Raise your hand if you love Paula Nadelstern's kaleidoscope-style fabric but feel a little hesitant about cutting into it.
(Okay, we have to ask...did you actually raise your hand even though we couldn't see you?)
Wendy Sheppard's "Fabrique Foursome" design, featured in the Summer 2013 issue of Easy Quilts, has the answer. Check it out:
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| "Fabrique Foursome" designed and machine quilted by Wendy Sheppard and pieced by Sherry McConnell; featured in Easy Quilts summer 2013 Photo courtesy of Fons & Porter |
We asked Wendy for some tips on cutting Paula's gorgeous fabric, and she was happy to share, along with some additional photos of her quilt.
We love how you
used Paula's Fabrique-istan fabric! Can you talk about how you cut into it and
how you figured out how to do that?
When I look at a large
fabric print pattern, I try to look to see if there's any symmetry first.
Then, I try to see if I couldn't take advantage of the symmetry and cut
in a way that would efficiently use the pattern print. In this case, I
saw a large star print which is symmetrical, and proceeded to quarter the star
to be used in constructing a block.
Did you
purposely select each sashing plus sign color to match the fussy cut squares?
Yes, I did. I
used the bright sashing fabrics to counter the black in the fussy cut squares.
Any tips for
fussy cutting?
Definitely do a test
sample. Sometimes with fussy cutting, I don't press my fabric before
cutting because heat from the iron tends to slightly distort the fabric weave that
would make precise fussy cutting a little challenging, especially if I have to
rely on straight lines in the print pattern.
Favorite thing
about the quilt?
The colors!!!
Favorite thing
about the fabric?
The prints and colors
that just draw the viewer to want to submerge in all those colors.
Tell us about
your decision to add the outer black outline border.
I find black to be the
best blender when using a lot of colors in a quilt design. That
"black" black fabric seems the perfect choice in "reining" in
all the bright and bold colors scattered all throughout the quilt, and seems to
provide a nice boundary within which the other colors can show off.
Any advice to
quilters out there?
I always try to
encourage my quilting friends to try out color palettes that aren't
"their" thing necessarily -- sometimes, the effect can be stunningly
and strikingly beautiful and out of the ordinary!
See more photos and learn more about this quilt on Wendy's blog.
See the entire Fabrique-istan line here and Extreme Colors line here.
Find the kit for this project here.
Find Easy Quilts here.
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