Some days it’s still all about craft

Ok — as September’s of A Month of Softies “Personal Challenge” theme comes into its last days, I have decided to join Kim’s Modern Quilt-Along! I have the book coming in the mail, but I found a copy of it at the library on Monday (serendipitously staring at me from a quilting book display while Amelia and I stood waiting in queue to check out our books) so thought I would jump right in. I am going to make a single bed quilt for Amelia’s room and the pattern I have settled on is Marquee. I couldn’t find a photo of a finished Marquee quilt on the Fun Quilts site, but there is a snap of a Amanda’s Marquee table runner here. The basic block design is a little like this

Why did I pick Marquee? Well, firstly it’s one of the easier ones in the book. Not the easiest, but not too bad for a beginner. Secondly, I do have such an attraction to good old fashioned country cottage quilts but I also love the idea that Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr talk about in their introduction — they believe in making quilts which reflect the current times and design culture. I think this one kind of pulls together both ideas. It has that simple, blocky feeling of some of the most traditional quilts but with a fun and flirtatious twist. I am drawn to the vintage (30s and 40s) and reproduction prints but, in the same way I use them in my toys, I would like to make something a little quirky with them. I think that these may work in the strips around the edges of the more plain squares… using low contrast prints of course (I am learning so much from this book! How easy it to get lost in!).

The other thing that I love about the Modern Quilt book is the notion of the “Big Idea” – finding something to wrap a story around to create your most individual palette of colours. I love looking at the diagrams they have drawn which accompany each quilt demonstrating how incredibly different each looks depending on the colour palette. So what’s my Big Idea? Well, Amelia’s room has that bright green wall sitting along-side three white walls, and gentle pinky-brown tasmanian oak floorboards. She also has a beautiful, full flowering camellia outside her window which currently has bright pink blooms and beside it is a fuchsia with delicate pinky-purple flowers hanging like little lanterns. I think it would be kind of nice to make Amelia a quilt which she will have for always which evokes the colours and the mood of her childhood bedroom. Plus it will match. Bonus.

I am a complete quilting novice so this may just not be something I am quite capable of pulling off, but this is my personal challenge!

Speaking of Amelia’s room, here is a new toy sitting on her window sill (in front of the fuchsia no less). As you can see, this little bear has arms that stick out at 90 degrees. This was not a deliberate thing (like so much of my toy making) and at first it annoyed me but now I have decided that in fact it was a special design feature so she looks like she’s waiting for a big hug. She’s off to the Northern Hemisphere to give plenty.