From A - Heather Ross Rainbow Quilt Top

After a couple of weeks of dedicated sewing, I managed to finish up my Heather Ross Rainbow Quilt top last week.

I used a free pattern from Windham that was released with the Briar Rose collection and opted to add four rows of blocks lengthwise and a half block width-wise so that it ended up a little closer to twin-sized. This also allowed me to use more fabrics to better flesh out the rainbow gradation.

This was such a fun project to put together. The fabrics are gorgeous and I really liked the process of setting the blocks on point. It meant that every row was different enough to keep me entertained throughout all that plain vanilla piecing.

I really want to keep the backing pretty simple and found some beautiful Nani Iro double gauze in my stash that will be perfect. Basting this quilt will be my first priority when I wrap up a few more baby/Christmas gifts that have been happening behind the scenes.

I really can't wait to can enjoy the finished quilt. It is just too lovely to spend much time in my WiP pile.

From A - Heather Ross Rainbow Quilt

Heather Ross' beautiful prints are part of what got me into quilting. Many, many years ago, my local yarn shop brought in a few of her fabrics just to see whether they would sell. My tuition-paying student brain couldn't quite justify buying more than a half yard of two different prints when I didn't even own a sewing machine.

Those two prints got me thinking about sewing and about how much I liked to sew when I was a kid. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that although I loved to knit, I really wanted to be able to sew. When my 25th birthday rolled around, I asked for a sewing machine.

Shortly after that, I bought fabric for the very first quilt I ever finished. It was a whole cloth baby quilt that I made using two prints I bought at the workroom not long after it opened. One of them was a print from Heather's West Hill collection.

 

The second quilt I started with my brand new machine was based entirely around the pink mermaid print in Heather's Mendocino collection. When I finally connected the dots and realized that all of these great prints were by the same woman, she had stopped releasing quilting cottons and I was again perplexed at how to incorporate her work into my sewing.

You can imagine how excited I was to hear of her Briar Rose collection and of the recent reprint of her Far Far Away 2 collection. With a few more years of quilting experience under my belt, I stocked up on prints from both collections with a half yard bundle of each and decided to combine them into my perfect quilt. A rainbow tribute to Heather's amazing work (super lame but I'm sentimental like that) using Rae's Rainbow Quilt pattern as my jumping off point.

Last week, I finished cutting up all of my fabrics and arranged them in colour order.

I started piecing them all together last weekend and I can say that I am already head-over-heels in love with this quilt.

The simple construction really lets the amazing hand-drawn quality of these prints shine.

These collections were made for each other. There is still lots to go on this quilt but it is coming together so quickly since I just can't get enough of this one.

If you're looking for me this weekend, I'll be sitting at my machine.

From A - WIP Wednesday

Finally back from my epic 5-week vacation/delayed honeymoon to Australia and New Zealand, I was so excited to be reunited with my sewing machine that I managed to cover the house in fabric and WIPs in about 2 days. While I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things at home (and get caught up with all of the glamorous things like laundry and housework), I thought I'd share a quick looksie.

On my ironing board: A mix of prints from Heather Ross' Briar Rose and Far Far Away 2 collections that I can't wait to cut up.

On my cutting table: Various Lotus Pond fabrics all cut up and ready to sew into yet another baby quilt.

In my machine: A long standing WIP that I'm trying to finish off.

It's good to be back and hopefully I'll have some meaningful progress to share soon! Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.