Category: Single & King single bed quilts

Normally, I don’t like quilts depicting roses. (I don’t like hearts, either, and the combination of hearts and roses is even worse). However, I did like this pattern designed by Loretta Parsons (and named ‘A Walk in the Spring’ by her), and I think the inclusion of some light brown (similar to Loretta’s quilt) and some green fabrics from my mother’s stash prevented it from looking too sickly sweet. This is a fairly large quilt, but not exactly the right size for a bed. it could serve as an extra layer on a cold night, but I prefer it as a wall hanging. It was quilted on my friend Margaret’s newly acquired quilting frame (and, I think, was the first decent-sized quilt used on it). We both used this one to become familiar with the art of machine quilting using a frame.

Some years ago I bought some fabrics from a Spotlight bin that attracted me by their bright coordinated colours. I added some old floral fabric (probably from the ’70s) that my mother gave me, as well as a few other fabrics from my stash. I also bought some extra plain and small-patterned matching fabrics and some dark brown for the backing and parts of the top. Two of the Spotlight fabrics had ‘Moor-ish’ (Islamic) motifs, a third one was a coordinated stripe pattern and a fourth had what looked like stylised citrus fruits; hence the name ‘Colours of Seville’, because that region has some Eastern history and is famous for its oranges. There was no place on the top for one of the Spotlight fabrics, so I used that, the remaining striped and light floral fabrics on the back, and the dark brown fabric to create an alternative ‘top’. So the quilt is double-sided. I didn’t quite know what to do with this one, but my sister, Rhonda, really loved the bright colours and the ‘retro’ look, so I gave it to her (in anticipation of her birthday) for her spare room bed. Using my ScanNCut machine, I cut the remaining fabrics into hexagons to make two identical cushion tops. From two large antique linen table napkins I cut squares for the the reverse side. After some sleuthing my sister discovered that the napkins had belonged to our great-great grandmother, Mary, so we were very pleased to honour our ancestor in this way. In a stroke of luck, Rhonda already had matching sheets and pillowcases on that bed.

In one of my quilting books I saw a colourwash quilt called ‘Autumn’, designed by Judy Turner . It was in lots of autumn colours (obviously) and looked gorgeous, but I decided it might be easier to do my first colourwash quilt in monochrome, and chose blue. I started with white in the top left corner, finishing with midnight blue in the diagonally opposite corner. In retrospect, I now think that the monochrome option was not easier after all, because any imperfection in the gradations were more obvious and therefore I needed to take great care. Nevertheless, it turned out very well. I added some bright yellow flowers to contrast with, and lift, the blue background, and made the flowers look like they were being blown out by the wind, through the grid, or lattice. With the leftover fabrics, and using a light blue fabric I already had for the underneath, I made the raggy-style floor rug. I had seen something similar in a gift/craft shop and thought I could make one myself. It serves to cover a patch of the carpet that hadn’t faded in concert with the rest of the floor.

The quilt on the King single bed was made from a pattern called ‘Heavenly Hexagons’, which was designed and digitised by Janet Sansom. I used different fabrics, but apart from that, and adding a couple of borders, I followed the instructions. There was some leftover fabric, and a single-bed trundle that needed a quilt too, so I embroidered more of the digitised designs on quilter’s muslim – squares this time – and cut up some other floral fabric I had into squares too. The floral fabric happened to coordinate beautifully with the patched hexagons and triangles in the first quilt. These two sets of squares were then patched together, and borders in the same fabrics of the first quilt were added. When both beds are out together they make a coordinated pair.

This one was a 21st birthday gift to my nephew, Daniel, and he chose the design. It was a fun one to make. I also made two large cushions, fastened with blue antique buttons originally belonging to my mother (his grandmother). The buttons may even be older than that. Unfortunately I don’t have more photos at the moment, but will take some more next time I see it.