The Summer House Collection

The Summer House Collection from Liberty Lasenby Quilting cotton had me at Hello. Actually it had me at the description on the Riley Blake page that says “The latest collection from the Liberty Fabrics design studio drew inspiration from the interiors of 17th and 19th century orangeries. The Summer House quilting collection illustrates the grand architecture of these structures – paying homage to the details of decorative tiled flooring, iron works and trellises. Archival artworks are translated into conversational prints inspired by citrus fruits, plants and vines weaving amongst detailed ironworks, while floral geometric designs evoke the forms of intricate tiles.” This stirred my old soul and drew a picture in my mind which I sketched out for reference.

With fabrics in hand, I set to work to create something that was a bit out of my comfort zone and required new to me techniques such as; blocks on point, invisible machine sewn applique, and bias applique. Sometimes your work evolves as you go and you end up with something very different than what you had pictured, this was not the case here and I feel immensely proud that the vision I had in mind and sketched on paper actually translated to fabric in a beautiful and cohesive way.

Once I had my log cabin blocks set on point with a center blank canvas running through, I set to work on the applique shapes. I used templates for those that you can find here. I knew I wanted to try invisible machine applique stitching so I played around with the machine settings on my Janome Memory Craft 6700P until I was happy with the look (or lack of) stitches. This was my first time working with a monofilament thread from Aurifil and I just loved it!

With all the applique sewn down I added echo quilting and a bit of accent on top of the shapes as well. I was debating what thread to use for quilting the blocks and what design when my 12 year old son said I should use the monofilament thread on the blocks as well to keep the focus on the quilt design rather than the quilting. Brilliant thinking and I just love having an artist to bounce ideas around with in my very own home!

The quilting might be my favorite part but it’s a toss up between that and the lemon print boarder! My backing is a basic yellow Swiss Dot from Riley Blake which is one of my go to low volume fabrics for any project.

I wanted to show you a close up of this stitch that tacks down the applique every few stitches and can be adjusted as needed for the size and shape of your work. I used a white thread in my bobbin and you can see that a bit here on the black leaves. I will be using this method again as it was a fun way to sew and I just love the look of it.

I am just so pleased with this project, I feel like it could easily be at home in one of those 17th century orangeries or even hanging over the railing at Liberty of London. Maybe that’s a bit of a bold statement but I believe in taking pride in your work especially when it’s showcasing the works of others as well, from the fabrics that are designed so carefully and curated over more than one hundred years, to the products I use that help to create something that is truly a collaborative work of art. I could not have done any of it without Riley Blake, Aurifil, Janome, Clover tools, Soak Wash flatter spray, Anna Maria Horner’s templates, and Hobbs batting. Sometimes it takes more than just a quilter to make a quilt!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by, I hope you leave here feeling inspired to try new things and have fun in whatever you do.