Alden Lane Nursery Show, part 4: Quilts

Remember to take a look at parts 1, 2 and 3.

I hope you don’t think that I made you suffer through all the other posts to get to the part in which you were really interested? I loved everything about the show and thought there was so much to post.  It finally occurred to me to post some more quilts. Hmmm…

Concrete Jungle by Becky Parry
Concrete Jungle by Becky Parry

There were a lot of great quilts at the show. I was very impressed with the quality of the quilts selected. The workmanship on many of them was outstanding. I have to admit, though, that the little devil voice in my head reminds me that I couldn’t stick my nose up to the quilts since they were hanging in trees. I am going to move through the voice and tell you that it doesn’t matter.

I don’t know anything about the judging or selection process for the quilts, but I thought, in general, from what I could see, the quilts were well selected, interesting and diverse.

Becky Parry’s Concrete Jungle is one of my favorites. I love the design, which I consider to be a modified Chinese Coins pattern. It might have another name or be a new, modern pattern. I also love the fabric. This pattern would work very well with the Philip Jacobs prints I own. Of course, I would add in others. Mrs. K and I put our cameras on super telephoto, because we wanted to see how it was made. I will study the construction a little more before I pass judgment. I love how much interest and movement there is in this piece.

To Natalie with Love from Quilt Bug Patterns
To Natalie with Love from Quilt Bug Patterns

I am also always, as you know, looking for interesting uses for large scale print fabrics. This is a pattern called To Natalie with Love from Quilt Bug Patterns. I wasn’t able to easily find a link to buy the pattern, but the quilt was hanging outside the In Between Stitches booth and you might contact them to find it, if you nee a pattern to make it.

What I think makes the quilt interesting is the sashing. Yes, the fabrics are, of course, interesting. No matter how interesting the fabrics are, the quilt is boring to me if it is just a bunch of big squares (or rectangles) of fabric. This quilt would be a great leaders and enders project, because you could sew the four patches using the leaders and enders method. Chunking the sashing to the blocks would also help keep the piece straight. Again, I wonder how this would look with Philip Jacobs fabric?

To Natalie with Love by Quilt Bug Patterns (detail)
To Natalie with Love by Quilt Bug Patterns (detail)

This sample is well pieced. The corners aren’t cut off and I like that. I mentioned chunking above, because I think sewing smaller pieces of the sashing to the ‘blocks’ would facilitate that high level of piecing. My only concern would be that chunking might add extra, possibly unattractive, seam lines. Choice of background could hide such a ‘problem.’

I notice that the fabrics chosen for the four patches do not help to distinguish the pieces as four patches. I think that is fine, as long as it was a conscious decision. Some of the darker fabrics help move the eyes around the quilt, which is great and was, perhaps, planned.