4 (of) hearts – an umbrella prints improv quilt

I’m thrilled to have finished this quilt! I was hoping to get some good photos, but lately I’m having a harder and harder time finding time for quilt photos. While in the past we could drive around until I found the perfect spot, unfortunately Max doesn’t find driving around aimlessly to be fun. So these photos are not what I was hoping for, but I’m posting them anyway, since the forecast for the next week shows lots of rain!

But back to the quilt! As I mentioned previously, I started this quilt with a couple Trimmings packs from Umbrella Prints. I love their unique hand printed fabrics, and wanted to make a quilt to show off these fun little bits. As I contemplated designs, I knew I wanted to make four large blocks. I started making them, then realized that the shapes would lend themselves to making a quilt along the lines of Jacquie & Katie’s Tunnel Vision quilt (from their wonderful book, Quilting Modern*).

I surrounded the blocks with this lovely Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed linen in black, and I really love the way it looks. The yarn dyed linen is really great to work with, and also has a really lovely feel.

The backing is made up largely of this great print from Lizzy House’s Constellations line. I had purchased it to use as a backing, though at the time didn’t have a quilt in mind, so it was a happy coincidence that the stars in this print pick up most of the colors I used on the front.

You might think that Max is expressing his love for quilts in the photo above, but in reality this was him telling us he had had enough of the quilt photography. (And when I say ‘telling’, I really mean whining. Be glad this is a photo and not a video!)

I really liked the way Jacquie and Katie’s Tunnel Vision quilt was quilted, so I did something similar (they used double lines for all quilting lines, while I decided to alternate a double/single quilting line). I used Aurifil 50 wt in white, and since the black is a yarn dyed fabric, the white actually blends in quite well. I used Quilter’s Dream Request, which is their lowest loft, and gives this quilt such a nice drapey feeling. The photo above gives you a good idea of the texture of this one. [By the way, since I’m asked often, Quilter’s Dream cotton batting is my favorite batting – I alternate between the Request and the Select, which is a midloft batting.]

I’m thinking this one will be for sale in a couple months – my local fabric shop, Nido, is hosting an Artists Pop Up series, starting this month, and I’m pleased to have been asked to be the artist for June. If you live in the area, or perhaps if you’re here for the Vermont Quilt Festival, I hope you’ll stop by!

(*Amazon affiliate link)