I’m so excited to join in today on the Everlasting Blog Tour! When Sharon Holland asked if I’d like to join in to make a project with her gorgeous new fabric line for Art Gallery Fabrics, of course I said YES! And here is the quilt that I made to showcase these fantastic prints:
The quilt was largely an improv project. I knew I wanted to use the fabrics to do some English Paper Piecing. I got my hands on the new Brimfield Awakening Brimfield Beginnings blocks. I chose the Soleil Brimfield Beginnings design. I actually made four of these blocks, but in the end decided that I would just use three for the quilt.
Once I had the Soleil blocks pieced, I needed to figure out a background. I knew I wanted something simple and modern. So I went with two 10″ strips from the Everlasting line, and then large pieces of Art Gallery Fabrics solids. A few quick seams was all I needed to stitch the background together. I then glue basted the Soleil blocks in place.
I used more Art Gallery Fabrics solids for the backing, then made the quilt sandwich. I made sure to line up the seam on the backing fabric with the middle seam on the quilt top. I love these small details of having everything line up!
The quilting is deceptively simple. I say that it is deceptive because you would think that straight lines done with a walking foot would be simple. But I found a way to complicate it.
For the two prints on the bottom, I stitched rows an inch apart using Wonderfil’s 12wt thread. It gives great texture, but keeping the lines an inch apart means that the fabric really gets to shine. For the solids, I chose to quilt lines 1/2″ apart, but with regular piecing-weight thread instead of 12wt.
I didn’t want to quilt over the Soleil blocks. And I wanted this quilt to be quilt show quality. So, I stopped each line of stitching as I came to a Soleil block, and then picked it up again on the other side. At each start and stop I tied off the thread and buried the ends. That meant over 100 tie-offs on this quilt! A lot of extra work, but I absolutely love the effect.
To add a little extra fun and whimsy to the front, I quilted pebbles inside the centers of the Soleil blocks. I think this was a fun design choice, and it had the added benefit of not needing all the tie-offs that would have been required if I stitched the lines through the center!
The final decision in the process was how to bind the quilt. Did I want to use more prints from the collection? Did I want to match the binding to the fabric on the front of the quilt? In the end I went for Art Gallery Pure Solids that were close in color to the fabrics used on the front. I chose two different solids that I color-blocked to go with the piecing on the front. The teal is along the bottom row, and then the grey goes around the rest of the quilt. This is the first time I’ve matched up the seams in my binding with the seams in the quilt, and I loved the result! I’ll absolutely do this again in the future!
I then hand-stitched down the binding on the back. This quilt won’t be entered into the San Diego Quilt Show (the deadline for entering was last week), but I wanted it to be show-quality, with all the details I’d keep in mind if it was going to be entered. Maybe I’ll enter it in an upcoming show!
The result is a quilt that could be double-sided. The back has almost as much interest as the front. And I love that the binding really pops against the backing fabrics.
All that is missing is a name for the quilt. I think I might stick with the simple title of “Everlasting Quilt.”
The Everlasting Blog Tour is just getting started! Check out more inspirational projects made with this line in the coming weeks. You can follow along the whole tour using the links below:
| July 12 | Sharon Holland | https://www.sharonhollanddesigns.com |
| July 15 | Marija Vujcic | https://maraquiltdesigns.com/ |
| July 16 | Carolina Moore | https://www.AlwaysExpectMoore.com |
| July 17 | Dana Willard | https://www.madeeveryday.com |
| July 18 | Lisa Ruble | https://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com/ |
| July 19 | Dritz Sewing | https://makesomething.dritz.com |
| July 22 | Eleri Kerian | https://sewandtellproject.com/everlasting-fabrics-blog-tour/ |
| July 23 | Marisa Wilhelmi | https://sewtellme.blogspot.com |
| July 24 | Sharon McConnell | https://colorgirlquilts.com |
| July 25 | Morgan M. | https://www.modernlymorgan.com |
| July 26 | Alexis Wright | https://mysweetsunshinestudio.com |
| July 29 | Priscilla Geissler | https://cottonstitch.ca |
| July 30 | Maureen Cracknell | https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com |
Comments & Reviews
Looks incredible! Love this simplicity and huge amount of work I can see in this quilt.
It was certainly more work than I’d planned! I thought it would be “simple” but then I kept getting these ideas that I couldn’t say no to … even though they made it more complex! In the end, I’m glad I gave in to the ideas!! <3
Your Quilt came out Beautifully! Love the colors you used.
Thanks! It turned out even better than what I had in my head! Love it when that happens! <3
I do like the quilt. The color and the design are outstanding.
Thanks so much! <3
Beautiful quilt !!
Your quilt is quite stunning! What great use of color! Thank you for sharing!