Monday, October 13, 2014

Fall Finish: My Modern Maples Quilt

Modern Maples
Fabric from all my favorite designers in this including Anna Maria Horner (and one print from her daughter's first line), Denyse Schmidt, Heather Ross, and that one glorious Lizzy House fox print for good measure.

The first sketch I have for the layout of this quilt is from last August. I've always got several projects going at once, and this quilt was no exception to that rule. Though I did all the piecing in just a week or so during October 2013, I picked it up just here and there over the last year to finish it with some special hand-quilting. There was definitely a point or two where I questioned my sanity, but now that I can see all those little stitches lying next to each other, I'm thrilled with the decision and glad I stuck with it.

Modern Maples, Back

I kind of regret not being able to use the AMH flannel for the entire back. I had just a yard of it on hand so instead of splurging on more, I ended up combining it with some cheaper solid cream flannel. Though it's not topping my favorites chart, I can attest to the fact that backing a quilt for the colder months in flannel is an awesome way to go. I seem to always be cold but also cheap (we are holding out and not turning our heat on until November...) but with this quilt, I've been very toasty the past couple nights!
Modern Maples, Detail
Variegated Valdani pearle cotton and AMH voile pastry line binding details

All of the maple leaf blocks are quilted with a cream perle cotton which has given this quilt a surface texture that I am head over heels for. I've never been a big fan of variegated threads, but thought the white spaces in between would be an appropriate way to use them so as to echo the idea of changing colors. I had a really difficult time finding the colors I wanted from DMC perle cotton but found these fabulous tones from Valdani online in size 8 which worked really well for the hand quilting. Plus, I kind of just like seeing the lovely little paper lables noting they are from Romania

It's nice to look back on the progress of this quilt so I've gathered up all my instagram pics of it below from the past year...nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing something come together that you made with your own two hands!!

Modern Maples, WIP Detail

From my original sketches and fabric selections to finished blocks and in-progress quilting


5 comments:

alidiza said...

This is so awesome!!! I love seeing your process and how this evolved from an idea to a finished quilt. I just finished up my MM but now I want to go make another one like yours, more pink;-)

Julie said...

This is beautiful, exactly the sort of colours I am toying with. Thanks for the inspiration.

Jodi said...

This is such a gorgeous quilt! I love the back just the way you did it. It makes the AMH flannel just that much more special. And those are some of my favorite fabs on the front. Love the hand-quilting, too. I need to get better at mine. The underside always comes out going in crazy directions and not in the least even! Ugh. practice makes better, right?

Jodi said...

This is such a gorgeous quilt! I love just the way you did the back. It makes the AMH flannel that much more special. those are some of my favorite fabs on the front, and the hand-quilting with that perle cotton is wonderful. I need to get better at that - somehow all my stitching on the underside ends up going in crazy directions and never even - ugh. practice makes better, right? Maybe I need to use a hoop....

Kirsten said...

So beautiful - I really love all of the handstitched leaves amongst the prints!!