Recently I was given some fabric to review (my first ever review) from a new collection with The Craft Cotton Co and The Natural History Museum called ‘Explore the Oceans’, which will be available from January 2019, here is what I thought of it.
I was so excited as I opened the large envelope and pulled out the fabric, I could instantly see that it was a good quality 100% cotton fabric and it felt soft and not thin or transparent. I laid it all out on my cutting table and then the doubt and worry set in. This fabric print was unlike anything that I had worked with before and would I be able to do it justice.
The fabrics consisted of a large panel measuring 45 x 25, and five half metre fabrics in subtle blues, and green with an off-white background. All the fabrics were directional prints. I ironed them and laid them out hoping that some divine inspiration would come to me as I had no idea which design would suit these underwater themed fabrics.
After several hours of browsing the web and quilting books I still hadn’t been inspired by anything so decided that I would sleep on it another night. The next morning as I sipped the first cuppa of the day whilst looking at the fabrics again suddenly the word ‘waves’ popped into my head, but of course waves would be perfect as the fabrics were all water related prints. I got to work cutting up the fabric and decided to do chevrons, as my interpretation of waves. I added a solid green from my stash to break up the busy prints and to balance the quilt out.
I was hesitant about these fabrics at first but as the quilt top came together, they blended so well and I managed to produce a quilt that I really like. The fabric was a dream to sew with and did not fray or leave threads everywhere. I backed the quilt in a solid royal blue colour and used variegated thread in blues and greens to quilt waves across the chevrons. I also quilted around the pictures in the panel to make them pop.
In making this quilt I learnt not to judge a book by it’s cover or in this case a fabric by the print and also to not be afraid of something that is out of my comfort zone!
What do you think of the finished quilt???
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