a liberty of london churn dash

Several weeks ago my sister and I went to an estate sale in town. It was the kind of sale that people line up for, so we really weren’t holding out too much hope for snagging anything good. Anyway, the doors opened and we both ran through, going separate ways. I ended up in one of the bedrooms where I came across a couple vintage quilts. They were both in pretty nice shape – all hand quilted – and each only $30. I looked at them for a while, but ultimately decided that it would be silly for me to buy a quilt. A few minutes later I got a text from my sister, showing me that same quilt I had been considering. Well, she decided to buy it, and suddenly I felt I had missed out on something good! (isn’t that always the way it goes?!)

There are lots of things I love about this quilt (excuse my poor phone photo!) – first of all, the vintage fabrics and lovely hand quilting. I love the variety of blues, and especially love the center section all made out of the same print. I think it’s interesting that even though the entire quilt is made up of churn dash blocks, since they’re put together without sashing, and since the center is made up of the same print, it seems to trick the eye a bit and I start to see a different pattern emerging.

We brought it home and carefully washed it and Whitney kept exclaiming over her great find – rubbing it in, as sisters sometimes like to do. So finally I declared that I’d just make my own, and that it would be better (yes, that makes me sound immature!). She laughed and said that I’d probably use Liberty of London fabrics and indeed it might feel nicer, and just like that, I had my next quilt project! (I showed you a few of my initial blocks here)

I tried to stay true to the original quilt, and first found a darker Liberty print that I could use for the center portion. Then I pulled out all the other lighter shades of blues from my Liberty stash for the outer border. I didn’t have quite enough, so picked up a couple more from Jones & Vandermeer and Pink Chalk Fabrics.

It was the first time I’d made a churn dash block, and they’re surprisingly fun! While I don’t think my quilt top has the same impact as the vintage quilt – I like the greater contrast between the blues in the vintage quilt – I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’m thinking about backing it in a solid voile to keep it really nice and soft. Perhaps when I’m done we’ll get the quilts together again and see which is softer!