As soon as I heard that Heather Ross had a new fabric line on its way, I was ready to check it out. Previews were so very lovely, but the release date, for my purposes in making a baby quilt, was far out. And by that I mean too close to my due date. Which is two weeks from now, so now it’s on shelves and ready for everyone to grab it up. Which is a good idea, because when HR prints sell out people get a little nuts. Like frenzied eBay auction nuts or 12x markup on Etsy nuts.
So I e-mailed Windham Fabrics and did a little begging for pre-release fabric. And they sooooo very kindly sent me a stack of half yards to play with. Aaaaah, a really fun package to open and imagine all of the possibilities.
Had they sent charms, I would’ve gotten all patchwork crazy, I’m sure. But with half yards, I just couldn’t bring myself to chop it up. Strip quilts have become a staple for me, and I’m trying to branch out a little in my thinking, but… I just couldn’t chop ’em up. And I didn’t want a busy quilt. Something nice and soothing and simple, with room to appreciate the adorable creatures in the prints. I was so indecisive about combining a bunch of the prints that I actually made *two* baby quilts. This is the first of the two.
I’m working on a follow-up post about how I put this together and will add the link when it’s ready, but this is a combination of machine and hand quilting. I was pragmatic in my approach to quilting– expecting I’d love the look of hand quilting but also that I’d get tired of if after two lines of it. So I did some straight lines of machine quilting and then 12 meandering lines of hand quilting. Which ended up being a lot more fun and less annoying than I expected as related to my level of patience for such things. But couch time with my husband while watching Mad Men and the Newsroom was key.
A brief interruption of the photo parade to say that while hand quilting, I carefully avoided piercing or impaling crickets, bees or frogs. ‘Cause I just couldn’t. They’re so freaking adorable. And I’m not even typically a creature lover. But these are SO sweet.
When piecing the front I didn’t want even ratios for each fabric strip as much as a balance between the visual weights of the prints. I nudged and folded and rearranged until I was happy with this one and the companion quilt, then measured and noted the size for each strip before trimming the half yards down.
K saw that I was photographing the quilt for the blog and offered to help. So sweet! After doing my usual directing, I realized that the last words out of my mouth were “hold it up so I can’t see your face!” Ooooh no. How rude. So I explained a bit. And then took this photo. It’s my fave. I can tell from her eyes that that’s her smirky smile under there.
More on the making of it, and the companion quilt, soon! (Soon being a relative term. Before giving birth, after giving birth, dunno. Just adding suspense and excitement to quilty world.)
Kelley says
oooh! I love her new goodies!. I am going to be doing a round up of briar rose projects, as I am making a bunch myself! I have a big fangirl crush on Heather Ross.
Susan Yates says
Her work is so distinctive and sweet without being syrupy. A round up sounds awesome!
Charity says
I LOVE the hand-quilting you added. It’s beautiful. =)
Susan Yates says
Thanks! :)
rachael {imagine gnats} says
it’s lovely!! especially the hand quilting… i love the idea of combining some accents with machine quilting.
Susan Yates says
It’s a nice balance for those that are ambitiously lazy. Or lazily ambitious. Or something.
Elnora says
Absolutely adorable! Smirky Smile Girl just might be the best part! Love the meandering quilting! What kind of thread did you use? Yum!
Susan Yates says
Thanks! It’s perle cotton. More detail in the upcoming post about the companion quilt.