Fancy Forest QAL 2018
This Christmas, my husband completely surprised me by treating me to the Fancy Forest pattern and a fabulous fat quarter bundle of Tilda Cottage. I love Elizabeth Hartman's patterns and have made her Fancy Foxes quilt more times that I can count so I was delighted to have an opportunity to work on the Fancy Forest quilt too.
I think this quilt would have seemed a daunting prospect had it not been for the quilt along that is going on on Instagram - it has been the perfect inspiration and motivation to work on a few blocks at a time. Pop over to the three hosts @sewingdirectory, @cutandalter and @sharonappleton on Instagram for links to their blogs and all the details of the quilt along, it's not too late to join in. You can buy the pattern from Olive and Flo Handcraft (plus a huge range of Essex linens which make great backgrounds for Elizabeth's patterns.
The first, and most time consuming, task was to think about my fabric pull. If you want to stick to the rainbow effect of colours, plus the gradation from light to dark within each colour group, you need to gather 40 fabrics! Seeing as I had a beautiful Tilda bundle, I decided to use that as my starting point - removing the larger scale prints and adding in some of my long hoarded Tilda from previous collections. Saira from Olive and Flo also advised me on some Pure Elements fabrics by Art Gallery Fabrics that coordinate nicely. The pattern has a handy chart to show you how to sort your fabrics, if you are looking for a similar effect to the quilt on the cover, which I replicated on a piece of spare white card. As you can see, I like to be organised ...!
I chose a yarn dyed Essex linen for my background which I am really pleased with. I chose Shale to make it different from some of my previous quilts (Steel is another favourite) and it is a lovely grey with a hint of aqua.
The first block to work on was the foxes, which was a nice and easy introduction. I made the 16 foxes that you need for the full sized quilt.
January's block of the month was the thistle block, which looks fairly straight forward but seemed to have lots of us double and triple checking that we had put the leaves on the correct way. I found I really had to concentrate on which part was the background and which part was the leaf - I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one on Instagram!
This month I have been cursing the bunny block! The piecing is simple enough but good accuracy with your diagonal seams is essential if you want the mouth to look remotely symmetrical. I have a Seams Sew Easy seam guide that I attach to my machine to help with the 1/4" seam either side of diagonal lines (it saves you having to draw the lines), but a piece of washi tape on your machine would do the job too. My seam ripper was needed a few times to try to get the mouths to line up and be the same thickness - they are definitely not perfect, but then again, when is nature...?!
Make sure you check out #fancyforestqal18 on Instagram to follow everyones progress. Next month is the Hazel hedgehog block.
I think this quilt would have seemed a daunting prospect had it not been for the quilt along that is going on on Instagram - it has been the perfect inspiration and motivation to work on a few blocks at a time. Pop over to the three hosts @sewingdirectory, @cutandalter and @sharonappleton on Instagram for links to their blogs and all the details of the quilt along, it's not too late to join in. You can buy the pattern from Olive and Flo Handcraft (plus a huge range of Essex linens which make great backgrounds for Elizabeth's patterns.
The first, and most time consuming, task was to think about my fabric pull. If you want to stick to the rainbow effect of colours, plus the gradation from light to dark within each colour group, you need to gather 40 fabrics! Seeing as I had a beautiful Tilda bundle, I decided to use that as my starting point - removing the larger scale prints and adding in some of my long hoarded Tilda from previous collections. Saira from Olive and Flo also advised me on some Pure Elements fabrics by Art Gallery Fabrics that coordinate nicely. The pattern has a handy chart to show you how to sort your fabrics, if you are looking for a similar effect to the quilt on the cover, which I replicated on a piece of spare white card. As you can see, I like to be organised ...!
I chose a yarn dyed Essex linen for my background which I am really pleased with. I chose Shale to make it different from some of my previous quilts (Steel is another favourite) and it is a lovely grey with a hint of aqua.
The first block to work on was the foxes, which was a nice and easy introduction. I made the 16 foxes that you need for the full sized quilt.
January's block of the month was the thistle block, which looks fairly straight forward but seemed to have lots of us double and triple checking that we had put the leaves on the correct way. I found I really had to concentrate on which part was the background and which part was the leaf - I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one on Instagram!
This month I have been cursing the bunny block! The piecing is simple enough but good accuracy with your diagonal seams is essential if you want the mouth to look remotely symmetrical. I have a Seams Sew Easy seam guide that I attach to my machine to help with the 1/4" seam either side of diagonal lines (it saves you having to draw the lines), but a piece of washi tape on your machine would do the job too. My seam ripper was needed a few times to try to get the mouths to line up and be the same thickness - they are definitely not perfect, but then again, when is nature...?!
Make sure you check out #fancyforestqal18 on Instagram to follow everyones progress. Next month is the Hazel hedgehog block.
Comments
Post a Comment