My first blocks for Tamara
I have to admit I was a little paralysed when trying to decide what fabrics to use for the feature fabrics in our very first block swap.
Just to recap a bit: Tamara and I have decided to make economy blocks and include a feature fabric from the current year in the centre, surrounded by a solid, and then low volume fabrics. We may change this up and swap the positions of the low volume and solids, but our feature fabric will always be the centre square.
I was hard to settle on that feature fabric. So hard people!. Just so damn hard.
It wasn't just that I don't really know Tamara yet, it was also because there are so many great fabrics released each year. Trying to narrow it down and to just two felt impossible.
I had a bit of a snoop on Tamara's instagram feed, but was still in a world of indecisive pain. In the end I just decided to play it safe for the first block and went for a good old red, white and blue combo.
For my feature fabric I used the red Flock Cotton and Steel print from the SS Bluebird collection which arrived in Australia in March this year. I loved this print when it was released in black and white the year before, so I found it pretty irresistable in red.
I paired it with Kona Windsor. The red bird print is pretty vibrant, so I really liked the way this more subdued navy sat with it and allowed it be the hero.
For the low volume corners I used Carolyn Friedlander prints from different collections (Botanic and Friedlander). While Botanic isn't from this year, I feel that its style is still pretty current.
I chose another C+S fabric for my next feature print and used the sweet aqua Snow Fuzzies print from Noel. While Noel is a Christmas collection, I thought it was OK as this particular fabric isn't overtly festive. This fabric has been designed by Sara Watts. Her ink drawn critters have been really popular since the launch of C+S so it will be interesting to watch and see how long this trend continues.
When we were messaging images of different styles of fabric back and forth while deciding what types of fabrics we should include Tamara made a comment about blue 30s fabric with sweet little deer on it. While you're not going to find any 30s repro fabrics here, I thought these aqua bunnies were similar enough in scale and motif to do the trick.
I used Kona Nectarine for my solid this time and went completely scrappy for the corner squares. One is a delicate floral from Rifle Paper Co's first fabric collection (Les Fleurs) and a flotsam and jetsom print from Kujira and Star by Rashida Coleman Hale. I'm glad to have managed to sneak some Rashida in there as she has just gotten a gig with Google this year and her illustrations will start popping up on our search home pages soon. The other two are once again Carolyn Friedlander prints from the Doe and Friedlander collections.
Just to recap a bit: Tamara and I have decided to make economy blocks and include a feature fabric from the current year in the centre, surrounded by a solid, and then low volume fabrics. We may change this up and swap the positions of the low volume and solids, but our feature fabric will always be the centre square.
I was hard to settle on that feature fabric. So hard people!. Just so damn hard.
It wasn't just that I don't really know Tamara yet, it was also because there are so many great fabrics released each year. Trying to narrow it down and to just two felt impossible.
I had a bit of a snoop on Tamara's instagram feed, but was still in a world of indecisive pain. In the end I just decided to play it safe for the first block and went for a good old red, white and blue combo.
For my feature fabric I used the red Flock Cotton and Steel print from the SS Bluebird collection which arrived in Australia in March this year. I loved this print when it was released in black and white the year before, so I found it pretty irresistable in red.
I paired it with Kona Windsor. The red bird print is pretty vibrant, so I really liked the way this more subdued navy sat with it and allowed it be the hero.
I chose another C+S fabric for my next feature print and used the sweet aqua Snow Fuzzies print from Noel. While Noel is a Christmas collection, I thought it was OK as this particular fabric isn't overtly festive. This fabric has been designed by Sara Watts. Her ink drawn critters have been really popular since the launch of C+S so it will be interesting to watch and see how long this trend continues.
When we were messaging images of different styles of fabric back and forth while deciding what types of fabrics we should include Tamara made a comment about blue 30s fabric with sweet little deer on it. While you're not going to find any 30s repro fabrics here, I thought these aqua bunnies were similar enough in scale and motif to do the trick.
I used Kona Nectarine for my solid this time and went completely scrappy for the corner squares. One is a delicate floral from Rifle Paper Co's first fabric collection (Les Fleurs) and a flotsam and jetsom print from Kujira and Star by Rashida Coleman Hale. I'm glad to have managed to sneak some Rashida in there as she has just gotten a gig with Google this year and her illustrations will start popping up on our search home pages soon. The other two are once again Carolyn Friedlander prints from the Doe and Friedlander collections.
Yesterday I arrived home from a teaching gig in NSW at The Home Patch and found Tamara's first two blocks had arrived. I will leave it to her to tell you about her fabric choices, but I am over the moon that she chose Toyko Milk's Neptune and the Mermaid. I love it, and wanted to get some in for the shop, but just didn't have room on the shelf at the time. So stoked I now have some in my quilt!
I'm hoping that the choices will get easier with time as we get to know one another's tastes better. then again it may always be tough to settle on what fabric rates a mention as a feature fabric in our quilts. For now though I think we are off to a great start. Don't you think?
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