design process Archives | Bonjour Quilts

Red, White and Blue

June 2, 2017 By Kirsty 12 Comments

Although I’m in Australia and it’s the first day of winter here, it’s hard not to know what is happening all the way over in the US of A.

Every day Pinterest shows me images that tell me American schools are letting out, the northern hemisphere summer is coming and occasions such as Memorial Day are being observed. Then there’s the big one – 4th of July. The time for BBQs, fireworks and flag-based, patriotic quilts.

Now would be the moment to tell you that when it comes to the US, I have serious flag envy.

Look at the US flag compared to ours:

It looks like someone actually spent some time planning the US flag. It’s very orderly and organised and professional looking. Ours looks more like an improv exercise; “let’s take one of these, and throw in a bit of that and see how it goes”.

The main reason I like the US flag is that it has great quilt-adaptability. A blue rectangle and some stripes and everyone knows what you’re referring to.

And even though both flags are made from the same colours, what country does everyone think of when you mention red, white and blue? Sure as sunshine it’s not Australia or any of the other 36 countries with solely red, white and blue in their national emblems (yes, I had to google that. I was surprised there were so many.)

Whenever I hear red, white and blue I immediately think of the US (and sing You’re a Grand Old Flag in my head). This is why it’s easy to make a quilt feel American just through the use of colour, even if not a single star or stripe is included.

Pondering the intricacies of the Australian flag layout and the kind of paper piecing it would require, I decided that there was no rule that said I couldn’t try my hand at a 4th of July quilt. Globalisation, right? Once I gave myself permission I had some fun Americanising (ahem, Americanizing) some of my patterns.

First up, I made a few colour tweaks to my Off the Rails quilt pattern. This is a free pattern that I’ve had for download for a couple of years now – perhaps some of you already have it?

My first version swapped out the dark neutral for blue, the light neutral for off white and the yellow for red.

Then I tried reversing the colours so that the dark neutral was red, the light neutral was off white and the yellow was blue.

Which version do you think has a more American feel? I really like the blue (my favourite colour) but maybe that feels more French?

If you’d like to download the free Off the Rails quilt pattern, you can do so below. Just substitute the colours as explained above to make your preferred 4th of July version.

Next up I had a look at my The Plus Side quilt pattern which is always a lot of fun to play around with due to the contrast between the opposite sides of the blocks.

Here’s an alternate version of the lap-sized quilt layout:

Fabric requirements for a scrappy version of this quilt would be 8 red FQs, 8 blue FQs and 15 white/low-volume FQs. Make 15 blue/white blocks and 15 red/white blocks as per the pattern and join them in the diagonal stripe layout seen above.

A smaller, crib sized version would be cute for a summer baby. This version needs 5 blue FQs, 5 red FQs and 10 white FQs.

If you want a more literal translation of the flag you could try this layout:

3 blue FQs, 11 FQs red and 14 FQs white/light will provide enough blocks for this layout (48″ x 84″).

Phew, all that editing has me tired and I haven’t even sewn a stitch. I think I’ll go have a nice glass of iced tea, lie down and think of summer. Only 6 months to go!

Flocking Chevrons Quilt

April 13, 2012 By Kirsty 42 Comments

It’s fitting that I’m posting this on Friday the 13th – this was not my lucky quilt.

When I saw Jennifer’s generously free Chasing Chevrons quilt pattern on her blog That girl…that quilt, I knew immediately I wanted to make it. (ETA: Jennifer’s blog is sadly no longer online, so I can’t link to her original post.)Photo from Jennifer’s blog That girl…that quilt.

I’d had the majority of the very classy Alhambra II line sitting on my shelf waiting for a suitable project, so I dusted it off, added more blues and greens and set to work making all my HSTs.

I pressed all the blocks up on my design wall, colours gradating out from the centre spot, and really didn’t like it.

I made them gradate across the quilt, then on the diagonal, and really didn’t like it.

I had them gradating from a central line and really didn’t like it.

(I’m sorry I didn’t keep photos of all these outtakes – I know you guys like to see them.)

I was starting to feel a little ill by then. I’d taken a lovely design and fantastic fabric and screwed them both up royally. I’ve wasted all this fabric, I’ve wasted all this time, don’t you KNOW that blue and green should never be seen without something in between?

Step away from the quilt, Kirsty.

There was nothing for it but to get drunk, trash some cars and invest in some quality buttock tattoos.

I felt a lot better after that (although my bottom was a little sore) and realised one of the blue fabrics I’d added (not from the Alhambra II line) was actually the wrong kind of blue and messed up my gradations. I also drew inspiration from Jennifer’s pattern itself and laid out a new background in the form of one large gradating chevron. I liked it. Phew.

All laid out it was still a little over the top though – my busy background with the chasing chevrons was too much. I decided to face my chevrons all the same way and it made a big difference. I had to move some of the chevrons so they stood alone (otherwise they turn into zig-zags) but then it was done. Voila, Flocking Chevrons.

I wanted this snuggle-on-the-couch-watching-movies lap quilt to be very soft and drapey. I had a nice flannel sheet for the batting and spent hours online looking for a navy patterned flannel for the back.

No luck. Instead I ordered some Lotta Jansdotter Echo in Moira Navy and crossed my fingers it would be one of those nice soft quilting cottons (it is, beautiful fabric).

It wasn’t quite wide enough so I pieced together long strips left over from the top to extend each edge.

I wanted to quilt in white thread on the front (so it wouldn’t mess up my chevrons) and navy on the back. I couldn’t get the tension right despite testing and many lines had to be unpicked. I gave up and used white cotton for both sides.

Then I realised that my machine was making some loose stitches – more unpicking, cleaned the machine, changed needle. More loose stitches, more unpicking – my machine did not like the flannel.

So I unbasted the whole thing, removed the flannel, re-basted with cotton batting. (On the bright side, I was then able to sort the tension so I could use white thread on top and navy underneath). I nearly cried with joy when the quilting was finished.
My simple quilting pattern echoed the chevron.

The binding was the only part that didn’t cause me heartache. I pieced a scrappy binding, matching the binding colours to the quilt to create an ‘invisible edge’ kind of effect. For this reason I sewed my binding strips together on the perpendicular, rather than the diagonal. I was going to machine sew the binding but in the end decided to hand sew it down – I was in need of some zen by this stage!

So, it’s done. A bit of a drama but I do think it’s come up nicely and most importantly, it’s very snuggle worthy. Thank you so much Jennifer for the pattern!

I could say the strongest swearword used during the making of this quilt was flocking, but I think we all know this is a lie.

Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend everyone. Flock on!

The longest finish in the history of man: Cathedral Window Blocks

March 7, 2012 By Kirsty 54 Comments

Guess what I finally finished? The super colourful Cathedral Windows I was sewing!

They came away to the snow with us this year (where I finished it). They came away with us to the snow last year. This bloody thing came away with me to my sister’s house when she used to live in the US. It’s has taken me over 18 months to finish this %$*@$ thing.

I like it. I don’t love it. I hope the love will return as my memory of it’s construction continues to fade. A bit like childbirth.

Hand sewing those flaps back was not for me. It was made even more difficult when I stumbled across this awesome tutorial on the Moda Bake Shop on machine-sewing Cathedral Windows. If I’d found this before I’d started, I thought, I’d be done by now. So demoralising.

But I’d already past that point. The point where you’ve done so much work that even though you want to give it up, you can’t. Too much energy invested so an end product must be achieved. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.

I’m not crazy about how my flower centres look, due in part to my hand sewing and in part to the underlying coloured corners meeting here.

By choosing to have a different colour in each petal (rather than the same for all four as in the Moda Bake Shop example) I created a bit of a nightmare where the points met. Ah well, I still had to give it a go.

I started out with Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks line:

Somehow managed to fuse it to my ironing board (good excuse to buy a new cover):

Finally fused the colours down where they were supposed to go:

Then trimmed my squares for the top windows (slightly concave on each edge for less bulk):

Test drove my colours for the top windows:

Then decided to hand sew. Sob.

I just couldn’t get into it. Didn’t enjoy doing it. Was annoyed at how those meeting points were turning out.

Never mind, it’s finished now and looks good when viewed as a whole. I don’t do myself any favours picking it to pieces with a zoom lens.

Now, what to do with it? It won’t last as a pillow, at least not in my house. I’m thinking I might hang it on the wall, what do you think?

(I am so glad it’s over)

ETA: It’s only 16 by 16 inches (40 x 40 cms).