Friday, October 3, 2014

Paintbox Quilt

I have always loved the Paintbox Quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh! Fransson. But I had never thought gsdgabout doing it until a few years ago when a friend said she was making one. She had been collecting solids for the project and offered to share some cuts with me. It was what I needed to get started.

Here is Elizabeth's version:



Isn't it so pretty?! I worked on putting blocks together of the course of about 2 years. Every time I added a new shade of a solid to my stash, I cut some strips for this quilt. 





When I went to lay it out, I was shocked at how big it was. I had trouble finding space in my house for the layout. The layout was tough... I wanted the colors to flow from one shade to another. I played and played around until I found a layout I liked. 



Here is the finished top:

Figuring out how to quilt it was another challenge. I ended up coming up with a pattern that I made up. I did geometric angles and filled them in as I went.


It took a long time.

A really long time.

A really, really long time.

But I love how it turned out. You can see some of the quilting on this photo of the back: 


Taa-daa... the final project! I took photos from a few different angles so you could see the different blocks. Don't mind Freddy who is sitting in his favorite spot.




I definitely gaze fondly at this quilt when I'm hanging out in my bedroom doing laundry, watching tv, or prepping for the class at I teach. I'll see a block and I think "I love that block - it's my favorite!" And then I'll see another block and think, "Oh wait, THAT'S my favorite!" I definitely can't decided; they are all unique. (It sounds like I'm talking about my children.)

Here are some blocks that I wanted to highlight:

 
 
 


For more Paintbox inspiration, visit this Flickr page!

1 comments:

Mabel said...

Natalie-This quilt is beautiful!! WOW! To think 2 yrs of making blocks then watching them all come together! I love it!