Interwoven quilt along
When I first saw Brittany's (Lo & Behold Stitchery) Interwoven quilt, my first thought was how incredible it looked and that I absolutely must make it. I bought the pattern and started planning colour palettes with my eldest son (this quilt is going to be for him, so he wanted to be involved from the start!).
We searched for blue themes on google images for ages, narrowing it down to sea blues and aquas or cooler blues, before finally deciding on this image. We thought it worked well for now, but also as he gets older (he's just about to leave primary school so I am well aware that if he is going to want anything handmade by me, it has got to be much cooler that my usual makes!!)
Saira (from Olive and Flo Handcraft) very generously shared a Kona colour chart with me so that we could choose the blues that matched up best. This was invaluable - trying to choose blues from a screen, without seeing them all together at the same time is impossible, and I was amazed at how blues that I thought would work turned out to be either too green/grey/purple when seen in the flesh.
This is the selection of fabrics I ended up choosing - all from Sew Hot. Sew Hot always label up the solids in your order, particularly helpful in this case!
From bottom left the colours are: Silver, Slate, Indigo, Storm, Windsor, Cadet, Dresden Blue, Bluebell, Cloud, Blue and Sky.
My initial excitement was quickly followed by self doubt - what a complicated looking pattern, how was I going to have the patience for all that strip piecing? was I ever going to master the scant 1/4" seam? would I be able to line up my seams well enough so that Block 3 looked acceptable? And you know what... it isn't perfect - I have some dodgy looking point matching in places and some of my blocks weren't all the correct size, but it doesn't matter. Once assembled it all looks ok and will look even better once all the quilting is finished. Surely the imperfections are part of the handmade look and what makes it so unique?!
One tip I would give though, is be kind to yourself and start with one of your lighter colours. Any imperfections with lining up rows and points is much harder to detect with the lighter colours than with the darker colours! Also, use a good thin thread. I used Aurifil 50wt throughout to help keep my seams as flat as possible and to help me perfect the scant 1/4" seam.
Once all my blocks were made, it was time to assemble the quilt top. This took a little bit of concentration - making sure each colour was in the right place and each block in the correct orientation. I think I managed it.
We chose a large flat sheet to back the quilt and I've decided to hand quilt it. I'm using an Aurifil 28wt thread for the hand quilting, which is the same thread that I used for my Happy Flower quilt. I like that you can see the stitches without them being too thick for the amount of quilting that I plan to do.
I have been marking up each white strip using my Clover Hera marker - which works a treat. The line is easy to follow and you don't have to worry about whether the mark will wash out/come back when the quilt gets cold! I think I am about half way through the quilting now, just steadily doing a few rows each night.
Our initial plan was to go crazy and bold for the binding (my son chose Acid Lime!) but I think we will wait until it's all quilted before we decide.
If you fancy making one of these quilts yourself, head to Brittany's website for the pattern and all the quilt along tips and guidance.
We searched for blue themes on google images for ages, narrowing it down to sea blues and aquas or cooler blues, before finally deciding on this image. We thought it worked well for now, but also as he gets older (he's just about to leave primary school so I am well aware that if he is going to want anything handmade by me, it has got to be much cooler that my usual makes!!)
Saira (from Olive and Flo Handcraft) very generously shared a Kona colour chart with me so that we could choose the blues that matched up best. This was invaluable - trying to choose blues from a screen, without seeing them all together at the same time is impossible, and I was amazed at how blues that I thought would work turned out to be either too green/grey/purple when seen in the flesh.
This is the selection of fabrics I ended up choosing - all from Sew Hot. Sew Hot always label up the solids in your order, particularly helpful in this case!
From bottom left the colours are: Silver, Slate, Indigo, Storm, Windsor, Cadet, Dresden Blue, Bluebell, Cloud, Blue and Sky.
One tip I would give though, is be kind to yourself and start with one of your lighter colours. Any imperfections with lining up rows and points is much harder to detect with the lighter colours than with the darker colours! Also, use a good thin thread. I used Aurifil 50wt throughout to help keep my seams as flat as possible and to help me perfect the scant 1/4" seam.
Once all my blocks were made, it was time to assemble the quilt top. This took a little bit of concentration - making sure each colour was in the right place and each block in the correct orientation. I think I managed it.
We chose a large flat sheet to back the quilt and I've decided to hand quilt it. I'm using an Aurifil 28wt thread for the hand quilting, which is the same thread that I used for my Happy Flower quilt. I like that you can see the stitches without them being too thick for the amount of quilting that I plan to do.
I have been marking up each white strip using my Clover Hera marker - which works a treat. The line is easy to follow and you don't have to worry about whether the mark will wash out/come back when the quilt gets cold! I think I am about half way through the quilting now, just steadily doing a few rows each night.
Our initial plan was to go crazy and bold for the binding (my son chose Acid Lime!) but I think we will wait until it's all quilted before we decide.
If you fancy making one of these quilts yourself, head to Brittany's website for the pattern and all the quilt along tips and guidance.
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