QUILTsocial Spring 2015 Issue | Page 30

7 Quilting design elements to add personality Here you can see the chalk line which allowed me to match up the next row Seams are pressed away from the mortar (sashing) to make them recede from the bricks (focus fabric) The house built into the bricks Time for a ‘tour’ of the design process and elements and the inspiration behind it. Here are 7 quilting design elements to add personality to this quilt: the guy and I was working on the quilt for the gal. •• incorporating the interests of the recipient into the quilt top (duplicating bricks and mortar and the house) •• quilting the vine •• adding a jean pocket to remember a beloved family member and clever label •• using embroidery to ‘say what you need to say’ on the quilt top and backing •• add special tags •• making the story of the quilt special by incorporating a little history •• using a forgiving quilt backing Although I never met the recipient of the quilt, I was provided with a few details of her likes which includes things that are vintage, rustic and countryside scenery. She’s studying architecture and is highly creative. She would love to live in a real functioning tree house, or a house in the forest. If you’ve been following QUILTsocial, you know that Jen was working on a quilt for 30 QUILTsocial .com ● spring 2015 You can check back here for more details on the challenge. Hmmm – I was getting a recurring theme here – houses! I also thought about some of the other requests – no traditional borders, try to highlight the theme fabric. That was a lot of information to decipher and come up with something creative. The design I wanted to keep the elements in the quilt simple. I also wanted the elements in the quilt to be subtle. And somewhere in the quilt, I wanted a house. We had received a package of 10-inch squares of fabric to work with. Not a lot of room for error and I really wanted to showcase the fabric by not cutting it up much. Hmmmm – I could make the quilt look like a brick wall and incorporate the subtle elements onto the wall. Yes – that would work, and I proceeded to cut the 10" squares into “bricks” that were 10" x 5". Absolutely no waste from the fabric pieces. Although I do have a few bits left over which I’m making into another project (a gift for Carla) which you’ll see in an upcoming post.