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The Prill Quilt

When I first started quilting a little more than ten years ago, one of
the main reasons I started doing it “my way”  and not following patterns
was that I had a strong aversion to triangles. And I don’t mean
“piecing triangles” or “worked with bias edges” I mean the shape. I did
not like that shape.  I did not want to make that shape.  It’s amazing
how many quilts contain triangles. I used to look at all of them and say
“nope! no thanks! not for me!”

But now, after 10+ years as a quilter and 30-some years on this planet, I
have suddenly started to find triangles appealing.  I eased into them
last-year with the spooky triangles in The Halloween Quilt (I say eased in because many
of the blocks in that quilt are not actually triangles.)

Since then, I have made a number of triangle quilts!  Actual triangles!  I was so
excited to find out that one of those quilts, Prill, is on the cover of
Best Modern Quilts (from Quilters Newsletter).

Rossie's Quilt on the cover of Best Modern Quilts

So, super-pumped to be a cover girl AND super-pumped that it is out in the world so that I can to show you this quilt!

Prill is named after a friend of mine in Portland. I visited her while i
was in town for Quilt Market last May and I was really intrigued by a
rug I saw in her house, which had a design similar to this quilt, with the
big-based triangles (flying geese) turning every which way.  Later on the plane, i started to draw it, then add bits and more colors. I submitted the following computer doodle to Quilter’s Newsletter:

Early Doodle of Prill

I was so pleased when they accepted it, though it did mean I had to speedily power though making this quilt at a time when I had a million other things going on, and not post the quilt on Instagram or my blog (which is always hard for me!)

Anyway, here are a few additional notes on this quilt!

The fabrics in the top are Kona Curry, Moda Bella Off White, and Ruta from Lotta Jansdotter.
The binding is Kona Cerise.
Curry + Cerise = awesome.  always.  You can’t quite catch the play of the colors with the way that the quilt is photographed for the magazine (on a red wall), but it’s pretty sweet in person.  The back is also pretty special (if I do say so myself.)

Some friends and I were talking about quilt backs the other day.  One friend makes quilts for shows/Quilt Market, and so she has taken to using plain white for the backs (that way, nothing detracts from the front, some prints show through to the front if there’s thin batting and a lot of white on the front). The other friend  makes quilts primarily to use them, so she wants a back that won’t show stains and wear and looks good with the front.

I think I’m more like that second friend: the back matters to me.  I think of quilts as three-dimensional objects, which are folded up and flopped over and regularly seen all squished up so that the back and front both show.  I use my quilts and enjoy the play of front and back and binding.  At quilt shows, I often want to pull the quilts away from the hangers and peek at the back!

When The Kelp Quilt was on tour (my design, made with members of the Mid Mod Bee)…

kelp quilt with bee members identified

I really wanted the back to be shown with the front.  Because o’ did I search for that purple on the back.  And the orange thread on the purple back with the candy blue binding?  That makes me so happy.

kelp quilt

While it is not always the case, I often have some clear thoughts on how I will bind a quilt and what the back will be before I ever begin piecing.  That was the case with Prill.  Because the front is mostly solids in medium/light values, I knew I wanted a richer binding and back.  The result: cerise for the binding, and this lovely velveteen print from Anna Maria Horner on the back.
The front with the back.  Prill.

A couple of words about the velveteen back:  I pre-washed the heck out of if.  It shrunk.  It frayed.  And it leaked color. Here it is after pre-washing (below).  I had put stay stitches about 1/2″ in from the cut edge and it frayed all the way to those edges!  If you ever do a velveteen back, be sure you buy enough to allow for shrinkage in the prewash, stitch the cut edges before pre-washing, and pre-wash it!  I’m not someone who worries about prewashing quilt store cottons, but any other substrate, I prewash, because it is likely to shrink more than my cotton and I don’t need that nightmare!

Washed velveteen...frayed to my stay stitches!

As for the dye running…here is the color catcher I included in the pre-wash.  The
color-catcher starts out white (like the paper included in this photo).
The color catcher is engineered to capture any dye that is loosed in
the wash.  You’ll notice that the color catcher is fairly pink!

Color catcher with washed velveteen

I did not wash the quilt when I finished it (something I normally do because unwashed quilts look undone to me/are uncanny/give me the creeps).   I didn’t wash it because I didn’t really have time (deadlines!) and also because I’m a bit worried about the dye in the velveteen.  Though, it’s probably fine..the dye should have come out mostly in the pre-wash and the white in the velveteen wasn’t tainted  (color catcher did its job), and I will use a color-catcher (maybe 2) when I wash the finished quilt.  Wish me luck.  I will report back.

I LOVE how the velveteen quilted up and how the quilt drapes with the weight of it. It did not seem to make quilting more difficult (though the quilt is heavier, I keep quilts on my table while quilting, so it didn’t affect me much). The result is lovely.

Prill in Best Modern Quilts (2013)

The quilting design is a variation on Square Shell by Leah Day.

I used Sulky 30 weight cotton thread in Goldenrod to quilt the quilt (I am affiliated with Sulky).  I chose this thread because the weight is great for when you want a little bit of thickness to your quilting stitches.  Goldenrod is a great match to Kona Curry. And I like the matte finish of Sulky’s cotton threads.  Win-win-win.
While I sometimes will switch thread colors to suit my patchwork, I did all of Prill in goldenrod-colored thread because I thought it would add a richer look.  While I love the starkness of solids, I do like to make sure that I add some interest and richness to the overall quilt when a quilt top is mostly solids.  In addition to binding and backing choices, I think quilting can really help here (both in terms of thread and design).

This Post Has 26 Comments

  1. Congrats on the cover, I loved hearing about the velveteen back. Your kelp quilt is amazing, I've had a kelp design floating around in my head for forever but the seaweed bulb kept stumping me, I'll have to revisit the idea.

  2. Congratulation on your cover page. What a great idea to highlight the quilt with those two-coloured triangles, it really 'makes' the quilt.

    I also really like the way the triangle-within-a-triangle quilt top is coming along. I look forward to seeing it finished.

    I am definitely a quilt back person. To me, an ideal quilt could be used either side and still look good.

  3. A little intimidating to me…I am a traditionalist/symmetrical quilter. Nice bright colors.

  4. IAs a beginner I follow your blogs constantly.
    I'll get my copy of the magazine and read from cover to cover and start a quilt (again )

  5. That's an awesome quilt. Nicely done on the cover.
    And thanks for the details about the velveteen. I've hesitated on it, but I added weight suddenly seems appealing. That may, of course, have something to do with the weather…

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