Saturday 29 March 2014

Bonnie's Quilt

Green is my favourite colour.  All shades and tones.  I just love green.  And so does my sister Bonnie.    When I asked her if she'd appreciate a quilt made for her new home and she replied with a very enthusiastic YES PLEASE, I knew it would have to revolve around the colour green.  So I started a Pinterest board for her to approve any fabric choices and designs.  She's a lot more modern and much more of a 'cool chick' than I am, and her tastes can be quite different to mine.
Then Vanessa Christenson showed off her lovely new "Color Me Happy" fabric range and I was smitten.  All the lush and rich colour coordinating was done for me and all I had to do was wait until March for these gorgeous colours and prints to be available.  Visit her website here if you want to see professional photos of her fabric range.  Wait till you see her gradient Ombre collection!!!!
 Meanwhile, here are my photos:
She wasn't too keen on the little flowers (pictured in the front) nor the teal so I took them out of the mix.  Here are some other fabrics that she (and I) approved of:
I really love these bright colours, but the navy with large red and grey roses (top left) doesn't have any green in them so I am saving them for a future use for myself!  I also bought these greens and greys:
 So here is the entire collection of fabrics I am going to use for her quilt:
The extra few fabrics along the bottom I received in the Instagram #greatukfabricdestash

What Design?


The next step was to ask her feelings on design, as I didn't want to just guess which shapes she preferred, or if she liked random over symmetrical designs.  So I gave her a quick "this or this?" ten questions, which helped give me some direction.
Do you still love owls? - I do, but i love Elk antlers more
Curved lines or straight lines? curved
Random pattern or repeat pattern? random
Green with white or Green with grey? green with grey (I am loving grey at the moment - still LOVE white though)
Cute or quirky? erm - i'v been into cabbage roses and awesome florals lately
swirly or jagged? swirly
Contrast colour or complementary colour? contrast
Favourite/preferred 2D shape - triangle/square/rectangle/circle/hexagon/diamond? triangle

I wonder what designs come into your mind when you read her answers?  Please share any ideas you have!
Here is what I have come up with so far, starting with her preferred 2D shape, the triangle.
This guy is 10.5" square

The big brother is 24" and the little brother is 4"
I've also turned my hand to some paper piecing for the first time ever and come up with a lovely circle of flying geese, with a few trying to escape!
The background fabric is just PERFECT for this design!
Then I added a string of flying geese triangles that had escaped from the circle:

And to make this a solid rectangle shape I enclosed the little 4" star with more of this background print, but in gorgeous grey, and added some rectangle patches:

So that is the progress so far on Bonnie's Quilt!  
Feel free to add any suggestions of what you think might be a design or pattern that would suit this quilt too.  I think my next step is to try drunkard's path blocks.

16 comments:

  1. Oh Nessa I love this colour palette, great fabric range. I think the escaping flying geese are my favourite, can't wait to see more.

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  2. I love those escaping geese! How fun!

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    1. Awww, thanks Jenny! I always feel sorry for the geese that fly in a continuous circle on quilts, so I thought I would let mine swirl away and fly free! Glad you think it is as fun as I think it is!

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  3. What an amazing block so far! I love it. The circle of geese flying away - how clever. And the 3 matching blocks in the goldlocks sizes (this one's too big, this one's too small - this one's just right!!). I can't wait to see how this ends. What an amazing gift! g

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  4. This is going to be an amazing quilt. I can't wait to see it finished. Happy Quilting.

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    1. Thank you so much for your belief in my skills Julia!! I hope to finish it soon, before the Aussie winter starts!

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  5. Wow, I think it is going to be a stunning quilt. Definitely no advice needed -just keep doing what you're doing, it is wonderful! Juliex

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  6. Wow, I wish my sister was a quilter :) Your blocks so far are gorgeous, love the colours! A x

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  7. So pretty, some lovely fabrics there. I love triangle based quilts too.

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  8. Gosh! I mostly answered the opposite to your sister, but I am seriously loving the top so far!

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  9. Love all of this!! The fabric, the blocks! And absolutely love escaping geese!!! It will look great when it's finished!!

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  10. Your quilt is so cool, Nessa!! I envy your talent!

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  11. The colours look lovely! I really want to make a quilt but I keep procrastinating because I can't decide what fabrics to use. Good call on the green theme!

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    1. Thank you so much Lauren!
      I hope you do find the ideal fabric collection for your first quilt some day soon. You're certainly in the right place to see some fabric inspiration!

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  12. I love green! But that's probably not that surprising, given my blog name. I love your fabrics, and think the flying geese look amazing! What a lucky girl your sister is!

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