Meadowland Quilt

What, a new project?

I was still working on Florence’s cot quilt, ‘Woodland Creatures’ when a Meadowland block caught my eye on Instagram. One comment led to another and I had something new to think about.

“Couldn’t possibly start another project now!” “Ah, but I’ve never done a quilt along.” ” Oh for goodness sake, finish one project before starting another!” “But quilt alongs are paced and focussed.” “I’ll just have a quick look.”

You get the picture. I talked myself into it. I really wasn’t difficult to persuade and actually I was right. It was very easy for this to sit alongside the ongoing project. And of course I didn’t know then that lockdown was on its way!

Woodland Creatures Quilt

Click to visit the post

Getting Started

After the initial prevarication I headed off to check out Then Came June and the Meadowland Quilt and I so liked the look of what I saw. A block that was very pleasing to the eye, some new and exciting skills to learn from Meghan Buchanan and a great community support network through Instagram. It wasn’t long before I was downloading the pattern and checking out it’s easy to follow instructions and some new tips and ideas to enhance my quilting experience.

Next steps

I had an idea of my colour palette. Having just painted our bedroom in Farrow and Ball Stiffkey Blue, inky blue was my new favourite colour and I wanted a minty green with it.

I found the absolutely perfect inspiration fabric right here in my local fabric shop in town. Aberdashery here in Aberystwyth (isn’t that just the best name) . It is Elephant Garden by Print Fresh for Clothworks and I love it. The colours are fabulous and the little metallic note just tops it off.

For the fabric pull I looked first at the navy and minty green and then the minor notes. I don’t always use the inspiration fabric in the pull but I loved Amy Voloshin’s elephants so much I had to in this case.

The fabric pull is so exciting but nerve racking too. I ended up with a mix of a couple more from the range (bought online) more from Aberdashery and the rest from my stash. Great sense of satisfaction and self congratulation when the stash justifies it’s existence!

The whole Quilt Along experience was great; it was motivating and supportive – from the weekly emails to the supportive comments for our weekly Insta posts – it was great fun. The pattern and instructions made it possible to skip ahead but I decided to stick with the schedule (makes a change) and it gave me space to continue to work on my WIP.

Tools of the trade

Quarter inchpresser feet! Absolutely invaluable. Without these my seams would be all over the place and if there is one must for piecing it is that seams have to be a quarter of an inch wide. Have to be!

The first foot gives that perfect edge to edge seam and the second allows you to sew exactly a quarter of an inch either side of a line,

Chain piecing is a simple organisational tool for putting pieces together one after another in a continuous line without breaking the thread until all the similar pieces are together then separating them at the end. Speeds things up tremendously.

I think the best learning of the Quilt Along was Meghan’s method of creating no waste Half Square Triangles. It’s really simple and really does save fabric. But it’s not for me to pass the method on but I have used this HST method succesfully since.

The blocks came together quickly and 5 blocks a week were very manageable.

I was pleased with the tips for piecing directional fabrics.

There have been trying times on that front!

All the elephants standing proud and marching to meet each other. None of them standing on their heads or lying down! Hooray!

Love it when I get the reverse as tidy as this one! Clean and flat and no twists! Just showing off!

The next part of the process is another tricky one. Arranging the blocks. Oh, the combinations are endless. should they be random: should they follow a repetitive pattern; should they be colour blocked? This time I decided on a graduated blocked layout. Then of course there is endless shuffling, I take photographs of each layout I try and then spend a while looking at them to make my final decision!

Blocks become rows

I always hang my rows in front of the long window on the landing. Don’t you think they look like stain glass with the light shining through?

We have a Quilt top

The rows are together and as long as the previous stages have gone well everything should line up and suddenly there is the overall design. The art, or is it the maths, of cutting up fabric and sewing it back together !

I enjoy working out my own patterns but when you work to someone else’s pattern there is always something new to learn and the best way to consolidate that learning is to put it into practice again. While I was working on this a little adaptation of the block was forming in my head for Olivia’s ‘Pink Jungle’ quilt for her new big bed. Before moving on to the next stage I had to just try it out. Here we go again!

Batting and Backing

Batting (wadding) is a natural bamboo and the backing is a single piece of extra wide backing cotton which I was able to buy from Calico Kate in Lampeter. This is a bit of a departure for me as I usually create a back. It was nice not to have to think about lining up front and back and making the ‘sandwich’ was much quicker.

For the uninitiated the ‘sandwich’ is the quilt top, the backing fabric and the filling! The layers have to be perfectly flat and perfectly joined. They are pinned together using special pins ready to begin the quilting. I use my landing for this bit, there is plenty of space and the light is good.

Quilting

I do my own quilting . It is very amateur but wanting to do this got me into patchwork in the first place. I love absolutely total free motion quilting but the options are endless. I had decide on a mixture of ‘stitching the ditch’ – sewing into the join between pieces – and some medallions on the plain squares created in the blocks. I was using white thread, I could have been kinder to myself sewing on to a navy background but I didn’t want a dark thread on the top.

My quilting varies at the best of times but I do find that keeping on quilting is the the way to good results – and I hadn’t been doing a lot. I was rusty and my quilting was jerky. So it’s not perfect but it’s homemade and it’s all my own work.

Home

So when it’s resting I think the quilt will live here in our bedroom because I like how it looks when I glance into the bedroom. it looks good folded in different colour aspects here and it will be handy to grab for using around the house.

I’m really happy I decided to join in the Quilt Along. Would I do it again? Oh yes!