Monday 27 July 2015

Fractal Quilt {AGF Stitched}

I've been sewing up a storm over the last few weeks, working on several projects at the same time (my favorite way to work, flitting between different quilts). The quilt I'm sharing with you today is one of these projects - it came together incredibly fast and has been a really fun quilt to make. This is my Fractal Quilt, which I've made as part of AGF Stitched - a joint project between Art Gallery Fabrics and the Fat Quarter Shop.


When I say this came together fast, I mean really fast. I started cutting this last Sunday night, and by Wednesday I'd finished piecing the quilt top. I think that's a record for me - it took around 12 hours to cut and piece, and that's even taking into account the fact that it uses y-seams to make the blocks. I've not done many y-seams in the past, and I was pleasantly surprised with how simple they were to do. This quilt uses the kite template by Creative Grids, which makes cutting really straight forward. I've used Creative Grids rulers for a few projects now, and I'm a big fan - they are non-slip rulers so even when you're cutting complex shapes like these kites they stay put on your fabric and make it easy to cut accurately. The template also has holes that enable you to mark the pivot point for sewing the y-seams, a large part of why I found them so easy to sew, I think! I really struggled to photograph this quilt as the weather has conspired against me, but this is the quilt top, stuck to our kitchen wall over the top of my kids' art work ;o) I'm actually thinking I'll keep it this shape rather than square off the edges...



I chose to use a mix of various Art Gallery collections for this quilt - but my fabric choices were very much driven by the colours in Frances Newcombe's Utopia collection, several of which I chose to use in this quilt. The neutrals are all from other Art Gallery collections, but apart from the aqua fabric all the coloured prints are from Utopia. The print I chose for the backing is one of my current favorites, Dreamlandia Illuminated (you can see a peek of it at the bottom of the photo below). 


I'm making this quilt for my new(ish) niece, and I think the colours I've used are great for a baby girl - plus it's sophisticated enough that hopefully she will love it as she gets older. It's pretty big for a baby quilt (around 56" x 60"), so I'm hoping it will get used for years to come. As you know, one of my favorite parts of making quilts is the quilting, and I'm really happy with how the quilting is going so far on this one. I started quilting the low volume sections last night using Aurifil 40wt (#2021), adding lots and lots of texture with dense straight line FMQ. I didn't have much of a plan when I started, but there are so many interesting angles in the design that I think I'll keep it pretty simple and use the angles in the blocks to mostly do straight line FMQ over the rest of the quilt. I'll smash down some areas with dense straight lines, and let some of the other areas pop with less dense quilting. Not the greatest photos I'm afraid (one of the perils of last minute night time quilting!!), but I'm delighted with the texture :o)



I started a bit of the coloured areas tonight - and I think this is what I'll do across the rest of the quilt top - I adore the texture of organic straight line FMQ and I think it will create some interesting effects over the quilt top. This picture is horribly over-exposed - but it gives you an idea of the texture so far! 


Fractal is a free pattern, and there is even a video tutorial available to help you with the cutting and y-seams. You can also find kits for this quilt at the Fat Quarter Shop. There are lots of great bloggers who are participating in this blog hop, I'm looking forward to seeing their versions of the Fractal pattern :o)


I'll be back later this week to introduce my Checker block (that I designed for Alyce's Bee Hive series) - the tutorial is up on Alyce's blog if you'd like to go take a look. I've been busy making blocks and I'm hoping to share my progress in the next few days :o)

xx Jess

11 comments:

Ruth said...

That looks great - really pops out on the design wall and I love the backing fabric you have chosen!

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

What a fantastic gift this quilt is going to make. The backing fabric is so whimsical and fun and the colors for the front match it perfectly. The quilting you are doing looks great and like it will be fun to run your hands over!

Charlotte said...

that's really pretty! Love the colours :-)

M-R Charbonneau said...

Fabulous! We picked some of the same fabrics. I love the text fabric you used for the background. Will have to go hunt that down on the Art Gallery site. Love what you did with the quilting too!

Karen said...

This is an interesting quilt design. Maybe you have already discussed this, but I'm curious about how you do your straight line FMQ. Do you go back and forth (left to right) or front to back? Or at some angle? Or do you start and stop or rotate the quilt and always go the same way? Your straight lines are very straight and seem to be equivalent going both directions. Mine are usually better one way than the other so I'd like to know what the pro does!

Unknown said...

Looks great! :)

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

This is really pretty. I have ordered the ruler and plan to make this quilt so I am really enjoying going around to all the blogs and seeing what different people have done with it. Love the quilting!

Renee said...

This is gorgeous! I'm totally sold on the ruler, it makes a very cool pattern. Love your choice of quilting!

Jennifer said...

Love the quilting you choose. Your's is definitely my favorite version!

Unknown said...

Hi everyone!!!HOW I GOT MY WIFE BACK/MY BABY WITH THE HELP OF Dr. AHMED
I have being married to my wife for the past 3yeras and 9months we have obviously being living fine for those past few years. but the problem i was having was that i havent being able to impregnate her because i thought i had a low sperm count,i had being visiting many hospital done various of test and samples but to no avail because all they could tell me was that am perfectly fine but i know that i am not fine my wife has being becoming impatient because i havent being able to impregnate her after so many years. Things got worst each day, every seconds of my life i always think of what next to do because am being fed of me being incapable. i have come accross so many health attendant who normally tell me that i have no problem. but i know that am sincerly not ok. One faithful evening when i came online in search of some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb, cure cancer, and other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. i also come across one particular testimony, it was about a woman called Cora, she testified about how he brought back her Ex lover in less than 2 days, he is the answer to all your problem. that is how they got help from Dr Ahmed, their wife back, how they got their husband back, how they got their low sperm on high rate with the help of Dr Ahmed i had to quickly get his email/phone number on line and contact him as soon as i could because i needed help urgently we had some talk and what i will do to get my self ok. he told me that all i had do is to get some items for purifcation and cleansing, i did all of those and thanks to Dr Ahmed am perfectly fine and my wife has given birth to Twins of the same sex all thanks to Dr Ahmed for his wounderful help... Contact.: E-mail: Ahmedutimate@gmail.com or call/Whats-app: +2348160153829.....
Willie B. Garcia from UK

Shah Sazib said...

Wonderful fabric store. I love this fabric. I found another fabric store which is Broadway Fabrics/.