Returning to our in-depth coverage of Quilter's Affair: The Garden Tea Party Quilt

Now where were we? Tuesday I think. On Tuesday and Wednesday I taught the Garden Tea Party Quilt that you see in my sidebar. Four of the ladies went on scavenger hunts to find the exact Full Bloom fabrics from my line, and apparently it was an adventure as most are near the bottom of their inventory of it. But alas, they prevailed and came up with the goods. 

The first job in making this quilt is obviously piecing the center. If I teach this class again, I will definitely have people at the very least cut all their blocks before coming to class. And the other thing will be to cut motifs out of their fabrics for the border ahead of time. Here are some of the centers in progress:

This is Susan from Michael Miller Fabrics pin basting her center to get ready for quilting. 

 

And here these two are quilting the centers of their Full Bloom quilts.

 

 

And here is a beautiful quilt done in greens.

 

And one done in Kaffe prints and some from her stash.

And then it's time to start adding the border motifs. Here she has already started the free motion quilting. 

And in these photos the motifs are being laid out in a composition. It takes a lot of moving stuff around to get it just right.

   

All in all, everyone got at least to practice their free-motion quilting skills and all of the centers of the quilts were finished. It was very fun to watch people coming out of their box and mixing fabrics they usually wouldn't think would work together. But I can't emphasis enough that it is possible to mix and match ... even... gasp ... fabrics from different lines and even... gasp... from different designers! What's important in Fabric Mix•ology (my trademark term ;) ) is that if you use a particular fabric or motif, you need to repeat that color or shape somewhere else in the quilt to bring it all together. Sometimes they do not all play nice together but it's worth it to try to mix it up a bit. There is always the option of un-sewing. 
 
 

  

 
 
 
 

Comments

[Scott]

1.

great post Bari! Love it!! Particularly your term Color Mix*ology...perfectly describes it!

[Heather]

2.

Beautiful work! I think I need to make a trip to Sisters next year. I've been bitten by the quilting bug--bad! Love your Color Mix*ology and your border motifs!

[Kimberly Shaw]

3.

Everyone's work looks amazing!

[Dede Warren]

4.

These are beautiful! And what great floral borders... pure, happy love!

[Dede Warren]

5.

PS I have been on a quilting binge the past few weeks, and I am going to try and add this fancy border business of yours to my next quilt!

[Kirsten N]

6.

Such a gorgeous quilt!! Just wondering if you can make this from some FQ and approximately how many would be needed if you were leaving off the motifs? Thanks.