Liberty Fancy Foxes quilt

It occurred to me this morning as I was making the bed that I hadn't shared photos of my finished Liberty of London Fancy Foxes quilt.  I am so delighted with it and that it is finally finished.  



I started planning this quilt when I saw Michelle (@coleandtaffy) and Poppy (@cuckooblue) post blocks of Liberty foxes on Instagram a couple of years ago.  They had decided to sew along together to encourage each other to finish the quilt, and I was totally hooked on the idea to join in.  So, in December 2016, I asked for a Liberty scrap pack for Christmas and I started making foxes.  

As you know from my Instagram feed, I have made a lot of Fancy Foxes quilts, so I decided that I wanted to really enjoy each little fox face for this quilt which meant I made them one at a time rather than chain piecing them in one go.  

I made the 42 foxes fairly quickly, using fabrics from the scrap bag and some others that Michelle and Poppy very generously gave me.  I also bought one or two pieces of some of my favourite prints in new colourways including the purple/blue Wiltshire which is just gorgeous.

I have used Essex yarn dyed linen for all my previous foxy quilts, but this time I wanted to combine the soft Liberty Tana Lawn with fabric of a similar weight and feel.  After much deliberation about shades of grey, I chose Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements (now Pure Solids) in Moonstone. 

I bought meters of the AGF Buck fabric on sale a while ago, which makes a lovely and soft backing fabric (although pattern matching those deer took a little bit of effort to give the back a professional finish).



My finished quilt sandwich unfortunately then languished on my quilt ladder for months/nearly a year as I got distracted with other projects and plucked up the courage to quilt it.  At the outset of this project, I had decided I wanted to FMQ this one with a woodgrain effect that I have seen used on so many of Elizabeth Hartman's quilts.  I can talk the talk about 'your FMQ will only improve if you practice...when it's finished you won't see the flaws...you're your own worst critic..... etc' but in the end, I couldn't bring myself to practice on this special Liberty quilt.  Next time... !  

So, I went with my usual quilting method of following the line of the faces, using a grey Aurifil 50wt thread (colour 2605).





I dithered over binding choice for a little while too - trying out a variety of the Liberty fabrics that I had used in the quilt.  In the end I chose to use the Moonstone background fabric to keep it simple and not to detract from the foxes. 



I am so pleased with it - it is perfect on the bed at the this time of year, light but warm and looks completely beautiful.  It's also the perfect size for an afternoon nap - chance would be a fine thing though...! 


Comments

Popular Posts