Cool Blues

The calendar may still say summer, but the cooler (and quite un-September!) temps much of the country is experiencing this week suggest that fall and winter are looming right around the corner. 

Which means it's the perfect time to share Theresa Porter's "Wintertime in the Woods" quilt from the fall/winter issue of Fresh Quilts magazine--a cool quilt in more ways than one. 

This lap quilt has a wintry feel from the cool hues of the Winter Blues collection, mixed with white and a silvery gray, and it stitches up quickly so you can be curled up under it by the time the snow flies!

"Wintertime in the Woods" designed by Theresa Porter;
featured in Fresh Quilts magazine fall/winter 2014

Q. What attracted you to the Winter Blues collection?

Theresa: Love at first sight. Stunning blues, I love bare trees, great accent designs.  It's one of my favorite lines this year. My favorite print…probably the aqua smaller trees.  I love that color and again with the stark winter trees.

Q. How did you come up with the quilt design?

Theresa: The 'skeleton' of the design was in a sketch book I have. So many lines have a focal fabric that can't or shouldn't be cut down too much and I have a few outlines of future quilts with those fabrics in mind. From there I just start playing until I have something I like. I wish I were adept at using software but I'm still a grid paper and random loose sketches girl:)

Q. Why did you choose rectangular log cabin blocks rather than square?

Theresa: Two reasons: 1. I like the rectangle look…squares get boring:)  and 2. To get the length for a lap size quilt without making it too wide.  I could have used squares, but  busy people also want to be able to make a quilt quickly.  If the blocks are a bit bigger/longer, the project goes faster for them.

Q. Why did you choose gray/silver as a complement?

Theresa: It's wintery and I liked it:)

Q. Can you talk a bit about the elongated log cabin borders and why you used them?

Theresa: I like scrap quilts but they can be overwhelming visually for some and time consuming.  Adding just a bit of scrappy to this but toning down the colors made it fun. I do love log cabins also, though I didn't even really think about that when I designed this. I just sew until I like how it looks.

Q. How is the quilt machine quilted and how does that enhance the design?

Theresa: Something of a snow-swirling in the tree blocks and rectangles in the rest. Ditch work throughout. I like ditch work to give texture and definition to the quilt/blocks. I also like the simplicity of some geometric quilting.  It tones down the busier designs. The swirls … I was going for a snowy feel.

Q. What do you like best about the quilt?

Theresa: Fabri-Quilt's tree fabric:)  

Fresh Quilts magazine

See the entire Winter Blues collection here.

Find the fall/winter 2014 issue of Fresh Quilts magazine here.