Thursday, February 25, 2016

fleet and flourish fabrics

Today I'm happy to be a part of the Fleet and Flourish blog hop. This beautiful fabric line was designed by Maureen Cracknell and is made by Art Gallery Fabrics.
The floral on the bottom left is my absolute favorite from the whole line. It's SO delicious!
It didn't take long to come up with an idea for the fabrics. I was inspired by the Vast Quilt by Jeni Baker, from her book Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle. It was THE perfect pattern to show off the large scale prints. I cut my blocks at 13'' square (rather than 18'' square) due to the size of fabrics I had on hand. It worked out very well!
Since I'm such a hard-core scrap user, it felt a little weird to cut into so much new fabric all at once. I almost forgot what that felt like...but it sure was fun! I made the entire quilt top (and basted it!) in one Saturday. I could get used to that. :)
Here it is, finished! I love how it turned out! I kept it simple by free-motion quilting loop-de-loops over the entire piece.
Whenever I make a quilt with an entire fabric line, I like to mix in a few choices of my own, just to add my own stamp on it. I only added two fabrics...this yellow ochre solid, and a yellow squared elements print from my stash (you can see just a touch of it on the left hand side of this photo). I like how the yellow pops from the rest of the colors and how it highlights the yellow details in the other prints.
 The backing is a mish-mash of things from my stash. It's kind of quirky, but I love it all the same!
I finished it off with an eggplant Kona cotton binding. I'm not a fan of cats, but this cat print by Lizzy House (from a few years ago) is pretty darn cute! It was a welcome addition to the backing.
The quilt is BIG, finishing at about 72" x 84".

While I was making this quilt, my oldest son kept commenting on how the fabrics don't look like me. I thought that was funny--and pretty astute of him! These are a bit of a departure from the usual candy colors that I seem to gravitate toward, but it was still a delight to work with them! My husband likes it quite a lot and thinks I should make another one...but this time a king size quilt for our bed. I'm kind of surprised that they still pay attention to my quilting shenanigans after all these years! I'm pretty lucky. :)

If you care to see what others are making from this beautiful fabric line, check out the other stops on the blog tour:

Feb 22nd ~ Amy Friend
Feb 23rd ~ Heidi Staples
Feb 24th ~ Amy Smart
Feb 25th ~ You are here!
Feb 26th ~ Brooke Sellmann


Feb 29th ~ Amber Carillo

March 1st ~ Nicke Cutler
March 2nd ~ Nicole Daksiewicz
March 3rd ~ Christopher Thompson

March 4th ~ Alexis Wright

March 7th ~ Jessica Stewart
March 8th ~ Stephanie Kendron
March 9th ~ Heather Bostic
March 10th ~ Ali Brorsen
March 11th ~ Melissa Kelley


March 14th ~  Maureen Cracknell Handmade

27 comments:

Robby said...

I think it's great that your family knows your quilting 'voice'. All the same, it's good to stretch a bit with something new sometimes. Great quilt!

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

That is beautiful fabric and you've made a gorgeous quilt with it. I love it when the fabric can do most of the work and you can make a simple block to showcase it. Love that outdoor photo.

Laura said...

That floral caught my eye too. Beautiful fabrics!

eleni_s said...

This is such a great example of simple design work, nice crisp corners and a great way to show the prints from a favourite line!! plus it is super easy and fast to make!!! thank you for sharing!!

Crafty Coffin said...

Really lovely quilt - I love how the pattern shows off those prints!

Deb Berkebile said...

Love the easy of the pattern, but the quilt is awesome with those fabrics! I may do this with some of Maureen's other fabrics I have! Great choice!

Unknown said...

Great job of showing off Maureen's fabrics! The pattern is simple and lovely! Thanks for showing us your beautiful work.

Aliceart said...

That floral is my favorite too! Thanks for sharing this.

Needled Mom said...

Beautiful quilt and wonderful fabrics.

Janelle said...

That turned out so lovely. I'm also always surprised (and happily touched) how much attention my husband and kids actually pay to what I do with fabric and yarn.

Lori Smanski said...

this is lovely
quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

Unknown said...

I love your quilt! Fabulous job, and those fabrics really are wonderful. They aren't my usual style either, but I'm so drawn to them! Great job! Just beautiful. :)

suzanprincess said...

I think your addition of the yellow just made the whole quilt!

mumbird3 said...

Lovely quilt - gorgeous fabrics!

Noblequilts@gmail.com said...

Simply stunning! Beautiful fabrics and a beautiful quilt.

Unknown said...

I love it all and my kids would say the same thing about the finished product. It was not me but it is :) The backing, the binding,love it all

Suzanne said...

Oh, YOU! I love how reading your blog makes me want to abandon my resolve to mop the floor and go dig out some fabrics I have set aside to make a quilt back for another WIP that has been languishing. I'm on a sewing tear and loving every second. Thank you for filling my creative tank this morning with more go-go juice.

Tine said...

I love these quilts with really big squares in them - they really do show off the prints so well.
But then, I like the really small piecing too.... Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh. Indecision!
Either way, your quilt is gorgeous!

Lisa C said...

So happy for you about the comments from your family. A true validation of a loving family - one that notices the big and the little. I am always on the hunt for something to show off big fabrics. If I interpret your quilt correctly, you cut 13" squares and then cut those squares into triangles and then randomly (or not so randomly) matched up the halves instead of making HSTs. If so, this would allow me to use up some odd shaped pieces when I don't have a 13" square of fabric. Thanks for the Friday inspiration.

Bernie Kringel said...

My question is the same as Lisa C. I kept looking at your layout and it looks like you don't have any (or very many) of the same fabrics paired up. So you must have cut your squares in 1/2 before pairing them up into HST's?

I was gifted a set of fat eigths of this fabric and it is just lovely.

Anonymous said...

The yellow ochre colour really makes that quilt POP! Love it. I think my favourite fabric is the one that looks like multi-coloured log cabins. It's an astounding quilt - it's good to deviate from the norm sometimes, isn't it?

Kathleen said...

Such a great pattern to show off this beautiful fabric.

Diane Beavers said...

Amanda Jean
Your Loop D' Loop quilting is cool, it's you!
THe HST's are perfect and I love how it drapes and pops hanging from that tree branch.

bluestarof2(at)yahoo(dot)com

Judy Forkner said...

Love the giant HSTs!

Anonymous said...

I adore how you used those fabrics in such a simple pattern that resulted in a stunning quilt. It warms my heart that your family takes such notice of your art. Thank you for sharing.

Melanie said...

Great quilt: I especially love your extra yellow fabric!

Sharon Tucker said...

I've been coveting Fleet & Flourish for a while now...I love this simple yet stunning quilt pattern and it really showcases the fabrics. How much fabric did you start with...a 1/2 yd bundle?