quilting: interweave chambray quilt
This post was written by Kim of Milkybeer Handmade.
I have wanted to make a quilt out of men’s shirts – the button up kind you’d see on a businessman – for a looooong time. The fabrics have a lovely weight to them and having been washed and worn before, they’re usually quite soft. Perfect, I’d imagine, for making into quilts. For all my longing though, I’ve never quite managed to collect enough shirts to try making up a quilt. When I discovered interweave chambray (available right here from imagine gnats) I knew I had found the perfect alternative to spending the next decade poking my nose into thrift shop after thrift shop looking for the perfect collection of shirts to cut up.
You see, chambray is exactly what I imagine when I think of the lovely fabric of a man’s shirt. It’s slightly heavier than a typical quilting cotton and has a smooth, soft feel to it even before it’s ever been washed. I mean, think about it, it’s most often used in garments, so it has to feel pretty good, doesn’t it? What I particularly love about the interweave chambrays is that they come in such vibrant colors. Bold and fashionable for garments, but even more awesome on a quilt.
Rachael has a great post with a bit more info about chambray if you’re keen.
The design of this quilt was inspired by one I saw a few weeks ago over on Tumbling Blocks. Initially, I was going to use nothing but the chambrays for my version but at the last minute I added a few (somewhat) coordinating quilting cottons into the mix. I’m oh so glad I did. They add a lot more interest and depth to the design.
This quilt is a pretty great one for anyone new to quilt making. (You can read more about piecing a similar design here from Six White Horses.) Cutting is super easy since all you’re doing is cutting straight strips. About the only thing you really have to pay attention to is making sure you overlap your strips the same way each time so that your seams will be consistent across the quilt. I made up the larger panels first and then used my off-cuts from trimming the larger panels to create the thinner panels so almost no fabric was wasted.
To quilt it, I went with my personal fave – random circles done by hand. I use a variety of embroidery hoops and coordinating embroidery floss. It’s a style I came up with ages ago and have used it on almost all of my quilts ever since. It’s not for the faint hearted though; there are no shortcuts to doing it this way. You have to do each stitch one at a time, no rocking your needle to get several stitches at once.
Even after dozens of quilts, I can still only manage to stitch about four or five circles an hour. There are over 60 circles on this quilt and it’s only about 43 x 63″. I’ve done some quilts with over 250 circles on them. The finished results look amazing, but it’s a huge time commitment if you’re going to give it a try yourself.
For the back, I originally thought I’d go for a cute floral fabric (don’t ask me why, I generally hate florals). I even bought some that happened to match the quilt top colors quite well and basted the whole thing together before deciding that it looked absolutely hideous. I mean, it was a truly ugly pairing. Now that I see how perfectly this purple solid works on the back, I can’t imagine anything else. The quilting circles really stand out nicely on the solid too so the back is just as pretty as the front!
It’s winter here in the land of kiwis and rugby that I call home so I’m more than happy to have a new quilt to snuggle up with next to the fire.
Happy sewing!
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