Meadow Quilt

I finished this quilt a couple of years ago but never shared it here. In the spirit of keeping better records and an archive of my work -- and to meet my goal of blogging at least once a month in 2021 -- I'm digging this one out again.

Lizzy House's original Meadow Quilt

Step 1: Planning

My lovely guild, the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild, brought artist and designer Lizzy House to town in 2015 to host her Meadow Quilt workshop. Lizzy designed this quilt but chose not to print and sell the pattern; rather, she only taught it in person as she traveled the world. It was great to not only meet Lizzy in person (I've been stashing her fabrics for a while) but also get to spend a day learning from her.

The sample block I made at the workshop, signed by Lizzy

At the time of the workshop, I hadn't nailed down all my fabric choices. Luckily we only made a practice block that day, so I still had a little time to make up my mind. I chose the fabrics for the colored quadrants pretty easily -- those are a mix of prints from Lizzy, Tula Pink, and Denyse Schmidt. After I saw another guild member using the ivory with black specks for her petals, I chose that one too and then added the gray Flea Market Fancy posies for my centers. Still to be determined was the border fabric, which would be prominent, so I wanted to love it.

Piecing this quilt is not for the faint of heart -- the templates create some challenging curves, and the chances of things laying flat are slim. I did my best and starched it to within an inch of its life. It came together slowly but surely.

Six months later, I picked one of Lizzy's starry prints for my border. I like how the burgundy sets off the ivory petals, and the print has scattered stars in pink, orange-red and aqua that pick up the shades in my brightly colored quadrants. I think I ordered 9 yards for the borders, backing and binding -- it was the most fabric I'd ever bought at once! And all the same! Luckily I had an empty bolt to wrap it on when it arrived.

With so much time invested in making this quilt, I decided to have it custom quilted by a longarmer in North Carolina (http://ginabeanquilts.com/). I shared with her some photos of other Meadows with quilting motifs that I liked, including straight lines in the borders and feathers on the petals. Custom quilting doesn't come cheap, but I was happy with the results and felt like this quilt and I earned the special treatment.

Part of my motivation to finish this quilt was to hang it in a quilt show organized by my guild at an art gallery in downtown Knoxville. It was really satisfying to see it hang in such a civilized setting vs. just covering my bed at home. :)