William Morris Trees of Life Quilt

Here is my hand quilted William Morris Trees of Life quilt.  Finally done!  

This quilt is special for many reasons.  Shall I tell you a few?  Way back in 2012, I went to Paris with my husband and two oldest sons.  It was an amazing, amazing trip.

Before we left, I, of course looked up whether there were any quilt shops in Paris I could get to.  I was very excited to find one called Le Rouvray just a few blocks from our apartment (which was fabulously also a few blocks from Notre Dame Cathedral - oh my goodness, I loved it).  THEN, on my birthday just a few weeks before we left, my sister in law gave me the book you can read a bit about on the Le Rouvray website (it is now out of print).

When I got to Paris, I saw the shop had this fabulous antique quilt hanging up made with Tree of Life blocks.  There was a pattern for a similar quilt was included in my book and since I had several William Morris fat quarters (I was thinking about his Tree of Life tapestries...) It came together.

Then I decided to hand quilt it.  Well, that took a long time, but I enjoyed every minute.

Sadly, Le Rouvray is now closed.  But here is a picture I took of the outside of the shop.  You can just see the Tree of Life quilt that inspired me through the window.

QUILT STATS:

Dimensions: 53" by 67"

Fabrics: Various fat quarters of William Morris reproductions by Fabric Freedom, blue Strawberry Thief print by Barbara Brackman from her line A Morris Tapestry. Bella Snow.

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt for piecing, Gutermann hand quilting thread for quilting in Ivory.

Binding: In the Beginning, by Jason Yenter

Backing: Eiffel Tower by Michael Miller (wide width, no seams!)

Sister's Paint Box Quilt

A year ago I bought two jelly rolls at a quilt show, one was Metropolitan Fair by Barbara Brackman and the other was Paint Box by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts.  When I got them home and unrolled them (no, I cannot leave them all nicely packaged, I must inspect) I noticed how nicely they matched!

So they sat, and I waited until a jelly roll quilt pattern fell into my brain. And I thought Sister's Choice might be a good choice, as it has that traditional feel that the fabrics did to me. But the patterns I looked at would require some messing around with cutting. But then I found Miss Bonnie Hunter's pattern. All 2.5 inch squares and rectangles. Perfect!!

 My star points are all pretty scrappy, and I wanted to use the low volume prints, which there were plenty of, for the background instead of a solid (which is also what Bonnie did). It worked perfectly and I had enough stripe-y jelly roll strips left from Metropolitan Fair to make the binding!

Some yardage of a matching dusty blue Robyn Pandolph print in my stash became the backing.   Now I have a quilt that actually matches my house too. Most of the brighter, more modern quilts I've made don't actually co-ordinate with my living room which is more traditional colours. (Not that it stops me from strewing bright quilts all over it!)

Final Stats

Dimensions: 46" by 65" 

Fabric: Metropolitan Fair and Paint Box (both by Moda) 

Thread: Aurifil in the most typical (and boring? haha) Sand colour (2325) for both piecing and quilting 

Backing: Bed of Roses by Robyn Pandolph for Moda 

Batting: a recycled flannel sheet 

Completed March 2014

William Morris Pillows!

Since I made my William Morris Charm Quilt last fall, I have been decorating it on my bed with plain beige pillow shams. Disgraceful, I know, for someone with as much beautiful fabric as I have. Today I finished some new shams with the leftover charms from the quilt! I have wanted to try a "value quilt" for a while, so this is what I came up with:

William Morris King Size Charm Quilt

This quilt I finished last year, but haven't yet shared it.

I love the designer William Morris, and when I discovered last year that Moda had produced reproductions of his prints, I immediately had to have them. However, at that time, about the only thing I could find was charm squares left of the lines Morris Tapestry, The Morris Workshop, and a little bit of yardage from a Morris Garden. These lines were all designed by Barbara Brackman, whose work I love.



Since the prints are quite busy and so many different colours, I didn't think they looked right when put against each other. So I decided to sash each square in Kona Espresso. The next question was how to quilt a huge king size on my little Bernina. So I divided the quilt in 4 parts and used a "Quilt as you Go" method to put the 4 pieces together. It worked perfectly with my design since it had so much sashing.



I backed it in a coffee coloured flannel sheet and bound it with some blue yardage from the Morris Workshop line found on Etsy.

PS. Barbara Brackman and Moda have produced another line of Morris reproductions called Morris and Company which is available now in yardage and pre cuts and it's BEAUTIFUL!