Berkeley Square

ETA:  For those here for the quilt festival, please see my festival entry found HERE







Although it's rained for most of the weekend, I did manage to pop out and get some pictures between showers.  So, here is the quilt I orirginally intended to show in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.






I've been working on this quilt for a long time and had a lot of time to think about it.  As you'll note, the quilt is strange for me - because of its colour pallette.  (I'm still exploring circles though.)  The main fabric in the quilt is that taupe wool, the borders taupe Dupioni silk and the other fabrics are a no-name brand cotton (floral fabric) and a bird fabric from Ikea.






Firstly, that taupe wool fabric.  After I made my very first quilt, BPS immediately asked that I make a quilt "for us" and I was, of course, amenable to it.  But BSP wanted to pick out all the fabrics, which I was not so amenable to.  The main fabric BSP picked was this taupe wool, and all other fabric proceeded from there.  I HATED them.  Cuz, you all know, I'm a lover of colour and bright.  Needless to say, I did not make the quilt, and said it was because I "wanted to get  better".  Which was true, but also not true.  *heh*




A couple of weeks ago, BSP was with me when I went fabric shopping (the day I bought all those Dupioni silks for project as well as the solids for my stash), and picked out - you guessed it, the taupe Dupioni silk.  I wasn't best pleased to have very expensive ($35/metre!), TAUPE silk eating into my fabric budget, but agreed to buy a metre of it.  To back up a bit  more, several months before that BSP had also picked out the floral fabric used in this piece.  The Ikea bird fabric, was my own idea.  (Ahem!)


 

So, after my shopping trip, the next day I was adding the stash fabrics and silks to my fabric shelves and the floral fabric, taupe wool and Ikea bird fabric practically leapt off the shelves and threw themselves at me, saying "Use me USE ME!!" and told me exactly how to use them.  Before I started cutting the fabric, I made a little doodle of the quilting, which on my paper, looked exactly like this:


 

And that's why I made a taupe quilt. I had no choice!

It was, without a doubt the quilt I worked the longest on (all of the detailed quliting took a LONG. TIME.) and as I look at these pictures, I see some areas where some hand sewing with invisible thread is going to be necessary to flatten out some areas (did you know Merino wool stretches when you quilt it?  It does!); but the strange thing was, it was an "easy" quilt, because it sprang fully formed into my mind.

There was no fussing about where to put what, or how to lay "this", or even, when the top was done, that thorny question "How do I quilt it?"  It was all right there, practically yelling at me to make it.  Even the name came to me as I was pinning the birds to the fabric - I don't know if those are Nightingales, but they're certainly birds, and they could be singing in a "square". :)   I was beginning to feel that I had practically "channelled" the darned thing.

And now, I must reluctantly tell you, that despite it's taupe-ness, I love this quilt.

That BSP.  Always has to be right.

:)

Anonymous

23 comments:

  1. This is FABULOUS!!!
    Love the muted colors, and the quilting, and the play between the shine of the dupioni against the wool, as well as the play between the circles and vertical stripes of fabric... Love it all! Wish I could see it in person!
    (And excellent use of the bird fabric, of which I also own but haven't figured out how best to use yet!)

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  2. Oh my goondess! From one "bright girl" to another, I too would have had a hard time working on this quilt. Taupe!? Eww!

    But now, oh, it's so lovely! I think it's the bird fabric that makes me love it. They're so happy and taupey and wonderful!

    And your quilting is so original and fits in so well with the design. I just can't get over how quickly (but not whithout hard work!) your quilting has improved! Your confidence definitely shows here!

    Brava!

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  3. I have that Ikea fabric in the green and the gray colorways!!! I have been waiting for the beige one to come in.
    I plan on making skirts with them...


    Look fantastic with your stash fabrics!
    You should share this one with the Ikea Hacker website...

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  4. Wow wow wow! It's even more beautiful than the sneak-peeks had led me to believe it would be! I think this is my favorite of your works so far - your experiementation with differing fabrics, the quilting (the QUILTING!), and what for you was definitely an experiment with color, lol! Kudos on a spectacular job.

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  5. Beautiful design and details!

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  6. This is so beautiful! I love it! I especially love your quilting...and I love the taupe too ;-)

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  7. *gasp* I want to come sit and your feet and have you teach me to quilt - this is AMAZING. So very, very beautiful - I love the shine of the silk, the quilting is fabulous, I love it, every bit. This totally blows me away.

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  8. Luv this quilt! Your quilting looks GREAT! Well done!

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  9. Hi there!! It is really beautiful. I would like to see the back! I want to see what you did for the quilting on the flower fabric. Sometimes muted fabrics are calming and this one is that ; ) I especially like the silk in there... it shimmers.

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  10. Wow! I am usually not a fan of taupe, either, but this is beautiful. Kudos on stretching your normal bounds, to great results! Your quilting is just stunning!

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  11. very unique!! trying something new is great now and then isn't it?
    Karen
    http://karensquilting.com/blog/

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  12. This quilt is stunning. The colors are sophisticated and your quilting is amazing. I'm so glad I got to see it!

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  13. Love your quilt, yes, it is very unique but very lovely.

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  14. What a great description of this quilt's "birth"! Love your quilting, and though I tend towards more color too, I this one's unusual fabrics gives it a special look and I'm sure feel too!

    (Thanks for your visit to my blog too!)

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  15. What's not to love? This quilt is stunning! I love the taupe and all of the great texture you added with your quilting.

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  16. It turned out beautiful. The quilting really adds a lot of texture to the quilt. I just love it.

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  17. Wonderful! Fun! Fabulous! Amazing. Love this. I will back to see more! thanks, Stephanie

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  18. I love the little circles in the quilting.

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  19. I must agree with BSP (whoever that was), that she is right this time about this quilt and the use of colors palette. It's a stunning quilt and I am glad I get to see it. Good job Kit - Hugs Natima

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  20. Your qulting is a poem...

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  21. Fabulous quilt.

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  22. I love this quilt!
    Your quilting is absolutely
    amazing!
    Thank you for sharing.
    Lin

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  23. Love it! taupe and all! great quilting!!! gotta love the birds!

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