Finished this quilt last evening with a hidden binding. I auditioned various fabrics for bordering but I didn’t think anything worked very well. A black border muted the white corner and any other colour simply didn’t work. So a hidden binding it was.
Finished Watercolour Quilt
Final dimensions: 18.5″ x 24.5″. As one of the women in the Friday knitting group would say – a good sized place mat!
I quilted the piece by stitching in the ditch on a zig-zag – that allowed me to do complete stitching runs in a single thread colour. The lower left corner was stitched in black, the upper right in white. The more middle tones I stitched using an Aurifil variegated grey. I did a reasonably good job – the stitching isn’t at all obvious.
I’d considered quilting the panel in 4-block or 16-block units. I went so far as to create an embroidery design, but in the end I thought I’d not be happy with the quilting overriding the colour flow and in the end settled on stitching in the ditch.
I have several hundred 2″ blocks left over from this project. I don’t see me doing another art piece like this but you never know. I have discovered these quilts are also referred to as “colour wash”. And it also qualifies as a “postage stamp” quilt because of the small block size.
I’m happy with the outcome. Notice I embroidered my signature using black rayon embroidery thread along the right side. The bottom rows were too busy for any signature to show.
Now on to the next project.
jmn 
That is one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever seen 😍
Is there a pattern? Thanks
No pattern, sorry. Here’s the guidance I’ve offered before:
Garden In Bloom ended up 18” x 24” (more or less). It has 12 x16 1.5” squares (finished size) – that’s 192 squares. I think I started with 20 squares of close to 60 different fabrics – I only used a small portion of them but I had no idea which fabrics I was going to use until I began laying out the squares.
How many fabrics? Last week I started collecting fabrics because I’m teaching a class and I still don’t have the full range of shades I’m after with close to 100 different fabrics (I bought 4” of each to be sure I had enough variance to work with).
It’s an experiment – I didn’t work from a pattern, I just started laying out small squares until I had a colour flow I liked.
Good luck with it!
It’s so beautifully done.
The trimmed flowers look amazing.
It’s very creative though a lot of hard work as well.
Please frame it and hang it on a wall.
I am swooning! Please allow me to have the amount of material I should purchase for this design in a twin size. How many different types of material do I need?
I can’t easily answer you – Garden In Bloom ended up 18” x 24” (more or less). It has 12 x16 1.5” squares (finished size) – that’s 192 squares. I think I started with 20 squares of close to 60 different fabrics – I only used a small portion of them but I had no idea which fabrics I was going to use until I began laying out the squares.
An average twin quilt is about 63” x 87”. The proportions aren’t similar so you’d have to adapt the colour flow. Instead of cutting 2” squares you could work with 3” or 4” squares – which would cut down on the amount of work. How many fabrics? Last week I started collecting fabrics because I’m teaching a class and I still don’t have the full range of shades I’m after with close to 100 different fabrics (I bought 4” of each to be sure I had enough variance to work with).
It’s an experiment – I didn’t work from a pattern, I just started laying out small squares until I had a colour flow I was happy with.
You’d be undertaking a long term project. Good luck with it!
Here’s a link that might help you out – it’s for a bed size quilt done in blocks – it should provide some sense of how much fabric in how many colours – there seem to be three parts – here is the link to part 1: https://stitchintherapy.blogspot.com/2011/08/strip-pieced-watercolor-tutorial-part-1.html
Hope it helps you out.
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Love love the colors, I am not a lifetime quilter, I have not attempted anything that complicated.
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Oh what a pretty quilt! I have never heard of hidden binding before, but I think it was a great idea for this project.
A hidden binding – stitched on the front with a 1/4” seam but folded to the back of the quilt. I matched the binding to the front so the colour of the binding didn’t fight the front of the quilt.
This turned out very nice! I take it this is your first try at colorwash, so you figured out quilting is best kept simple. Excellent!
Yes, any detailed quilting would have fought with the colour flow – that was obvious once I had the quilt sandwich.
Ooo, I need to see this one in person. ❤️
When are you free to drop by?