Monday, May 12, 2014

Windswept Quilt - All Nighter!

My friend Elaine Quehl has designed her first line of fabric for Northcott and I was invited to design a pattern using her fabrics. I chose the Autumn Harvest colourway from her line called Falling Leaves.  The line is based on one of Elaine's art quilts and includes several ombre designs (those are fabrics that shade from light to dark across the fabric).

International Quilt Market is in Pittsburgh later this week and Northcott asked me to make my quilt so it could be displayed in their booth. Sounds great, right?  Well.....the fabric will be shipping to stores in September, Northcott gets sample yardage ahead of time to make quilts and the fabric was 'Fedexed' overnight to me last Tuesday!  I had arranged that I would make the quilt top and Northcott would arrange to have it longarmed in Ontario so it could be finished in time for Market.  You know what that means....a VERY QUICK turnaround to make the quilt.

Here's the timeline:

Tuesday, 9:15 am - the box of fabric was delivered to my home.

Tuesday, 9:40 am - after admiring the fabric and measuring to be sure I had what I needed I just HAD to photograph the fabrics, including the selvage with Elaine's name on it!



Tuesday, 2:30 pm - The center of the quilt (including 17 fused and machine appliquéd leaves) is complete.  Good thing I wrote excellent notes when I designed the quilt and I pre-traced the leaves onto my fusible web before the fabric arrived.  I used Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Scissors to cut the leaves out. I LOVE the large handles of these scissors. I have a bit of arthritis in my right hand and these scissors worked well and I had no pain!

Another good thing....I had just the right colours of thread for the appliqué. It pays to be a 'thread junkie'!




Tuesday, 7:30 pm - corner blocks and wave border added, dark green/brown border added. Only 4 more borders to go!

Wednesday, 2:15 am - top is COMPLETE!  Had to do a bit of figuring for the stripe borders but I LOVE how the shading worked for those borders. BEDTIME!


Wednesday, 12:00 noon - backing fabric joined and binding fabric strips joined and pressed. All packaged up and dropped at FEDEX to be overnighted back to Ontario.  I had a 3 hour nap!

My quilt is called Windswept and the pattern will be available when the fabric ships to stores in September. Ask your local shop to get this line - it is AMAZING!

Have you done an 'all nighter' quilt to meet a deadline?  Tell me about it.  I would love to hear YOUR story.

4 comments:

Judy Cooper Textile Artist said...

Fantastic job and in such a short span of time. I am also a fan of Elaine's fabric line. Took a class with her when she was in Newfoundland.

Martha Ginn said...

As another Elaine fan, I loved seeing the good photo of the fabrics, and your quilt design showcases the lovely earthy colors perfectly. Nice job!

WeedyMama said...

Sunset at Leaf Time. Mmmmmm, nice.
All nighter? been a while but I think there were one or two Hoffman Challenges that took some late nights (and no more progress than this year's has -- none at present -- there might be another coming up!

Lois said...

I enjoyed seeing the fabrics laid out as you got them and then seeing what you did with them. Inspiring.