I have to complete 5 pieces in my second year of City & Guilds, one of which has to be a quilt. I decided that I wanted to make a welsh style medallion quilt using vintage Laura Ashley fabric. I collect this fabric and often buy it from ebay. The only problem with the fabric I am using for my quilt is that it is all in 5 inch squares!
I was going to do a simple star in a star design for my centre of my medallion but my teacher suggested that I should try a kaleidoscope design based on the work of Paula Nadelstern. Although it has been quite stressful working out the design - I am so glad she suggested this and I do feel that I have learnt a lot so far.
The first problem was a design source as I knew that I wanted a welsh star design as I was using welsh fabrics. Eventually after much googling I found this Church window which is from a church in North Wales. It works very well as it has a basic hexagon design.
After lots of sketching I came up with this design to fit as closely to the design source as possible but also having no pieces larger than the 5 inch squares!
Yesterday I started to cut my fabrics and this photo shows one segment of the hexagon in the placement that I have found the most pleasing so far. I am two months into my second year and I feel as if I don't have much to show for it yet - but believe me I have spent many hours on this design. However it is very satisfying to know that it is all your own original design and I am quite pleased with it so far. I also love the vintage fabrics and what pleases me the most is that I am going to give a modern twist to the welsh medallion quilt but still use the vintage fabrics.
I still need to make templates and cutting the pieces will be very challenging as I need to get the same part of the fabric onto each one. I am seriously thinking of hand piecing this quilt as I think that will give me the most accuracy.
I hope to keep you up to date with my progress - what do you think of it so far?
2 comments:
I think this looks great so far Janet. i can't imagine ever having the skill/patience to design something like this. I love the way you are combining modern design with those vintage fabrics!
The design is fabulous, and it's so challenging to make your own modern design using vintage fabrics. I look forward to the progress on this one. I love Paula Nadelstern's work, but just thinking about making one of her designs gives me a headache!
Post a Comment