Monday, March 25, 2013

Cock-a-Doodle Tea Towel is Done!

I finished stitching down the black binding and added the hanging sleeve last night. The black binding is all but invisible in front of the black wall in the studio ... but will look great once it's hanging in my kitchen where the walls are a grayed aqua, similar to some of the fabrics in the quilt.

Cock-a-Doodle-Tea Towel

The quilt measures 40 by 56 inches.  It is machine pieced, hand appliquéd and machine quilted--my first FMQ effort on my Singer 301.

I used the tea towel on which it's based (for the tea towel challenge), a vintage woven tablecloth and quilting cottons from my stash, including some of the Shades of Gray charms from a swap last year, many of which were cream and black, making them perfect to include here.  You can see the made fabric I used in the pieced hens, appliqué backgrounds, plain blocks used to make it all fit together and border triangles.

Besides my quilting adventure on the Singer 301, other first time techniques include using kitchen parchment as a design tool (for the sun section), an appliqué prep technique using a light weight fusible to make it easier to turn under the edges of the tablecloth and the 3D beaks on the hens, created by inserting prairie points into the seam. 

Here's a mosaic of some of the details of the quilt.

Tea Towel Quilt Details Mosaic

I choose this new towel (from Moda Home) after being unable to find a vintage tea towel for this challenge because it had a late 1940's - early 1950's feel to me.  Turns out that it is a reproduction of a design by Ivan Bartlett from that period.

25 comments:

Bridget said...

Brava! Love this and all the neato details.

Paulette said...

This is fabulous! Love it!

The Thimblemouse of Country Crossroads said...

I.LOVE.IT!!!!! Oh my...it is sensational!!!!!

sophie said...

For me, the best thing about this quilt was just how much FUN I had with it. It really was designed and created 15 minutes of play at a time.

Laurie said...

WOW! I absolutely love it!

CrochetnQuilt said...

Wow! This is fantastic.

Carla A Few Of My Favorite Things said...

This turned out so wonderful! Love all the appliqued blocks, sunshine words and flowers. Brilliant!

Margaret said...

I think your quilt is charming! Everything works so well together.

Anonymous said...

So.so creative and fun! What a great addition to your kitchen.

Willa said...

Delightful fun! Very adventurous! Great job!

Venus de Hilo said...

Love your starter towel and what you've done with it. Very inspiring!

Nina Lise@Mrs Moen said...

Congratulations on finishing your fabulous tea towel Quilt, I love it!

PatSloan said...

i am totally in love with your quilt!! Wonderful! Send it here so I can look at it up close.. wink!

Laura in IA said...

Hmm...the first Quilt Sampler magazine?

O'Quilts said...

You did a wonderful job!

Helen said...

I would LOVE to wake up to this quilt every morning. It is the cheeriest! You have successfully captured the optimism of the late 40's/early 50's in your design elements. Those hens in a row are just adorable!!!

sheila 77 said...

This is just perfect. I love the restrained use of colour and all the patterns. Your whole design is so well balanced. Terrific.

electricdunce said...

FABULOUS, THE COLORS ARE JUST BEAUTIFUL...

Karin

beth said...

Love. love. this!

Irelle said...

Love this one! Great job!

Vicki said...

This is such a beautiful, amazing quilt! I love it a lot, I've been thinking about it for a few days. I love the colors and all the different blocks you've used.

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

Quilt lust....serious quilt lust

electricdunce said...

So beautiful, the colors are just lovely.

Karin

Nathalie said...

Everytime I see this quilt I have to scroll through to make sure I haven't already said how much I love it because I really do love it and I don't want to comment the same thing 30 times, but I really love everything about this quilt.

Ellie Q said...

So, so cool! I was just talking about the shades of gray charm squares tonight...haven't used mine yet either. I love your palette, the different elements, everything about it!