We've debuted the Windsor Woods BOM quilt here on the blog, and now it's time to go behind the scenes! Designer Sue Harvey of Pine Tree Country Quilts talks about how she and fellow designer Sandy Boobar created this garden beauty!
Q. What do you find appealing about the Windsor Woods
prints?
Sue: We saw the panel of 6 gorgeous squares in its beginning stages
and loved the circle in a square designs and the hummingbird, dragonfly, bumble
bees and butterflies. We could imagine a beautiful garden-themed quilt as soon
as we saw them. The coordinates in the collection just helped make that garden
possible!
Q. How do you feel that using the pre-printed blocks
enhances the design?
Sue: We like the challenge of fitting panels and pre-printed blocks
into pieced designs. With Windsor Woods, the detail and elegance of the panel
squares adds so much interest to the blocks. Lots of piecing, and very small
piecing, would have been needed to make the flower-looking centers for the
Woods Flower blocks in the top and bottom centers of the quilt. Each of the
panel blocks became beautiful anchors to build from in the corner blocks and
the center block.
Q. How do you design a BOM?
Sue: Well, we try to design blocks that are different from each other
because no one wants to work on blocks that are pretty much the same month
after month. We knew from the beginning that this was going to be a 7-month
quilt. We also knew that as many blocks as possible would include the panel
squares so that would mean 2 complete panels per quilt. Those squares would
help make the different piecing of the blocks work together. Then the green
triangle frames around some of the blocks added another link.
Q. Did you design the large center block first?
Sue: Nope. We worked on the four corner blocks first. They were the
easiest to think about because the circular butterfly and dragonfly panel
squares were so similar in shape and style and seemed perfect to hold down
those outside corners. We did rough out the center block after the corners were
done. But we finished it last. When everything else was done, we added some
smaller detail piecing to the large center to make it fit with the more
intricate piecing of the other blocks.
Q. What is your favorite part about the quilt?
Sue: The “invisible” sashing. All those different width and different
length strips that make the blocks fit together while still giving the
appearance of floating blocks on a creamy background. The old calculator got a
work out figuring the sizes to cut to fit in here and fit in there.
Q. Tell us about your thrifty use of fabric.
Sue: We realized when we finished with the quilt that there were parts
of the 2 panels that we hadn’t used. We made a table runner and placemat set to
use the floral border from the sides of the panel and the last 2 squares. Both
are simple projects that will also use up some of the leftover fabrics from the
monthly kits. Then we noticed that we hadn’t given a lot of attention to some
of the fabrics in the collection. They had been used in just small pieces in
the quilt or they just deserved more of a showcase than they got in the quilt.
So we put together a couple of very easy-to-make tote bags to let the
hummingbirds and dragonflies really stand out.
(Here's a peek the extra projects Sue and Sandy designed with the leftover BOM fabric)
Table runner |
Placemat |
Tote #1 |
Tote #2 |
Be sure to ask your local quilt shop about the Windsor Woods BOM quilt!
Don't miss the post introducing Windsor Woods here!
See the panel that inspired the BOM design here!
See the entire Windsor Woods collection by Ro Gregg here.
No comments:
Post a Comment