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"Tail Wind" original design and quilting by- Stephanie Zacharer Ruyle
(photo: Marta Strzeszewski, photo editing by Amy Gibson- she photoshopped out the hands!) |
It doesn't happen very often-that unique combination of circumstances and ideas (old and new), but it happened just recently to me and if I can get all the stars and planets to align (ya, right) I might be on to something.
Let me begin at the beginning, I have had this quilt for as long as I can remember.
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| It's faded in some areas, and the binding is frayed but it still retains it's beauty and it's simplicity |
It's very old, very soft and very fragile. I don't know who made it, but it's totally made by hand. Cut, pieced and quilted without any electricity what-so-ever.
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| These small orange squares are 1" in size. Look at that tiny, uniform hand stitching. |
I have always loved this quilt and wish I knew more about the person who made it. Besides it's mysterious creator, one thing that always makes me smile is it's color. It's orange and white- sunny and bright. Someone once told me that they thought it was probably not orange but red and that it has faded with time and use. But I disagree, something tells me it's always been orange (faded red to me is pink) and that makes me smile all the more. I'm guessing 100+ years ago, orange wasn't a popular color, let alone the color of the year, like Tangerine Tango is this year, but someone liked it enough to make a quilt with orange proudly displayed. Which got me thinking that in 2012, I NEEDED to make a quilt for myself. (I haven't yet you see). Then along came the Tangerine Tango challenge…….
and the MQG challenge and a January FRMQG meeting and I got to thinking, perhaps these are just the push, my proverbial "Tail Wind".
So, here is MY story
Title:
Tail Wind
Start: mid-January, 2012- completed: mid-February 2012
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| Tail Wind-the front |
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| The back |
Size: 95" x90" (Queen sized)
FMQ: (on my Bernina 180) using: a FMQ pattern of tailed-swirls and fillers to resemble "wind" currents originating from a centrally placed compass rose.
Thread: Coats and Clarks 100% quilting cotton in winter white, 40 weight. I used well over 2000 yards of thread to quilt this project.
Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Collection, 100% wool batting which needs to be quilted every 3".
Material, 100% cotton- (front):
1. Oranges:(mainly from stash and small yardage approximately FQ size and smaller) 5 Kona "orange family" solids (3 little pieces left over from the Robert Kaufman solids challenge charm pack in brights); Kona solids in school bus and coral; Kaffe Fassett- Rowan Line Dance; OZ by Sanae for Moda; Floralicious by Michael D'Amore for Benartex; Taza by Dena for free Spirit; Woodland Friends by Ellen Crimi-Trent for Clothworks, Half Moon by Moda; Grad Bazaar by Patty Young for Michael Miller; Metro Living Circles by Robert Kaufman; Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain for Moda; Garden Divas by Jane Sassaman for Free Spirit; A day in the Life by Mummysan for Robert Kaufman, Aviary 2 by Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit; Innocent Crush Maybe by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit; Treasures and Tidbits by Piece O' Cake Designs for Robert Kaufman; Tonal Kaleidoscope Gypsy Bandana by Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller; Aldo fo Zippy by Jenn Ski/Lilla Rogers Studio for P&B Textiles; Kensington Studio for Quilting Treasures; Simon + Kabuki for Eandl Design, Inc.; Terrain by Kate Spain for Moda; Mingle by Monaluna for Robert Kaufman; and various wonderful orange scraps from
Michelle L. (Flickr- I like Orange too) from the Goodie Bag swap (round 2).
2. Grays:(mainly from stash and small yardage as above) Kona medium grey; "Quilters Linen" by Robert Kaufman, Metro Living Circles by Robert Kaufman; Alexander Henry Fashion for Home; Little Apples by Aneela Hoey for Moda; Ta Dot by Michael Miller, and small scraps from
Michelle L. (Flickr- I like Orange too).
Material(back):
1. Oranges: (mainly from stash and small yardage as above) Aldo fo Zippy by Jenn Ski/Lilla Rogers Studio for P&B Textiles; Heirloom by Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit
2. Turquoise: (small yardage from stash)Treetop Fancy by Tina Givens for Free Spirit; Night Sky by Tina Givens for Free Spirit
"Neutral", (front and back): Kona Snow approximately 12-13 yards
For this quilt, I used:
Front: small pieced squares (5 1/2") 85 total- (80 orange, 5 gray)
medium pieced squares (10 1/2") 26 total- (19 orange, 7 gray)
medium kona snow solid 10 1/2" squares- 7
small kona snow solid 5 1/2" squares- 16
rectangle kona snow solid 10 1/2 x 5 1/2"- 10
Back: large pieced squares 15" 3 total (2 turquoise, 1 orange)
small pieced squares 5 1/2" total 3 (2 orange and 1 turquoise)
pieced kona solid in Snow
The quilt top pieces were laid out in a random pattern based mainly on what appealed to me.
One note of caution, and I should have foreseen this had I (been organized and) drawn this out in advance; was……... the piecing of the top became puzzle-like containing only one width of quilt straight seam line (yikes).
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| I lay my quilts out on the floor as I don't have a design "wall". If you look closely at about 9 o'clock you can see a large grouping of quilt blocks with no obvious (to me) way to assemble them without some creative and non-linear piecing. |
In the end I was left with about 7 medium sized sections and had quite the time fitting them all together in an orderly manner.
It required (quite) a bit of interesting seaming but it all eventually went together.
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| The completed top laying over the backing and the 100% wool batting, all taped to the living room floor and waiting to be pin-basted. |
I did lean my lesson when it came to the back! (minimal and straight piecing).
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| quilting in progress- Bernina 180 and a small Sew EZ portable sewing table |
What I love about this quilt is that I used many, many oranges and some (but not as many) grays. If you look closely you can see birds, bees, flowers, dots, zig-zags, spiders, sinks, a bath tub, a whisk, a dress, eye glasses, a baby carriage, a toaster, a door, a piece of cake, utensils, lots of scissors, a toy car, stripes, checks, plaid, argyll, fish scales, words, leaves, rosebuds, ducks and hats. I'd say that's quite a collection of things to see and to look for, and all of that just makes me smile.
The quilting is really prominent on the back and I'm thrilled that I used so much neutral here.
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| Back, detail |
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| Back- close-up of FM quilting |
In the end I have a beautiful and surprisingly light-weight queen sized quilt. Although the wool batting requires denser quilting, it's incredibly light, compressible and easy to maneuver under the space available on a regular table top sewing machine.
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Many Thanks to my FRMQG members for helping me take full-length photos
The front (photo: Marta Strzeszewski) |
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The back
(photo Marta Strzeszewski) |
