Sunday, February 27, 2011

PictureBox quilt!



The PictureBox quilt is finished! (*Jumps up and down with excitement*)

I'm really so thrilled with how this quilt turned out. The 3 people who've seen it in "real life" thought it was lovely too so that eased the nerves a little about it!

This quilt is all out of my own head. Its inspiration came from the idea of an I Spy quilt but I had some fabrics with large prints which I wanted to use for it and I jumped from there to the idea of framed pictures - my son has some jungle prints framed on his wall which were part of the inspiration.



As I've said in a previous post, the panels on either side of the centre were inspired by those long photo frames holding 3-4 pictures vertically.


This quilt is made for a baby boy and is part of a two quilt set - the other being for his sister. I quilted the Sophie's Dreams quilt with wonky straight lines and after a LOT of thought I decided to stick with that approach for this one too. I threw around a number of other quilting techniques in my head - it wasn't an easy decision - but I wanted to keep some consistency between the quilts as they're quite different design wise. Plus, I do love the effect of the wonky straight lines, they give a lovely texture to the quilt.



The foundation of the design is 3 large fabric panels. Each one measures approx 10" x 15" and is framed with a 1 inch strip of a calm blue/green print, and then 3" wide strips of fabric in varying prints and colours. I tried to keep the scrappy border prints to geometrical type designs, rather than featuring more animals although I made a couple of exceptions to bring in some prints from the sister quilt.


The 3 main panels are (from top to bottom) Lesley Grainger's Wild Friends - Jungle Animals, Riley Blake's Hooty Hoot - Kangaroo and Ann Kelle's Urban Zoologie Owls. Like the Sophie's Dreams quilt, this quilt is made to be midway between cot bed and twin bed size so that it can be used straight away on baby's cot, and then layered up over other covers on his bed when he gets older, or used as a throw. The quilt sits nicely on a twin bed:



I decided that a solid colour binding would work best on this quilt as there's so much going on in the quilt. I went for a lovely soft blue cotton and it frames the quilt really nicely.



The backing is a white with a blue polka dot and is a single piece of fabric. The little boy's full name is appliqued in the centre of the quilt using some of the navy fabric used in the quilt and raw edge applique.


All in all, I'm really happy with it. The white space created by the sashing makes the design pattern stand out and there's lots of interest there for any little boy - jungle animals, elephants, owls, whales, kangaroos, koalas and more, along with some cars and lots of colour and texture too! 


I was pretty pleased when I put the two quilts together this morning, side by side. I made a conscious effort to try and use some of the same fabrics in the quilts in order to link them, as well as making them the same size and using the same straight line quilting. This is the Sophie's Dreams quilt - you can see the continuity of fabrics and quilting:



Here they are, jumbled together and you can see they work well together:



I brought them outside and draped them across a couple of chairs in the garden, I really like the effect:



Now all I need to do is wash and dry the PictureBox one to give it that lovely crinkly effect!






I'll be linking this up to



- also - Sew Modern Monday, Fabric Tuesday on QuiltStory and some other great sites - have a look at my sidebar buttons to see more!

I'm happy to share the measurements/pattern for this quilt if anyone is interested (I think some of you were when I posted the pic of the quilt top earlier this month). I don't have enough pics to do a full tutorial but just let me know in a comment or drop me an email and I can write up and post the pattern in a couple of week's time.

30 comments:

Kelly Rachel said...

WOW! I LOVE it!!! Awesome sauce. It is a lovely design. What size did it finish up at?
I have lots of cute Japanese fabric that would look great in a quilt like this. Thanks for the inspiration!

Oxford Impressions said...

Your quilts here are beautiful. So fun and bright. I love every piece of fabric you've used. I would love to try to make my own. I have tons of scraps that would work great for a project like this. I'm all for you posting a tutorial on it. I'm also guessing if you do a tutorial it will most likely end up on Moda Bake Shop! Just found your blog last week and have enjoyed it so much. Congratulations on these two awesome quilts!

Leslie said...

wow this is really beautiful!! i love the quilting and you made such a beautiful design...a tutorial on this would be amazing

Inspiredbyfelix said...

Wow, this quilt is totally gorgeous! and I love the fact you made the pattern up, brilliant!

Kristie said...

Beautiful! Awesome design, it really highlights the fabrics. Great job, Sarah!

patchworkdelights said...

Wow Sarah they are both stunning quilts and so vibrant! Gorgeous!

Sew Hungryhippie said...

Stunning, just absolutely gorgeous. :o)
Tute pretty please please....xo

AllieMakes! said...

So beautiful! I am LOVE-ing the straight line quilting! It is just LOVELY!
Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

Elizabeth Dackson said...

Very pretty indeed, great fabrics :)

Sara @ Sew Sweetness said...

Oh gosh! That is the cutest baby/kids quilt I have EVER seen!! I love it!! Can you write a tutorial for it, because I want to make one!!

Kelly @ Vintage Fabric Studio said...

wonderful job on both! the picture window is so cool, the fabrics, quilting and layout is spot on! Nice Finish!

LivingSoAbundantly said...

Oh my word. Seriously amazing! You have such talent. Wow! I am impressed. Wonderful post!

Megan said...

What a great quilt! You straight line quilting looks fabulous! :) Thanks for linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday! Have a wonderful week.

abeachcottage said...

Gosh, love this quilt. The fabrics and the patterns are fabulous. It must have taken you a long time but as everyone can see, well worth it! Well done.

Teje said...

They are both quilts so beautiful! I love the colours and the pattern you have made! Also I'm fan of 'picture' fabrics - especially with animals! Very talented work!
Thank you for sharing inspiration!
Sunny wishes!

Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts said...

That is so yummy. I'd love to see a post detailing your pattern.
Mrs. Hearts

~ Val @ PinkPlease! ~ said...

I just found you via QuiltStory and I love your blog! I'm now following you.
howaboutpinkplease.blogspot.com

Al McLeary said...

It is absolutely beautiful - wow, what a work of art!

Stephani said...

So lovely. I'm sure it was a bit of work, but it's lovely.

Rebecca said...

Just beautiful!

Nina... said...

Fabulous! Great idea! Very gorgeous quilt!!!

noga quilts said...

This is a most beautiful quilt! Unbelievable! So colorful and gorgeous! Congratulations!

Unknown said...

I absolutely love this quilt. Please place periods between each of those words to express how my jaw has dropped to the ground in admiration for this beautiful piece of artwork and love. Gorgeous!

LisaAnn said...

Lovely quilts! I love the one with the plain square blocks...it looks so nice with that great mix of fabrics you used!

Christine said...

No wonder you are jumping for joy! Your quilts are so beautiful.

Karee said...

fab Picture Box Quilt. Love, love, love it. Thank you for sharing. I shall follow you!

Momof2Minions said...

Found you on SYTYC's Crafty party. Wow, I am in total awe of this. I aspired to make a quilt once, but don't have the patience for it. This puts me to shame! LOL!

Sarah @ FairyFace Designs said...

Thanks so much to each and every one of you for your lovely, inspiring and generous comments! I've tried to respond to as many people as possible individually but couldn't get to everyone (some of you don't have an email associated with your profile!)

Corinna said...

I like both quilts very much, but would very much love to to see a tutorial on the picture box! Very lovely use of the nice, bold prints!

Honey said...

I would love to see your measurements! This pattern would work so well with some larger prints in the picture box.