A few years ago at the Festival of Quilts, while Ellie was helping out at our JUKI stand, she fell in love with some fabric across the aisle. When she had a spare 5 minutes she would go across to the African Fabric Shop stand and drool over the gorgeous hand blocked batiks. She needed to choose some fabric for her University Quilt and it happened to be her birthday, so we sent her over to choose. Eighteen is a big birthday, after all!! Maggie Relph and Bob Irwin who ran the stand were so helpful and soon Ellie chose the fabrics that she needed for her Uni Quilt.
Next came the piecing. We wanted to keep it simple and let the fabric talk. These African fabrics were so stunning, we didn’t want to cut them up too much. We decided to do simple squares in the middle and add a wide border to show off the quilting. Emily loaded Ellie’s quilt on the Juki TL 2200 QVP long arm. Emily had been busy doodling and she had a new feather pattern that she wanted to try out.
We chose a variegated thread from Superior Threads’ Fantastico range #5085 Mango Salsa for the top and a Bottom Line prewound for the bobbin. The thread worked so well! Emily used the same thread throughout the whole quilt but it looked different against different fabrics. Against the darker fabrics it looked gold and on the lighter golden fabric it looked green Magic!!
This quilt came together so quickly. The simple piecing and wide border created the perfect canvas for Emily’s gorgeous scrolling feathers.
Ellie was thrilled! And we were happy to think that it would keep her warm and loved as she headed off to University.
Update: Ellie finished her University course taking a First on her awesome dissertation. And yes, her quilt was there with her all the way! It’s still with her as she begins new adventures in Leeds. Isn’t it nice to know that, whatever happens, we’ve got our kids covered.
