Monday 20 October 2008

My City & Guilds Quilt - Welsh Medallion Quilt using vintage Laura Ashley fabric.

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:

Angela said...

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!

Lynda said...

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!