Saturday, April 26, 2014

A confluence of inspiration

Inspiration 1:
Were you lucky enough to see the Folk Art Museum's exhibit of red & white quilts? I was not so fortunate, but I pored over the internet images of those who did see it & shared their images online. It was called "Infinite Variety", was held at the Armory in New York City & represented one woman's collection of 650 (!) red & white quilts.

Inspiration 2:
I was poking around in my stash & pulled out several red prints. Then I pulled out a few more, was thinking, hmmm, red & white quilt, Infinite Variety-style. But I had quite a few quilt balls in the air, so I stashed the reds back in my stash.

Inspiration 3:
The International Quilt Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary this year -- their *Ruby* Anniversary. So they put out a call for red & white quilts -- old & new -- for display.

Hey, I'm going to make a red & white quilt!

I pulled a wide age range of cherry-red prints -- old calicos, novelties, gingham, dots, contemporary prints -- then got out my Idea Book & found a sketch I made of sparse & randomly placed bowtie blocks. I decided I wanted the look of the traditional block, with one piece of fabric making up the knot -- but without having to set in seams, so I made a dimensional bowtie using this tutorial. I quilted it with my fave wiggly walking foot stitch (last time, I promise (at least for a while)). I really love this quilt, it is so cheery!




I am concerned that after the first wash, I'll have a red & pink quilt. I'll use hands-full of Color Catchers, but do you have any other suggestions? I've read of using Dawn dish soap to set dye.

9 comments:

Rachaeldaisy said...

Yay, it's great to see how Infinite Variety inspirired you. The Sydney Guild is having a red and white challenge next year so I've been pulling out my reds/white too. I love the way the bow ties playing randomly around your quilt. I don't have any tricks for stopping runs, didn't you prewash your fabrics?

Sharon said...

Oh! What a wonderful quilt! I love all the fun reds with the white, and I love that it looks modern and yet harkens back to traditional quilts too.

I don't have any help for you on the washing. I always prewash my fabrics and still have sometimes had a problem with red running. Use loads of color catchers and use Synthrapol soap, maybe? (I wouldn't use dish soap for fear of what it would do to the washing machine.)

cauchy09 said...

sweet quilt!

i use color catchers and cross my fingers, but i've still had some sad situations. synthrapol helps too.

QuiltingCyclist said...

Have had great results with Color Catchers. Love, love love this quilt!

Nifty Quilts said...

I love it! It looks like the bow ties go this way and that, dancing all over the quilt. Love your wiggly line quilting too. Best wishes with the reds. I've heard that you can pin the color catcher sheets to the spots you're worried about.

Nifty Quilts said...

Retayne is another product to check out.

Tonya Ricucci said...

if there is a fabric you know is a bleeder, baste a color catcher over it. that helps a lot. lovely quilt

amy and the bad cats said...

love it!

Kim said...

The red and white show, that I was lucky enough to visit. is the private collection of Joanna S. Rose.
It was the largest collection of quilts ever shown in NYC and it was free and open to the public. She collected them over the years from garage sales and secondhand stores and rarely paid more than $5 or $10 dollars for them! Guess what the color of the quilt for the Houston quilt show is going to be?
Yep red and white and it is a pattern by Gay and Brenda
http://justtakes2.com/some-exciting-just-takes-2-news/

Good luck with your beautiful quilt and Happy Sewing