Friday, January 9, 2015

Modernizing the FWQ: Episode 1

Selecting Fabric and a Block Layout

The first step for me was deciding on my fabric for the quilt.  I wanted to select fabrics with different values to emphasize the design in some of the blocks, so I decided to go with almost solid fabrics in some of my favorite colors.


While I love solids, I love the texture marbled fabrics give a quilt.  


With the exception of the light pink, which is a Riley Blake blender, all my colored fabrics are from various Northcott fabric lines.  My background is Kona snow.  

To make a queen size quilt (94 x 112 inches) with 30 blocks I purchased:
  • 5.75 yards of Kona Snow for my background.  
  • 1 yard of each of the colored fabrics.  
  • 7/8 yard extra of green for binding.
  • 8.5 yards of Kona Snow for the backing.
I am sure that I could make due with less (like 3/4 of a yard) of the colors, but I am excited to add these fabrics to my rainbow scraps collection.  Please refer to Episode 10: Finishing the Top for more details on how much fabric I used.

I thought of lots of different layouts for the blocks.  
  • A Medallion Style Sampler Quilt using different sized blocks in each border.  (Like this one)
  • An Orphan Block Style Sampler Quilt using many different sizes of blocks.  (Like the Thimbleberries Sampler quilt I made for my mom.)
  • A Sampler Quilt using block sizes with multiples of six. (Like Moda's Modern Building Blocks quilt.)
  • A Sampler Quilt using blocks that all finish at the same size with sashing and cornerstones.  (Like Katie's.)
In the end, I decided to make all my blocks finish at 12 inches.  I will then add a one inch border to all of them.  Then I plan on adding sashing and cornerstones.  My layout is completely inspired by the cover quilt on the book Vintage Quilt Revival made by Katie of Swim Bike Quilt.  I think it is neat that my quilt is combining the Farmer's Wife Quilt with a layout from Vintage Quilt Revival.  



I have since changed my mind about some of the blocks in my diagram, but it sure helped to get a visual of what the quilt will look like. 


Clicking on the Modernizing the Farmer's Wife Quilt series link will take you back to the introductory post. It contains links to all the episodes in the series.   

XX,
Jasmine

9 comments:

  1. Your colors are like beautiful jems! I love the look of marbled fabric too. Looks like a fun quilt. Happy sewing!

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  2. I too love the marble, just a little hint of something goin on but not overpowering. I think you are onto something with enlarging the blocks a bit and modernizing it. I have never liked the traditional small blocks, but I am anxious to following your progress. So you bought 'new' fabric, does that mean you made it through your stash??

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  3. Ooh, I like the one inch frame, and your colors! It's going to be a very cheerful quilt!

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  4. Lovely fabric pull. I really like how you planned out the quilt top, too.

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  5. I love the way you sketched out the top. It will be fun to watch the progress of this quilt! I also like the marbled fabric you chose, it will be so pretty in your blocks.

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  6. Oh my you are ambitiously awesome! Wow... this looks to be a stunner and I can't wait to follow your progress Jasmine.

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  7. Love your fabric choices!!! This is an ambitious project. I am looking forward to your journey.

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  8. Wow, this is going to be beautiful!!

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