Meet my newest quilt pattern: Finial. Finial is featured in the Art Gallery Fabrics lookbook for the Aura collection!
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!
Peek at all the projects in the Aura lookbook here. Watch Mathew react to seeing the lookbook for the first time here.
Find the Finial quilt pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.
The quilt started with the beautiful collection of Aura fabrics, inspired by Mathew's trip to Hawaii with his daughter. The collection has two colorways: Kauai Sunrise and Maui Sunset. (Watch Mathew reveal all the fabrics here.) When designing a quilt for the fabrics, I kept getting drawn to the warmer colors in the sunset colorway. (I especially love the floral on the magenta background!) I chose Art Gallery solids in Coral Reef, Mandarin, and Denim Blue as coordinates.
Like all my patterns, the quilt uses techniques that encourage quilters to try something new. Finial uses curved piecing combined with bias tape applique. Both curved piecing and bias tape applique are techniques found in some of my other patterns, but this is the first one using them together.
Once the quilt top was finished, I pieced the quilt back with the leftover solids along with a couple others from my stash. (The Mandarin fabric ended up on the back as it didn't make the cut for the front.)
I pin basted the quilt on my dining room table using Warm & Natural batting. This was the first quilt from a new roll!
Next, I used my walking foot to add the bias tape. This way, I was quilting the quilt at the same time as stitching on the bias tape. Two birds with one stone! I used 50wt Aurifil #2225 Salmon. It's not a perfect match, but I'm always surprised by how close I can get with the thread stash I have!
On a related note, I just got this thread rack last week! I absolutely love it! (I'll spare you the before picture of it all thrown into a box haphazard!) All my Aurifil 50wt thread is on the rack. Other weights and duplicate colors are in the thread boxes on the right. This sits just behind and to the right of my sewing machine.
According to the batting, you need to quilt at least every 10", but I was pressed for time, so I didn't add any more quilting - yet! I will definitely go back and add more before washing the quilt. I'm actually thinking about quilting the background fairly dense, then echo quilting the finial shape inside the finials. We'll see if I change my mind before it gets done!
I used the same Coral Reef solid for the binding as the bias tape.
I'll admit, it was tough meeting the deadline with this one. Finding time to quilt with a newborn (plus two older kiddos) is a bit challenging. Before baby, I would easily choose quilting over sleep. But now, that's a really hard decision! In order to buy myself a bit more time, Art Gallery allowed me to take my own photos of the quilt for the look book instead of mailing them the quilt. This bought me a couple extra days.
However, I am definitely not a professional photographer. In my mind, look book photos are quite a bit different than my regular blog photos. I searched for a local place to take photos of the quilt, and discovered this beautiful museum called Prairie Fire!
I know the photos we ended up with aren't perfect, and definitely aren't typical look book photos, but between wind, weather, and three kids, I'm quite thankful for what we did get!
The glass on the Prairie Fire museum changes color depending on the sunlight and angle that you view it. Look how different it looked when we got closer to it! It even caused the auto settings on my camera to change (proof of how non-photographer I am!), so the fabrics appear much brighter in these photos.
Can you see the dinosaur skeleton inside the museum in the picture below? My kids are begging to go back!
In the end, Art Gallery went with the simple background from the white rock wall in the photo below. The photo does really allow the fabrics to be the star of the show! Be sure to see how it looks in the lookbook - on page 34!
When my husband climbed behind these plants for this photo, a mouse ran out! He is so amazing to put up with me and my quilt photo excursions!
Here's a rare glimpse of him and my kids behind the scene!
Finial is my 12th quilt pattern! (See all my patterns here.) You can get the digital pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.
The description on the pattern is: "Finial is a dramatic and striking quilt perfect for highlighting focal prints and trying new techniques! Curved piecing and bias tape applique combine for a quilt that's sure to impress! This intermediate level pattern includes directions for five sizes from lap to king."
I already plan to make this quilt again very soon - in Christmas fabrics! I'm so excited to see how the pattern will look in completely different fabrics!
Be sure to check out the Aura lookbook, and let your local quilt shop know you'd like for them to carry the fabrics - and the Finial pattern!
Linking up with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, What I Made Monday at Pretty Piney, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication, Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF at Devoted Quilter, and Friday Foto Fun at Powered by Quilting.
This post contains affiliate links. Clicking a link will NOT affect the purchase price.
__________
If you liked this post, you may also like these:
That turned out beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHubby and I went to Kansas City in August and this was one of the places we went. It was amazing looking at the glass and how it changed. It was very fun inside, too. The special exhibit at the time was about the fossils and prehistoric animals from the area. It was awesome.
Sandy
What a wonderful quilt. It's has such a bohemian look. I can't even put it into words but those colors just sing.
ReplyDeleteThat background is very cool too, a real enhancement to the quilt.
What a wonderful idea to remake this beautiful pattern in Christmas fabrics--it will shine with the design becoming ornaments!
ReplyDeleteI think this will look spectacular in Christmas fabrics! When I first saw the quilt the shapes made me think of ornaments!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSuper cute quilt, Laura! Great design. I love the photos with the museum in the background. You are one super quilting mama.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on another stunning pattern and quilt, Laura. I think your plan for additional quilting sounds great and it will be fun to see if you change your mind as you work on it. :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats to you, Laura, on this beautiful quilt! It was really fun to hear Mr. Domestic's comments about Finial! How exciting is that?! You keep making the best quilts, honest! I enjoy seeing each one!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous design to use with Matthew's beautiful fabrics! Congrats on being chosen to sew for his Look Book. That's quite an honor, and you definitely rose to the occasion :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful quilt. I love the location by the museum...the window colors reflected certainly complement the fabric in the quilt. I do admire how much you are able to get done with a little one. I think additional quilting will add lots of interest to this quilt. Can't wait to see what you decide to do.
ReplyDeleteLove your quilt! It would look great in Christmas fabrics. I see Christmas lights, or holly leaves on the vines. If not with fabric, which might be too much, quilting the shapes might look good.
ReplyDeleteThat glass wall backdrop is an awesome place to photograph your quilt! And your quilt is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking as I saw your quilt - it would look great in Christmas fabrics! It looks like Chritmas ornaments. It will be interesting to see your second quilt from this pattern. Great job! Thanks for linkking with Design Wall Monday, Judy
ReplyDeleteOoh - all those curves. I love how this looks!
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful quilt and design. Your quilt shines in front of that cool museum. Great finish.
ReplyDeleteLovely quilt, and it looks great in front of that museum.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a gorgeous quilt Laura! I'm amazed that you could design, execute and finish something so beautiful with a baby!!! You kids these days!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous quilt and awesome photos.
ReplyDeleteCool backgrounds for your photos!!! they are so unique!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this, Laura! It will look amazing in Christmas fabrics and probably just about every possible type of fabric :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful quilt :)
ReplyDeleteIt is SO gorgeous! What a beautiful pattern to show off a fabulous FQ collection!
ReplyDelete