Stained Glass Quilt/Blanket

This project has been finished for a while now but I didn't want to post about it until it had been given to it's recipient - see this was a wedding present for a good friend of mine.

She got married in the second half of last year and she asked me to be her bridesmaid.  Unfortunately due to her being on the other side of the world, and the timing not working for me to be able to get there, I wasn't able to go - so I at least wanted to give her a special wedding present.

Thinking back to my wedding (wow, where have the last 13 years gone), one of the presents that is most used and loved is a blanket that was made for me by my cousin.   The front of this blanket is made from a fabric that looks like it's been pieced together (but it's actually just the print on the fabric), which is then surrounded by a satin border.  The whole thing is then backed in fleece.  This blanket sits on my lounge year round and is just about always in use by someone or another.

 And so a plan emerged to make a similar blanket for my friend.  However for this blanket I wanted the front piece to actually be pieced together, so I started searching for a pattern - something not too fussy  - and came across the idea for a stained glass window look.  Inspiration 1, inspiration 2.  I loved the look of the batik type fabric in the second link, but the different sized panels from the first link.  I decided that neither was perfect and resorted to paint to try and create the exact pattern I wanted.  I created a basic block consisting of 5 panels

I coloured in each square in one of four basic colours, using a black line to separate each panel.  Once this basic block was done I then replicated it till I had 6 columns of blocks and 3 rows.  I changed the orientation of each block so that there was a slight variation throughout.  Looking it over once it was done I decided I needed a few extra colours and for every second block I varied 2 of the 5 colours making 2 sets of slightly different basic block alternating.

Next decision was what fabric to use.  I really liked the idea of using batik so with that in mind I headed to the fabric store.  After much browsing I found a couple of different batik type fabrics that had some gold embossing on them.  There was one that shaded from bright green to bright blue to , bright purple with black and gold designs printed on it, one that was dark green with red patches with batik markings  and and a third that shaded from bright yellow to orange to pink with black and gold tiki markings.  

I found a beautiful black cotton  sateen fabric for the strips between the pieces.  The next decision was what colour to use for the satin edging and fleece backing.  I was originally thinking of a gold colour  - neutral but not boring, but the fleece gold colour was not what I was hoping for.  I instead found a beautiful dark teal colour that had matching satin and fleece.  I decided that this would be a good decision, not too girly, but still bright and beautiful.

To cut out the fabric I created templates out of 1/4" thick ridged cardboard.  To cut out all the squares (and rectangles) I did some calculations  to figure out how many of each shaped I needed in each colour and the just sat myself down in  front of the TV one night and cut out each piece one by one placing the template on the fabric over the colour I wanted and using my rotary cutter to cut each piece out.  Tedious but still the easiest way to get it just right.

The black strips to create each block were all cut out using similar templates.  Then it was time to start putting the blacks together.  My son even got in on the action helping me press each seam after I sewed it.  15 blocks later and it was time to start putting them together.  This is where things started getting slightly out of alignment so it started getting harder.  I tried my best to get it as perfect as possible, taking my time rather than rushing through, but it still wasn't perfect.  But that's OK it was close enough. Once all the blocks were together it was time to get to work on the satin edging.  I made a major mistake here.  I thought that it would be easier if I just cut the piece to the outer dimensions I needed, then cut out the inside square - leaving just enough for the seam.  It seemed like a great idea - but it failed - I could not get those corners to work properly,  I know my calculations were all correct, it just wouldn't work neatly.   Oh well it got done as well as possible.

Now I had a decision to make....do I or do I not interface the satin.  I went back to my inspiration blanket and the satin on that had been interfaced so I decided to go ahead - if nothing else it'd make sewing the backing on a lot easier.  So I started interfacing the satin, and ended up interfacing the entire front face of the quilt - it just made it sit so much nicer - problem was I ran out of interfacing before I could finish - and as there was a storm going on outside I couldn't go out and buy more.  so did I put it away till later - of course not.  Instead I rummaged through my entire stash and found at the back another piece or two of interfacing - slightly different weights but with some judicial cutting and placing I made it work.

The final step was to sew on the fleece backing, turn it inside right and hand sew the last little bit. I then top stitched about 1cm in from the edge around the whole thing and we were finally done.

I am so happy with how it turned out.  I got to give it to my friend and her new husband in person during my recent trip back to Australia and they both seemed to like it so I'm happy!