Looking out the window

What's your favorite window view? Wendy Sheppard created her own with the Garden View quilt, featured in the June/July 2014 issue of The Quilter magazine. She used the large and medium blooms from Jennifer Young's Ambrosia collection for the "view" out the window, and then surrounded it with  several pieced and traditional borders. Wendy is visiting the blog today, sharing the story behind this refreshing quilt design, and then she has shared more details (and photos!) about the machine quilting on her blog. 

"Garden View" by Wendy Sheppard;
featured in The Quilter magazine June-July 2013

What do you like about the fabric line?

I like all the fresh flower prints.  With the smaller scaled flower prints, they almost feel like calico print, but they are updated and fun and fresh!

How did you decide to create the windowpane look in the center of the quilt?

I really wanted to use the large print floral (my favorite print in the entire line).  I thought cutting that print up wouldn't do it any justice.  So, I decided to make a windowpane  - that way I could use a large piece of that swatch without cutting it up.

Can you talk about your border choices?

The floral prints are light - that's why I used a lot of white to continue that "light" feeling. I decided to use spinner blocks to the light, open and airy feeling in the overall design because the blocks afford me more usage of white.  I also used the blocks to convey the illusion of blossoms lightly floating in the air.

What is your favorite part about this quilt?

I think the quilting is my favorite part on this quilt.  I was feeling a bit sad when I was finishing with the quilting for this project.  I shared more about the technical aspect of the quilting in my blog post.

Wendy also mocked up this quilt using the pink/coral colorway of the Ambrosia fabrics (shown below). So we asked her, which do you like better, the warm or cool version?

Since it is summer and I just heard that the DC area recorded the highest temperature in the nation the other day at noon, I think I am liking the cool version better -- for now!  Seriously, I do like both versions though.

Read more about Wendy's quilt in her blog post.

See the entire Ambrosia collection (both colorways, plus a free pattern for another quilt design) by Jennifer Young here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.