A Quilt for Mom

64" x 64" lap quilt in Cross pattern with jewel tones

Hello everybody!  I've been out of the sewing conversation for a couple of weeks now due to the Christmas run up.  I was busy stitching away at this quilt for my mom.  It's a lap sized quilt which I hope will look nice with her dark blue couch.  I don't get to spend many holidays with my mother, and I wanted to give her an extra special present.  I find that quilts are the thing that I most want to make for the people I love.  It's sort of like sending someone a permanent hug, always at the ready.  Also, while they are pretty, and crafty, they are also useful.  Not just cute dust-catchers!  The only down side that I can see is how much they cost to make, it takes a lot of yards/meters of cotton to knock up a quilt.


For this quilt I wanted something modern and unfussy- that's that kind of gal my mom is!  So no appliques (I do like them, the evidence: this quilt for Dear Daughter 2.)  And no sashing, the framing lines of fabric around the outside of the quilt and sometimes in between quilt blocks.  Also I needed this to be relatively quick; as usual, I was running well behind schedule.  Just an aside, I find the only way to be on schedule is to have an undemanding schedule with loads of slack.  Who does that?  Anyway, that meant no stars, flying geese, etc. either.  


I settled on an interlocking cross design.  My interlocking crosses aren't very distinct.  (For a good example of an interlocking cross pattern check out Filminthefridge.)  My blocks are too big and the contrast is not great enough in my fabrics.  I am not bothered.  I like the way it looks.  Trying to do the crosses produced a great random pattern.  It's a bit like the English garden style of drift planting (the one associated with Gertrude Jekyll.)  If I had tried to be random and place the squares all over in a random pattern I probably would have come up with something not really random and very bitty, looking like confetti.

A garden by Gertrude Jekyll

My final thoughts on this quilt and quilting in general:  Fabric choices are paramount, far more important than the quilt pattern or design.  A slapdash quilt with a great pallet of colours that is simple will catch my eye before a beautifully sewn, complicated pattern in fabrics that I find boring or unharmonious.  I don't have a knack for colour, and I don't like to buy all the fabric for a quilt all at once from a single designer's collection, although this approach is pretty much foolproof.  It's too expensive, and it takes away some of the fun; it ruins the adventure.  So I use Jinny Beyer's colour choosing method.


Basically, Jinny's method is too make sure that all the colours in your quilt slowly range into each other like a rainbow.  This way none of your colours is an oddball and in making your way from one distinct colour to the next you will almost certainly have some very dark or very light colours in your bridge.  This way the colours are harmonious and you have a range of colour values to keep the quilt from being boring.  Here is my example:

90% of the fabrics that went into my quilt

Obviously, I have a few long leaps here, I didn't bridge everything beautifully.  In a few places I just couldn't find the fabrics.  My leap from maroon to blue is a little inelegant, but overall I think the quilt is a winner, and I am proud to give it to my mom.  

Finally, I'll end with a tip.  Maybe everyone but me has figured this out, but the best way to back a quilt is to go to IKEA and buy a flat cotton sheet.  It's easy to get the width you need and there are a handful of colour options and the price is better than buying special cottons that are extra wide for quilting.  At least, it seems to be the case here in the UK.