Large and in Charge!

When I first opened my fabric shop, I filled it full of fabric I loved.  We started with all Amy Butler fabrics, added a little Heather Bailey, Kaffe Fassett, Art Gallery and just kept adding.  While the design aesthetic from one designer to the next is certainly different, one thing was obviously consistent through most of these contemporary designers lines....Large Scale Prints.  Large scale prints can be challenging, especially in the quilting world. It's easy enough to use them in a shoulder bag, garments or home decor items but it wasn't until recently that they were thought of in mainstream quilting.  Now, there are entire pattern books dedicated to quilting with large scale prints.  I love a good LSP!  And the more color saturation, the better!  Add the Funk Factor, and I'm sold!  Insert here, Tula Pink.  I've been following Tula's career in the textile world since her first line for Moda.  She is a true sketch artist.  When you see a piece of her fabric, you know it's hers.  I love that about her!  Things are not what they seem to be with her fabrics.  At first glance, it's just gorgeous fabric, but take a closer look and you might find a snail, a spider or some other creature making up that flower, tree or lace design. 

I've made plenty of handbags with Tula's fabrics but when I saw this print, Cameo from Parisville, I challenged myself to come up with a quilt.  Honestly, I love this fabric so much I would wallpaper my entire house in it if I thought my husband wouldn't move out.  So, a quilt it is.  I cut myself a yard and immediately decided that whatever I was making was going to be on point so I could follow the design of the cameos.

Fussy cutting isn't my favorite thing to do but it was necessary for this project. I cut these into 10.5" squares at first and then kept trimming them until I was left with an 8" square.

I framed the square out with the Pomegranate Eye Drops to add a 1" finished frame.

I sashed it with 2.5" strips of French Lace in Sky and used scrap from the Cameo print for the posts. 

I have pieced quilt tops on point before but I've always had a pattern to follow.  This one was being created as quickly as I thought it up.  I have no math skills to allow me to figure out my inset triangles and corners so I just liberally cut pieces to fit in there and trimmed it down to 1/4" when I was squaring it up.  Now I'm ready for borders and to be honest, I'm a bit stuck.  I have a print I want to use:

It's called Sea of Tears and has beautifully sketched ships inside the drop.  My problem is, do I cut more so that all the ships are right side up or does it matter?  This is going to hang in my studio and I really don't want to make the wrong decision or I'll stare at it all day.  I'm leaning toward just cutting more so all my ships are right side up and not floundering upside down anywhere.  I'll keep you updated here on my progress!  If you like this fabric, we do still have some in the shop!  It's an older line and will disappear soon I am sure!

Shop Tula Pink's Parisville

I do intend on writing up a tutorial for this as soon as I have the whole thing figured out.  I'll make sure to post it here first!  I really wanted this pattern to work with any large scale print and I'm proud of what I came up with!  I'm looking forward to getting it bordered and quilted so I can get it up on my studio wall! 



We have some of Tula's new line, Nightshade on order as well.  Not the whole line but I wanted to try it out.  I think it's the funkiest thing she's done since, well, her last line....everything she designs is rad.  To be honest, my 11 year-old thought this was the coolest fabric she'd ever seen.  Look closely and you'll see some skull and cross bones among the flowers.  It might just be enough to motivate the 11 year-old to put the Nintendo down for a moment and create!   A mom can dream!