" neutral background squares from at least four different fabrics —you will need roughly 3/4 yard of each (pictured are Oakshott Fabrics White Sand, Amalfi, White Marble and Carmargue).
Cut 54 5" colored squares. I used the entire Lipari line except for the black.
Follow the layout pattern above, and have fun! I spent a few days moving the squares around until I found what felt like the right balance.
I wanted a super soft end product, so I opted for minimal quilting.
I used my new Janome Accufeed Stitch in the Ditch Foot. Game changer! I was able to achieve very straight lines along all the seams.
Not the best photo but this is an important part of my process when I'm doing straight-line quilting. I have a bunch of string in my studio and I lay it down on top of the quilt when I want to add extra lines. That way I can play with the design process without actually sewing anything permanent. Instead, I can just pick up and move the string around until I'm satisfied. Then I either use painter's tape or the extension bar on my machine.
Here's another shot of the ditch stitching foot and the resulting straight lines. You can really see the color 'shot' through the black in these two greens.
It was hard to stop quilting, but I'm glad I quit when I did. It's truly soft and the fabric is the star.
You'll want to check out the other stops on the blog tour. There are some amazing projects!
5 May Allison Dutton allison-sews.blogspot.com
10 May Nicholas Ball quiltsfromtheattic.wordpress.com
12 May Helen Purvis archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com
17 May Lynn Harris thelittleredhen.typepad.com
19 May Kitty Wilkin nightquilter.com (now moved to 2 June)
24 May Jessica Skultety www.quiltyhabit.com
26 May Karin Jordan www.leighlaurelstudios.com (you are here!)
31 May Elisabeth Vaughan sharksdinner.com
Thanks so much to Lynne and Oakshott for including me in this fun hop!
