Cottage Quilt

I am drawn to bright colours.  Reds, oranges, pinks...  So why is it that my stash is full of subdued, almost dull colours? At some point, I must have loved every single one of those fabrics.  Enough to buy a fat quarter, or even some yardage, choosing them over a vast array of bolder colours.

 

Perhaps I am afraid of colour as much as I am attracted to it.

 

I want to make bold and colourful quilts and yet... this is one of the quilts I made in the last year: 

 

 

Here's the story.

 

Last Fall, I decided to make a quilt for our cottage, to replace the duvet that was always too warm in the summer months.  My requirements were as follows: It had to be big enough for a queen size bed.  It had to be simple (I did not want to spend too much time working on a quilt that would only be used for a few weeks every year).   It had to go well with light blue walls.   And it had to use up my less-than-inspiring stash.

 

I know, I know... some of you are cringing right now. Why work with uninspiring fabrics? I mean, I do have some nice fabric too... so why not use it and make something exciting?

 

I am not really sure how to answer this question, but in any event, the first decision I made was the backing: a flowery sheet I had bought in a thrift store. Not really "vintage", but definitely not modern. 

  

The sheet became the inspiration for the colour scheme.  I started pulling fabric out of the stash: light blues, teals, dusty roses, peaches, beiges, a touch of brown, a touch of green, a touch of burgundy...  Nothing too bright.   I really wanted to captured the essence of that sheet.  I think I did, and somehow, those dull and boring fabrics all seemed to work together.

The blocks are 10x10, and simply made up of 5 even strips randomly pieced. The quilt finishes at 80 x 90

I free motion quilted loose loops using thread from Connecting Threads (I think the colour is Tomato). Not as divine as Aurifil, but nice thread nevertheless...

 

All nice and crinkled after a couple washes...

 

Hmmm... after I saw it all crinkled up, it really started to grow on me.  Now that I am back home and this quilt stayed at the cottage, I kind of miss it.

So maybe I love soft and subdued after all...

Have you made a quilt with fabric you no longer love?  Did you like the result?

Thanks to the wind, I never did manage to get a good picture of the whole quilt, but it sure isn't for lack for trying:  Here I am trying to fight the wind.

So for the finale, I'm settling on this shot:

 

Simple, soft and subdued, and different from everything that is on my "want to make" list, but I like it and that's all that matters.

Oh, and I just realized, for all the quilts I made for other people, this summer was the first time I slept under a quilt made by me. 

Time to make one for our bed at home!

Hope you are all enjoying those last days of summer.