Friday, March 2, 2012

London Baby!

Jennifers Modern Mini Challenge came at an interesting time for me. I had just made my first ever mini quilt which was for my swap partner in For The Love Of Solids. I had so much fun making it and also because I have been looking at the amazing mini quilts on peoples walls in Sundays Sewing Space, I decided that I could easily become addicted to mini quilts.

On the other hand I am smack bang in the middle of moving from one side of the world to the other and really needed to pack. I hate packing to move and will do anything to put it off so the modern mini challenge became my distraction.

I have loved this project so much and thought I would share a bit about the process with you rather than just the end product.

I mentioned in an earlier post that im finding muted colours in art and illustration really inspiring at the moment. I love illustration and have been pinning loads recently so I knew I wanted a mini quilt that looked like  an illustration or poster. These are just a few of the things that I love


I love the muted colours in this


These houses are cute and the colours are fab


I think this colour pallette is really cool



I love these illustrations and so a plan began to form. A quilt version of the above illustration but featuring a place that I love.

I decided on fabrics, I wanted mainly solids to give it that illustration look




I chose my size, cut out my applique and ironed in place. I machine stitched everything in place and then stood back and looked. Then I began to question myself. The colour was all down one side, things didnt look balanced, should I have done everything in muted blues, greens and greys? Oh well too late now. I would have to add extra colour, this is when I added the phone box and the sun peaking from behind the cloud.

This made me much happier. So what to do next? How to quilt it? I asked my family what they thought of as quintessentially British and decided maybe I could stitch some extra things in.

I drew up this very quick terrible rough sketch.

The pen shows the applique and the pencil shows some quilting ideas

Then I decided I wanted it to look like I had just sat and doodled but I wanted it to be subtle. So I chose a thread the same colour as the background, and I started doodling with my machine!



A couple of my ideas were a bit complex to just doodle (the crown and the lamp post) so I used an embroidery pen to lightly sketch them on first, The rest I did free hand. I then decided I wanted to put London on it. I originally thought that I would FMQ this like I had been doing, but then changed my mind and appliqued it. I FMQ'd a few british sayings though.


And the last dilemma was how to bind it. I considered using the background fabric or doing an invisible binding but then I realised that posters frequently have white borders, so I went with skinny white sides and a deeper white top and bottom.

And here it is - London baby! (was anyone else ever obsessed with Friends?)

Im so pleased with how it turned out. Its going to go on the wall of my new studio and remind me of home.
Thanks Jennifer for holding this fab challenge, I have loved every minute of it

26 comments:

Mike Pearson said...

Nice, thanks for sharing!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Absolutely brilliant - I love it all - the Gherkin is so great!
Your quilting is stunning Charlotte.
It will be a wonderful memento of London xxx

Rachel said...

Absolutely wonderful!!

Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane said...

Charlotte, it is just amazing. Really, really fabulous!

Katy Cameron said...

Such a fun idea, love the quilting

Sarah said...

Absolutely brilliant! London Baby, Yeah!!

Jill Dorsey || Made with Moxie said...

I love it! Super awesome. Especialy the phone booth!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Fantastic FMQ and appliques. The whole thing is amazing!

CitricSugar said...

This turned out so beautifully! I love your quilting - the tea, the stamp, everything. Very cool.

pippablue said...

It's so gorgeous! I love the quilting, it's so quirky!

Rachel said...

Wow, that is amazing!

Charlotte said...

so cute and brilliant! love it :-D

Annabellouise said...

'When i'm a grown up' maybe I can do this. Love the houses quilt.

Heidi Staples said...

This is absolutely stunning. I love it!!

Valerie said...

Wow! This is amazing!

CityHouseStudio said...

It's just awesome!
So creative!

Katie said...

A-mazing! Definately worth putting off packing to finish.

tusen said...

Such a clever idea with quilting additional London/British motives. The quilt looks great. And thanks for sharing the process, too, it's always so interesting to see.

Annabella said...

Oh I need to attempt one of these for me - I miss London so much!

Annabella said...

Sorry, that was a bit me me me, what I intended to say was that this is one of my favourites of the group - it is gorgeous and reminds me of the posters you see in the tube. I love it, and the Gherkin is amazing as is the London Eye!

pinsandneedles said...

Fabulous mini quilt! I love the idea ~ all about London!

Sheila said...

That was fun seeing your process, love your mini.

Tara said...

Lovely! Yoor mini is sure to make you smile whenever you see it!

Tara said...

Lovely! Yoor mini is sure to make you smile whenever you see it!

Elaine said...

loved reading about your process and the quilt is fantastic!

Karen said...

Great work on the London quilt, it's really fantastic and the quilting is something i can only aspire to!