Oh, Fransson!

T-O

 

I'm posting a sneak peek at a new quilt I'm working on.

 

I made the templates for this quilt while I was in Sisters with friends for the Outdoor Quilt Show.  There's a story behind it, but I'm not going to tell it until I have all the letters finished. 
 
The letters are made with the same freezer paper process I used to make these blocks.  They'll be appliqued to a quilt top similarly to the way I made the applique trees in this quilt.  (A pattern for the Birch Quilt is available in this magazine.)

 
Here's the rest of the fabric I'm using.  Now I'm off to work on more letters!

Birch Quilt

I wanted to share some photos of a commissioned quilt that I made using Monaluna's new Circa 50 collection from Birch Fabrics.  (While formatting these links, I saw Circa 60 for the first time.  Awesome!)

The idea was to make a quilt with trees and birds, similar to the ones on the Birch site.  I used a variation of my Map of the States technique to make giant color-coded, pieced tree templates out of freezer paper.  The finished quilt is about 48" x 60".

 

The quilt includes three bird appliques that I drew to (hopefully!) resemble the ones in the Circa 50 fabric.  Besides Circa 50, I used Kona solids in charcoal (birds), ash (background), coal (binding), and zucchini, coral and jade green in the trees.

 
I wish I had been able to get better photos!  This little photo shoot is motivating me to take a class to learn how to use my fancy camera ASAP.  The actual quilting is nowhere near as messy as it appears in these photos!

 

Hanging the quilt in the window helped, but the back shows through a bit.

 
Here's a shot of just the back.  I have a few more photos up on Flickr. 

Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out. 

Melanie's Quilt is Finished!

I originally finished this quilt with the binding from the previous photos (Cocoa Mingle Dot), but it was just way too overpowering.  So, I ripped it all out and added a binding of Aiden Linen instead.  Natural linen is a little lumpy for binding, but I think it looks good (and appropriately low-key!) with all the bright prints. 

 
I just love the colors in this!  The sashing is Essex cotton/linen in Light Pink, which is really more of a blush color. 

I'm especially happy that, when I look at the quilt, I see the colors and the block shape first and the unicorns and other "picture" elements of the Far, Far, Away fabric only upon closer inspection.

The back is a single piece of Princess and the Pea.

Here's one of the finished orange blocks,

 
. . . one of the finished pink blocks,

. . . and one of the finished green blocks.

The Map of the States block tutorial is here.  If you make any Map of the States blocks, I would love to see them in the Oh, Fransson Flickr Pool. 

Melanie, this will be headed your way shortly!