The Birth of a QAL
Window Box is the quilt that started the ball rolling for our current Mystery QAL. Tracy at It’s A T-Sweets Day read my initial post and fell in love with the QAL idea. Together we designed and implemented a new QAL. The rest is history.
A Little Background
My quilt began its journey darn near twenty-one months ago. That’s probably not too unusual for most quilts. Works of Art take time and I think this quilt certainly falls under that definition.
Back in June of 2016 I went on a shopping adventure with a group of ladies. Purchased by each of us was a piece of this fabric.
Jointly we decided to challenge ourselves to create a project using the fabric. The goal was to finish our piece, then gather again in six months for show and tell. Sadly the meeting never took place. In fact, I don’t even know if my traveling companions made something with their fabric.
My Commitment
I was determined to follow-through on my commitment. I searched my quilting books looking for a suitable pattern until I found the Window Box in a publication called Color Shuffle: New Quilts from Karla Alexander
Getting Started
With my pattern selected it was time to pull fabrics. From my stash I found an abundance of possible candidates. After narrowing down my options I got to work slicing and shuffling, then stitching them together.
The process from piles of fabric to finished quilt top took six months.
I finished the top while on a sewing retreat during the summer of 2017. The completed top waited patiently to be quilted until mid December.
The Finished Quilt
I had so much fun when I finally had the opportunity to quilt it. Using a brightly colored, variegated thread I stitched a straight-line geometric pattern.
I’m so thrilled to reveal my quilt. Please enjoy the following photos.
As you can tell by the volume of photos I am head-over-heals in love with my quilt. I’m so glad I decided to use the fabric color combinations that I chose. I’m also very, very thrilled with the quilting. I just can’t say enough about how pleased I am with the finished product.
The Inspiration
How cool that this Window Box quilt has been the inspiration for another QAL. Even more exciting is the fact that I am not the only one participating and actually making something this time. 🙂
On to the next reveal!
Thank You!
Thank You so much for sharing your time with me! I always look forward to our visits. Talk with you soon!
Beautiful. I love the fabric that looks like paintings.
Thank you! Me too!! It’s one of my favorites. 😊
🙂
Wow!!! You are Color Queen! I love this quilt! If you grow tired of it please send it to my house! The fabric on back looks very cool too 🙂
😊👍👍 You bet!!
Cindy, I just love all your bright color choices. What a happy quilt!!
Thank You! They are very bright and happy colors. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 😊
This is such a happy quilt. Love it! Gorgeous quilting too.
Thank You! 😊
I love the challenge fabric – it has so many possibilities and just ‘feels’ soft, yet vibrant. Your take on it as translated in the finished quilt is fabulous! Plus the fact that you love it, that’s an added positive (sometimes we don’t always like the finished product and get disappointed).
Hi Cindy,
Oh man, I love this quilt! How big is it? It looks huge in that one photo – nice for a tall person to snuggle under. Thank you for all the photos – especially those of your quilting. ~smile~ I love to see those! You did a great job balancing out the colors and tones – you must have taken a black and white photo for that! I have to remember to check on that going forward. ~smile~ Roseanne
Roseanne, I am so happy that you like it. The quilt is huge. Much larger that I anticipated. It measures 60” x 75”. It was my pleasure to include the photos. When I chose the fabrics for this quilt I was not at all paying attention to their tonal values. If I had I am certain that I would have created and arranged the blocks differently. As it was it was very difficult keeping like fabrics from touching one another. The technique does play a very important role in quilting but it is often overlooked. Even without using the black and white photos in your pieces I think they have all turned out wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and for asking a question. 🙂