All of us Down Under are lucky enough to have Carolyn Friedlander visiting Australia at the moment. I have been known to use her fabrics just a tad:
She is one of my favourite fabric designers and I was so happy to snag a spot at one of her workshops a couple of weekends ago.
Carolyn lead us through her Austin House Quilt pattern, which is a very achievable foundation paper pieced pattern.
When I first saw the quilt my eye probably twitched. All those little pieces. FPP. Arrgh!
Carolyn guided the class through the FPP process and it was nowhere near as hard as I was expecting. By the second house I was actually enjoying myself, dang nabbit!
I decided to turn my two houses into mini quilts (for my future mini quilt wall – you know, the one I’ll have when I finally get my own sewing room).
If you’d like to do the same as I’ve done here:
add 1-1/4″ background strips to the top and sides of your house block.
add a 4-1/2″ strip of ground to the bottom of the block.
bind with 2-1/4″ binding strips.
I spray basted these (so easy!) and gave them a quick iron to set the spray. The quilting is straight and dense – it adds some lovely texture to the pieces. I used a hera marker to mark 6-8 lines across the mini quilt and then used my walking foot to line up against them.
I backed my minis with more of Carolyn’s Carkai fabric and enjoyed hand stitching my binding while watching a cinematic, thought-provoking movie Transformers Prime (the 5 yr old got to the remote before me, sigh).
I had a wonderful time at Carolyn’s class and would thoroughly recommend you attend one if you have the chance!
Speaking of Carolyn Friedlander – her new, 6 piece, linen/cotton fabric line called Euclid is gorgeous. My next pattern (sneak peek below) will feature a sample made from Euclid and Essex linen….a winning combo!
The pattern is called Deco Diamonds and I’m working hard to have it out before Christmas. Wish me luck! – and don’t forget to subscribe to be the first to know about it.
Love the mid-century modern look of your houses! I was hoping this post would show us the quilt you gave Carolyn! Love the look of your new design too!
One of my Fleur Minis, Suz. They look great in CF’s bright modern fabrics!
Thank you, Ma’am!
Me too! Just need to get that wall first ;)
Love the minis.
Love your Austin houses – looking forward to seeing them on your mini wall quilt.