It's always fun to see how different designers use the same fabric collection. Today's post is twice as fun because these two ladies chose to work in opposite color ways of Jackie Robinson's A Mum for a Mum collection, so you'll really see a lot of variety!
Kay Wright-Handy designed this beauty using the plum colorway, and it's appropriate called "Plum Perfect." The purple blocks feature fussy-cut mum squares, and or course the floral stripe makes a gorgeous border. "Plum Perfect" was featured in American Patchwork & Quilting's February 2016 issue.
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"Plum Perfect" by Kay Wright-Handy; machine quilted by Debbie Tribble;
featured in American Patchwork & Quilting February 2016
Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine.
©2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. |
Kay talks about her quilt:
How did you decide which color way to use?
I love flowers and these really caught my
eye. The colorway with the purple and yellow mums, reminded me of fall, my
favorite season!
Why did you choose to
fussy cut the large mums for focal blocks?
The realistic mums just begged to be
fussy cut. I wanted to showcase these beauties.
How did you come up
with the design?
Since I wanted the mums to be the main
focus, they were placed alternately with a secondary block. This was to give
the impression of a garden walkway around the mums.
What do you like about
the mum stripe border?
The striped border so elegantly ties all the
design elements together and finishes the quilt much like a fence around a
garden. The border fabric was then quilted with stitching to mimic a
Victorian fence top.
What do you like best
about the quilt?
The color combination, the interplay between
the purples, yellows and greens really made me smile.
Do you have a favorite
print in the collection?
Yes the smaller all over mum print was my
favorite in the collection, although I didn't use it in my pattern
design. I did use it as my back and now I have a "second" quilt
to enjoy.
Can you talk about the
machine quilting that Debbie did?
Debbie Tribble of Dreamweaver Quilting used
a Gammill longarm with Statler Stitcher. She is a Creative Studio
Certified Instructor and loves using the software to individualize
patterns. The inner patterns were from Methodist Hill Studio, she
manipulated the original to allow ease in thread color changes over the fussy
cut mums, the stitching is reminiscent of a trellis over the large mum
print. Inspiration for the border came from a ruler class taught by Kimmy
Brunner. Debbie digitized the pattern to custom fit Plum Perfect.
Click here to see Jackie's A Mum for A Mum collection.
Click here to find the kit for Plum Perfect.
Click here to find American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.
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Mischele Hart used the blue color way, also showcasing the floral stripe in the border, but she created pieced flower pot blocks in her quilt, "Pot of Posies." Equally beautiful, but totally different than Kay's design. "Pot of Posies" was featured in the January/February 2016 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine.
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"Pots of Posies" by Mischele Hart; machine quilted by Susan Scheer;
featured in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine January/February 2016 |
What attracted you to Jackie’s Mum collection? How did you decide which color way to use?
This collection is appealing to me because it seems reminiscent of gorgeous florals from “across the pond” that we’ve all seen and loved, but with the bonus of lovely, workable companion pieces. It was hard to decide which color way to use because I’m a big fan of purple, but teal narrowly won because of the setting where it will be used.
Do you have a favorite print in the collection?
That’s a tough question, but the floral stripe was the one that popped out at me. The large, bountiful flowers are fetching. Also, the idea of using the stripe in the border to achieve visual appeal and end the quilt beautifully without the onus of elaborate piecing was mighty attractive from a design standpoint.
How did you come up
with your block design?
I felt the best way to honor the collection
was to create a simple geometric design that would place focus on the activity
in the prints. The choice of designing flowerpots for flowers was a natural
progression of thought and design.
Tell us about your
pieced sashing—it really adds a lot of interest to the quilt.
I believe this sashing is called garden
maze. You get some big visual payoff with this setting, especially when
you realize that it is composed of simple-to-piece triple rail and star blocks.
Perfect for carrying forth a garden theme.
The blocks in your
quilt are made solely from the tonal coordinates in the collection, tied
together by the floral stripe in the border. Can you talk about why you decided
to use the fabrics in that way?
It’s always great for quilters when a
quilter like Jackie Robinson designs a collection. This collection offers
a gorgeous, yet safe, array of choices for quilters of all experience levels.
The well thought-out difference in color values, print scales, and print
activities make it easy to pull together fabrics, using only this collection,
that are guaranteed to work well together and make a quilt with big visual
appeal.
Why do you like the
large mum border? Did you plan the rest of the quilt design around it?
I love the large floral stripe! It was
the inspiration for the design, for sure. You know, one of the “quilty”
things to appreciate about the stripe is that a 6” cut is perfect for
displaying the mums. We quilters all seem have a 6” wide ruler, so there’s not
a lot of fretting, adjusting, or constantly checking for the correct line on
the ruler, etc. when you make cuts. That’s another of the thoughtful and
practical benefits of a quilter-designed fabric collection.
What is your favorite
part of the quilt?
The flowerpots. They were fun to
devise and piece.
Tell us about how Susan
quilted it.
It’s fun to see how Susan Scheer’s creative
mind works. With this quilt she chose to use various leafy designs to embellish
the surface of the quilt. She used thread colors and shapes that soften the
straight lines in the design and enhance the florals.
It’s lovely to find a friend and machine
quilter that you can give a top to and totally pressure them by offering
nothing in the way of guidance and saying something like, “Here ya go,
friend. Will you please do something I’m gonna like?” Susan always
creates beauty in unexpected and delightful ways.
Anything else you’d like
to share?
One of the essential ways quilters can keep
our art form vibrant, alive, progressive, and interesting is by communicating with
one another. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to chat with you about
quilting!
Click here to see Jackie's A Mum for A Mum collection.
Click here to find the kit for Pots of Posies.
Click here to find Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine.
