I returned home late last night after a long weekend away on business with my DH, and I was really happy to see that my fabric had arrived on Friday. I've really enjoyed seeing the fabrics you've selected to make LE, so I've been excited to share my choices with you as soon as they arrived.Today it's hailing and overcast and dreary (perfect quilting weather) so I've lined up the fabrics to show you what I've got. It's always hard to photograph in this kind of daylight so I've taken the photo's under a natural daylight lamp to keep them as accurate as possible.
My fabric 'journey' for this quilt has been a long and winding one. First I was set on an entire range (that promptly sold out before I could purchase it), then I had my heart set on exquisite chintz from Denmark (which was just too expensive and over budget) so finally I settled on a range that I could use for a kind of sophisticated scrappy look. The advantage of this was also the option of using existing fabrics from my stash. Now that my fabric is here, some of it is hit and miss and I will have to raid my stash to make it work...that's just the reality of buying off screen, not everything is what I expected it to be. But the fabrics I love, I really love so I will be adding my own stash to make it work.
I love all these blues and they work really well, what I am still missing is a good dusty / powder blue in a light pastel tone. I don't have a light value blue, these are all 'sameish' value wise, so I am on the lookout for some pale blue for balance.
The 5 blues on the right are all misses. I don't like any of them. The tones are wrong and they just don't work. On the left, the white with blue print is a maybe - I think it's pretty but am still undecided.
These two were my option for the light/dark contrast zigzag border...but I don't like them! Close up, they are really pretty, but as soon as you stand away from them, they dull out. I don't think they're going to work. I'm still undecided. I don't think they will do LE justice. But saying that, I'm still in two minds. I might make a row of zigzags up and see how they look.
These are my greens: each in a different hue which I didn't expect. I do like each in their own way, they're very pretty and I love the pale mossy blue...but do they work together? Hmmm I don't think so. It might take another fabric from the stash to make these tones gel.
As for the red and green print on the left, yes I love it, what a great print for my scrappy idea and it does work so well with one of my backgrounds.
I love all these reds, from dark to light, what a relief!
But these pinks? I don't like any of them! They just don't work for this project. I think they're going straight into the stash :( I do like the purple and gold...but again, need buffer fabrics to make these colours work in the rest of the quilt!
Complete miss! What was I thinking? These don't work at all!
Battle of the Backgrounds!
Now this is difficult: which background fabric to opt for? This first one is lightly dotted with green (Jasmine tea by Jesse Aller) and I loved the idea of it, and it works with all the fabrics but on daylight it looks grayish and a little dull.
This is 100% linen from Reece Scannell (reecescannell.com) and is so far the most expensive fabric for the quilt (AU $55 per metre). It is slightly wider and you need only 5.5 metres instead of 7 in this fabric. Well, it's a stunner and I love the idea of using linen (as in the original) it's grainy, quite heavy in weight and has a beautiful citrus yellow through it. The body is lovely, easy to handle and it would handle needle turn beautifully, it feels like silk linen. Yes, I adore it and when I think how much needle turn will be worked upon it, I know hand sewing this fabric will be a dream and I can understand completely why the original was worked in linen.
This is the texture close up
This is my last choice: it's imported Italian Linen. It's bleached natural linen and it's a beautiful white, not too heavy, the texture is good. It was also expensive at (AU $47 per metre), I actually purchased it a few years ago for my DH's linen shirts (which I will never make now that I see it's potential for quilting!). The only question on this one, is do I want a white background? Part of me says yes as white can pick up colours so nicely, on the other hand, yellow might work better.
Then there's the thought that this linen is lighter, which might be easier to handle on such a large project. But then again, if I quilt the coverlet (and I don't know if I will or not), the background fabric has to be up to the task of taking so much work.
Then there's the weight: this quilt has the potential to be quite heavy with all the applique so perhaps a lighter linen is the answer?
It's decision making time. I have to go through my stash and add what I think will work, failing that, I'll have to run down to my local store and fill in any missing gaps so that I can finally start this incredible and inspiring quilt.
Fabric selection is never easy. In some ways, after seeing the V&A Exhibition in Brisbane last month, I realised that the
original marriage coverlet was certainly a dark scrappy and that I have a lot more freedom that I had first imagined when I tried to create a Georgian colour scheme. The fact is, I don't have any of the brown, purple or dark yellows that I will need to make this scrappy harmonise.
Even now, I keep re-arranging and playing with the options...you know that feeling you get when you are putting a quilt together, when you know
you've got it? I'm still working around my options until that feeling comes...
I keep moving from one room to the next with my fabric piles, looking at them in different lights. I was a bit disheartened to see so many put aside but they are are all beautiful and will be put to use in other projects. Now I have to focus on what does work and get this quilt started!
