Seaside Rose

I was doing a little spring update of the décor here on Main Street this morning and got this quilt out. I made it a while back (the border is a Moda print from a few years ago) and I call mine Seaside Rose but it is based on a pattern called French Roses. It uses raw edge appliqué. This was my first attempt with raw edge appliqué and I found it pretty easy (I suggest practicing on some scraps first though) and I was very happy with the way it turned out. I’ve seen samples of this quilt in a lot of stores (physical and online) but I added the sashing which is not part of the original pattern. I think the sashing gives it more ordered appearance and helps pull all the fabrics together.

Looking at this quilt again got me thinking about my approach to quilting. In the early days of my quilting career, I always had an application (bed, wall, etc.) or recipient in mind when I started a project. The next step was color scheme and pattern or design, then I chose the fabrics from the LQS for that particular project. Of course, any time I was at the LQS, I bought for my stash too, because there was always something that was just to good to pass up and that I would use "someday." As my stash developed, I would still work in this same fashion but often pull at least part of a project's fabric supply from my stash. Then fabric companies began selling broader, more coordinated collections of fabric from a single designer, and stores began displaying them as a unit, instead of breaking up the line and merchansing with other, like colors. So I began buying more coordinated sets of fabric, either yardage or fat quarter bundles, and later the pre-cuts that Moda is so famous for offering. (I have a rather extensive set of Robyn Pandolph's Folk Art collections for Moda that I acquired this way, and though I've used it several quilts, there always seems to be more in my stash!)

Now I've reached the point where every bed, wall, display space in my house has at least one quilt if not more and I've made a quilt for every family member, so I make fewer quilts that I need to make for something specific and more that I want to make "just because." Sometimes I start with a design or pattern. For example, Christmas Pickle was to challenge myself with more intricate piecing. And sometimes I start with a fabric collection and try to figure out what to do with it. Right now, I'm very taken with the Legacy line from Moda, though this brown/blue/pink fabric does not really go with my mostly yellow/green/white home decor.

Oh well, so many quilts, so little time!