Getting ready for Autumn/Winter with a new quilt

Let me start by admitting that I started this quilt top more than a year ago! I totally lost interest and shoved it in a drawer and then totally forgot about it (you know how it is, too much to do, not enough time!)

As the seasons started to turn to the golden colours of Autumn, my interest in a cozy quilt was sparked. I brushed off the cobwebs and decided to get it finished.

The fabrics that I used are from a Tilda jelly roll (The Chic Escapes collection). I purchased them from my local Tilda stockist. Unfortunately they no longer have this range in stock but you can find others available here. I combined the jelly roll with a plain white backing. The Tilda fabrics are stunning and I love how all the colours work so well when you use a collection. The down side of a jelly roll is that it’s not “fussy cut” so you can’t really see the fully beauty of the prints.

I’ve not done a great deal of quilting in the past, so I chose a pretty simple quilt top design which only consisted of straight line sewing. The pattern was called the Interlock Quilt pattern. I purchased it from Etsy. I made the throw size which only needed 1 jelly roll (and there are quite a few strips left over).

What was totally new to me was free motion quilting. I was desperate to learn the technique so I went down a rabbit hole of learning.

I decided to make use of my Craftsy membership (which I paid about £10 for a whole year). I was really surprised with the number of courses included with my membership and the quality of them. To be honest I had to stop myself from watching lesson after lesson as otherwise I’d never have got on with it.

After practising lots of different quilting patterns on a scrap quilt sandwich, I decided that I wanted to add a leaf pattern to just the white sections of the quit. This would add texture and interest without swallowing up the patterns of the Tilda fabric.

I was really surprised with how quickly I got into the flow and how easy the free motion quilting became. It’s a bit like learning to write, once it clicks your brain just gets on with it without too much thinking. I loved the repetitive nature of it and definately found that my technique improved the more that I did.

It took many, many hours to complete the free motion quilting. I even had a new sewing machine during the process as my old one decided to give up on me (more about this amazing new machine in a future post) but I really enjoyed the process and the final result is perfectly imperfect. The quilting makes it feel really robust unlike ones I’ve made in the past where I have just quilted within the seams.

I decided to finish the binding of the quilt by hand. Yes this made it much more time consuming but I really enjoyed the process and the quilt kept me warm as I stitched!

I love how the quilt adds interest to my living room and look forward to making more in the future. I already purchased the new Tilda Sanctuary fat quarter set so it’s time to plan my next quilt. I think I’ll make this one a bit more of a complicated quilt top to enable me to really show off the beautiful fabrics. Watch this space sometime in Autumn 2025!!