Simplicity can be effective. A couple of years ago I purchased a book by a gal named Casey York. The book is titled Modern Appliqué Illusions 12 Quilts Create Perspective and Depth. The designs are quite simple, yet the finished quilts are eye-catching as they have a 3-D quality to them.
One in particular drew me in; it was called Ripples. I loved it because it reminded me of the goldfish in our pond on Denman Island. I’ve made this quilt twice in the past year – once as a wall quilt and once as a lap quilt.
The wall quilt went together nicely. It had three koi, made from different orange fabrics. I used a light grey cotton for the shadows and the same grey for the binding. The backing was a bold orange and gold print. I’d never done circular quilting and found it a challenge to start. However, as the circles got larger, it was much easier. I entered this quilt in the Denman Island Studio Tour last August and it sold quickly to a lovely girl who was working on Denman for the summer.
The lap quilt has five koi on it. The backing is pieced and includes two blocks of Japanese koi fabric. The binding is dark charcoal with white bubbles. You would think that the lap quilt would also go together nicely. After all, I’d ‘mastered’ the technique on the smaller one. Well, that wasn’t the case. I ran into a few problems and feel that it was because I was being so casual and not really paying attention. I used the wrong product to adhere the appliqués to the quilt top. This product is not meant for sewing as it gums up the needle and causes missed stitches and broken thread. The circular quilting was more challenging because the quilt was larger. There was another issue but I’ve managed to erase it from my memory!
This quilt was a gift for dear friends of ours who have a lovely home on the island of Hawaii. And here’s something that really surprised me. I wanted to send the quilt to Hawaii and had a three-week window to get it there. I tried both FedEx and UPS and got quotes of approximately $130. The FedEx clerk asked if I wanted it to go air or ground and, if I’d known there was a road to Hawaii, believe me, I’d have driven it myself! Thinking those prices were just a tad steep, I stopped in to Canada Post. Their quote, including the envelope, was $30. BINGO! Delivery was six days later.
I enjoyed making these two quilts and look forward to trying other patterns from Casey York’s book. In the meantime, here are some photos of the finished projects.
Thanks for reading.
threadonthread 