Introducing Oma's Blues: my FREE new BOM

Are you ready for a new BOM? I am! 

I've been in a Love Entwined cloud for the last 2 years and I'm ready to share some new quilts with you all. Whilst LE will continue to have a place in my heart forever, there's enough room now for me to dust off those quilts that have been waiting in the wings. I am hoping to release several this year. The first for the year is Oma's Blues. This is a quilt based on my love for blue and white tableware, specifically delftware plates. I've always wanted a quilt that somehow incorporated my love for dishware and plates - and now I have! What do you think? 

This quilt starts off with Oma's Plate - the central panel block which is the focus of the quilt. Surrounding Oma's Plate is a selection of smaller hanging charm plates and finally we have 'stacks' of plates all around the quilt. These are framed by ornamental plates in the top corners. In my minds eye, I'm imaging an old fashioned large kitchen with stone floors, an aga, shelves of plates and a wall beside a window for seating - and this quilt taking pride of place. I think it's important to give quilts an imaginary life when we're creating them and this one is especially vivid for me.

Oma's Blues will run from January - November 2015

Blocks are released on the 15th of each month. To take part and download the patterns each month, you must be a member of my Yahoo BOM Group. It's free to join my Group, you simply have to be willing to abide by our Group Rules.

‘Oma’ is the German word for Grandmother and is also used throughout Northern Europe. When I was child, my own Oma would task me with the seasonal chore of carefully dusting and wiping down her blue tableware and fine china. I can still remember gazing into the rich motifs of florals, animals and flourishes—some naïve, some highly decorative. It’s a memory that’s stayed with me all my life.

In Oma’s Blues, I’ve recreated a series of designs as a tribute to my own childhood and the charming blue drawings that captivated my imagination. I have designed a decorative central applique plate, surrounded by smaller design plates and centered it all in with piecing that looks to me like much arranged pottery and china.

These images are off the internet, not my own. I'm sad to report that I didn't inherit any of the beautiful blue china from my memories and I don't have any photo's of them either. In fact, I have no idea what happened to them. These images I have found are very close to the plates in my mind
You can see what I mean about the variations in blue. From mid tone to dark. Personally, I've noticed that blue and white quilts don't photograph terribly well - unless under the right lighting conditions. I have found this to be true for red and white quilts as well. It's just one of those things.

I am disappointed that I can't express what I see in my mind with you colour wise, but I think you get the general idea. Capturing the 'right shade' of blue has been very difficult for me. Although I had a delft shade of blue in my mind when creating this quilt, I feel in love with a cool Wedgwood type shade of blue right after. But both posed a drama for me - neither shows up well in the images I have created to share this pattern with you. The image used above is a tone between the two colours I had my heart set on. Of course, in real life colours are always different but for the purposes of sharing this quilt, I had to modify my original vision - at least for now. When I get around to making Oma's Blues myself, I will certainly stick to either a true dark dutch blue (so classic and so perfect) or a cool light blue as below:

and the colour I choose will be based on the decor of my home as this quilt will hang. I have a very bright room which I am thinking about painting in either warm earthy tones or cream - two very different styles. I will let my furnishings and colour scheme decide when I get to that point. After all, I like my quilts on my walls and this means I have a whole room to think about. I think this could be a superb scrappy stash busting all blues quilt too...so lets see how I feel about it when I get there.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how you use the pattern to suit yourself. I think that's the best bit about sharing my quilting folio with my blog readers - I get to see so many of my quilts made up in different styles and colours - something I don't have enough lifetimes to do myself.