Long, long ago I saw Lizzy House‘s Meadow quilt when she got it back from Angela Walters, and I thought it was such a lovely quilt. But, she was not selling the pattern. She was teaching it as a workshop, and was not going to teach down by me (I was living in North Carolina at the time), so I put it out of my mind.
Fast forward a bit, and I moved to New York in Summer 2015. I had started following most of the quilt groups in the area, to include the ones that were a little far away – like the Central NJ Modern Quilt Guild. Then, the Central NJ Modern Quilt Guild announced that they had space in their Meadow workshop and that they were opening it up to non-members. I think I emailed them that same day to find out the details and to get my slot.
This quilt covered multiple bases for me. I had declared to myself that this year was going to be the year that I tried curved piecing and took classes that would introduce me to new techniques. I wanted to do more custom quilting. I wanted a queen sized quilt for my bed. I wanted to use the beautiful Liberty fabrics I had been stashing. This quilt covers all of that!
In mid-August, I set up some podcasts and drove about 2 hours down to this workshop. It’s always a little weird walking in to a place where you don’t know anyone with your arms full of fabrics and a machine, but the ladies of the Central NJ Modern Quilt Guild were wonderful and welcomed me right away. Seriously, if live closer than 2 hours from their meetings, you should join their guild because they are a great group!
The entire workshop was such a pleasure. Lizzy is a very warm and genuine person, and a great teacher. All of us made at least one block, and had the opportunity to sit down with her and plan out our entire quilt. I made two blocks (because when I have the opportunity for uninterrupted sewing, I use it), and they are the ones on the left below.
We had so much fun going through my fabric to make the piles that would turn into a block. Then I photographed the piles and glued swatches of them to the layout so I could remember how I wanted to do it.
After the workshop, I intended to get started on the quilt right away. Instead, it sat in the bag I had brought it home from the workshop in. My parents came to visit. Then my Forging Steel Quilt was due for Make Modern. I had to finish my part of the Round Trip Quilts Round Robin. In late September, I decided what background I wanted to use and ordered more of it so I would have enough to make the quilt queen sized. In October, I finally made a couple more practice blocks to make sure I could remember how to do the pattern and finally started my quilt!
There was a little girl who decided she should get this quilt, and wanted to use it before I even had time to add borders, or quilt it!
I used Quilter’s Dream wool batting for this quilt, and it is my new favorite batting. It shows the quilting definition so well, and is amazing to sleep under. The wool is light and breathable and warm and perfect. I plan to use wool for every bed size quilt I make between now and eternity. That’s how much I love this batting inside a quilt.
There are a couple thread changes on this one. I used pink variegated Fantastico for the flower, and a mint So Fine for the flower centers and in the olive border.
I brought the quilt with me on train to school on November 2nd so I could get most of the binding done, and finished the binding and quilt sleeve on the 3rd before running down to NJ to drop it off at the Brownstone Quilt Guild’s show. That day there happened to be another passenger knitting, and me sewing the binding, so the conductor joked it was the “crafting express.” I wish there was a such thing! I would get so much done if I could use my machine on the train…
This shot was shortly after I started using it on my bed. I woke up one morning, and the light was absolutely perfect to show off the quilting.
The flower outsides are all assorted Liberty fabrics, and the outer border is Essex yarn dyed linen in olive. The backing is Shelburne Falls by Denyse Schmidt. I used Dress Floral in Maple and Multi Floral in Maple.
I wanted to do sort of a medium custom level quilting on this Meadow Quilt. I knew I wanted the border. I did the straight lines in the outer most portion because I like the contrast and knew that part would not be seen as much because it hangs off the bed. The area between the border and the flowers is a loose freehand fill. I didn’t want something super dense, although that would have been beautiful.
The design I used on the flowers and Liberty portions can be seen better in previous photos. I designed the pattern used in the Liberty portion, and I really like how it filled the area without overwhelming the beautiful fabric I used. I saw one Meadow Quilt finished after mine that has a design in the petals that I wish I would have thought of, but I still haven’t seen another one with a design I like better than what I used in the Liberty section.
I am so happy with my queen quilt that I get to sleep under every night. I had never made myself a queen sized quilt until now, and I wish I would have done it a lot sooner.
Measurements: 88″ x 100″
Oh, and I got an Honorable Mention in the Quilt Show that had helped push me to get this finished. This is a quilt more for use than for show, so I’m happy with it.
Linking up to some of the following: Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story, Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Heart Quilts, Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River, Let’s Bee Social Wednesday @ SewFreshQuilts, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, Finish it up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, Whoop Whoop Fridays @ Confessions of a Quilt Addict, TGIFF, Link a Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts, Show off Saturday at Sew Can She
