When I first saw progress on this quilt, I called the chosen hues 'sunshine on fabric.' Today I'm delighted to share Chris's finished quilt with you all. It's a journey full of dedication, love and colour.
Isn't it breathtaking?
Here's what Chris has to say about her journey through Love Entwined:
"I started my quilt when it was published as a BOM and wanted it to
show off all the colours I like which is pretty much any colour under the sun,
so it includes all possible shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, violet and
purple for the flowers. The tone I love most is always bright and light, so I
used batik fabrics.
All the flowers produce so much lovely chaos on this
quilt that some element of order had to be introduced which is provided
by the dark blue found in the borders and the zigzag. My favourite part was
picking fabric but it was also the hardest part because I had to imagine what
it would look like in the end when it all comes together and just hope that
everything would be in balance. I'm particularly pleased with the
lavender-purple/ red-yellow gradation in the third border that creates a
pulsating vivid effect."
Chris, your favorite part is really the most difficult part for me and I love reading about how the shades used throughout inspired you. I definitely agree that the dark blue you have used, really grounds your quilt in just the right way.
"I'm not much of a fan of broderie perse so I spent hours on
research for techniques that could be used to create realistic looking
flowers.
I tried a lot of things, I ruched roses in three different techniques,
folded calices, frayed daisies etc. LE was a huge playground for me. The wish
for realistic flowers led me to change the design in various places, the one
that stands out the most is the centre-piece with the four vases which are
seasonal vases filled with flowers from my garden. When pieces became too small
within the leaf helix of the second border I turned to embroidery and tried
different stitches. I decided that the strange shapes at the crossings were
butterflies instead of angels which seemed to go nicely with the flower theme
and replaced the strange looking bird by a robin.
After the second border
I was fed up with leaves and thought the double bows need loose ends
rather than more leaves. I also wanted real tassels rather than embroidered
ones so I made them out of wool."
"After so much appliqué I needed a break and put the top aside for
an entire year. With this hand appliqué I wanted to hand-quilt it, too, and
after visiting an exhibition comparing quilts I decided on a grid because
that's what I think makes the appliqué stand out.
I quilted a 5/8th inch grid,
I quilted for 5 months for two hours every day. I chose a leaf design for
the green borders and an intertwining zigzag for the blue border."
"Now that I'm finished I can't really believe it, LE has been my
steady company for four years in total. It encompasses all the workmanship I'm
capable of, certainly an insane amount of work and displays my love for colour
and flowers like no other quilt has done or ever will do again.
There's no
quilt like it and I'll never undertake such an enterprise ever again. It's
unique and stands out amongst all my other appliqué quilts."
Chris, your Love Entwined quilt is full of joyous light and energy that just floods the senses. When I see your colour scheme and consider how many hundreds of hours you have spent making this magnificent heirloom, I'm in awe. This quilt shines and I'm honored to add it to our Love Entwined Gallery. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
There are more images to see! Luckily for us, Chris sent through 16 stunning images (too many for a blog post) that you can view over on her Love Entwined Gallery Page. Click any of the images above to go there now, or click here.
What about you? Are you making Love Entwined? Have you joined the Love Entwined BOM Group? Go ahead and join us as we share friendship, quilting tips and creativity.
If you'd like to make Love Entwined yourself, you can purchase the pattern by visiting my online pattern shop, or click here now to go there.
