Friday 31 August 2012

Fandango quilt

A follow up to the sneak peek a couple of weeks ago.  I bought a number of fat quarters of Kate Spain's Fandango line for Moda off TradeMe last year, and started putting them together into a quilt early this year.  The white sashing is a white on white print from Spotlight - I was not quite ready to go the whole hog and use a true solid.  You can tell by the granny squares that I have moved on...


Because there are quite a few different colours in the various print fabrics, I wanted to keep both the block design and sashing nice and simple.  Chunky squares surrounded by a (mostly) contrasting border keeps things pretty simple.

Quilt made with Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics

Initially, I wanted to quilt this myself, even though it is quite large, at approximately 82 inches square.  I even got as far as basting the whole thing.  However, I really wanted denser quilting in the white areas and minimal quilting in the blocks.  I have done a tiny bit of free-motion quilting, but really need more practise and this was not the quilt for that.

Quilt made with Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics

In the end, I had the quilt long-arm quilted by Sue Burnett with a light feather design in the sashing and a heavier feather design in the border.  The inner square of the block is stitched in the ditch to keep everything stable.  I have used Sue's long-arm quilting services before - she lives very locally to me and is fantastic.  I will definitely go back if I have other projects that I think would benefit from long-arm quilting.

Quilt made with Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics

The quilt is backed with a striped fabric I picked up at Spotlight.  I think it works really well with the colours in the Fandango line.  It is bound with all those fat quarter strips I cut up.  Because this quilt is so large, and I have other projects on the go, I decided to finish the binding by machine rather than by hand, using this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts.

Quilt made with Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics

Overall, I am really happy with how this quilt turned out.  I am particularly happy that I decided to go with the feather pattern for the quilting - I think it really brings the quilt together.

Linking up with the Kate Spain Blog Hop at Blossom Heart Quilts:

  Kate Spain blog hop

6 comments:

Chelsea said...

I love this! And the quilting is perfect.

Adrianne @ On the Windy Side said...

Thanks Chelsea - all credit has to go to the lady who long-arm quilted it.

DeborahGun said...

so beautiful - I am becoming a fan of Fandango after seeing all the links in this blog hop!

MsMidge said...

It's a gorgeous quilt adrianne

Molli Sparkles said...

Adrianne, this is such a great triumphant. The pattern really allows the fabrics to shine and breathe. Sparkle on!

Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts said...

Oh I'm so glad I've been able to find a few pieces of Fandango. Like Deborah, it's been so inspiring seeing such beautiful Fandango projects! And that backing is a great match - good job!