Sunday, July 22, 2007

South American Challenge

My niece is the world traveller of the family. Before she headed to South America a couple of years ago we talked and I told her to bring back some fabric. I told her that if she brought back fabric, I would make her a quilt to commemorate her holiday. I guess I should have been a little more specific as to what would be suitable for a quilt, because this is what she brought back.

These fabrics are beautiful, but not your traditional quilting fabrics. They are natural fibres, although I am not sure just what. They are very loosely woven and and i am sure if i cut into the fabrics they will ravel.

The picture is not exactly true in colour--the piece on the left is bright yellow, not orange like in the picture and the piece on the right is royal blue, not black like in the picture.

Since the trip to South America, my niece has been to school in Denmark. While attending school in Denmark, she met her fiance who was from England. This May they were married in England. I asked my niece if she wanted me to make a quilt for her out of the fabric that she brought back from South America as my wedding gift to her. She jumped at the offer.

Now the pressure was on. What was I going to do with this fabric? I toyed with various patterns, all of which were discarded. I then got the bright idea to make a Trip Around the World Quilt--using the South American fabrics as the border to the quilt. I decided that if I treated these fabrics like I treat t-shirts and stabilize them in the same way as when I make a t-shirt quilt, I could arrest the ravel problem.

These are the fabrics that I chose for the center, Trip Around the World portion of the quilt. I lucked out and found a fabric line at Fabricland that featured all of the bright colours that were in the South American fabrics.
Today, I managed to get together 1/2 of the quilt body.


This is a closeup of the fabrics. Each fabric has the same navy blue flower outline. This outline ties the fabrics together nicely.
The newlyweds will be in Canada in August for a second wedding reception for those of us who could not make it to England in May. The pressure is on to finish this quilt quickly!

11 comments:

  1. Great solution for those fabrics - it will be such a treasure for them. I travelled a lot before I started quilting an thank my mother for encouraging me to bring back fabric from every exotic locale, because it is so great to have now. Fortunately she also schooled me well in what works as quilting fabric :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The fabrics are beautiful and should be fine if you stablilize them. I think a lot of SA fabrics are loosely woven like that. I'm sure they'll love the quilt. Good luck with getting it finished on time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe they need it loosely woven because of the warmth in their countries--tropical climates and all? Still, you are doing a great job on the quilt, Norma. I love the bright fabrics for the TAW part.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh nice! I love the Trip Around the World. I've only made one, but I want to make another someday! :) Good colors!

    ReplyDelete
  5. They look like great fabrics - even though a little challenging to make a quilt with. Sounds like you've made a good start. Look forward to seeing it finished :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds like a "trip around the world" will be the perfect quilt for your world travelling niece.

    I just got back from holiday. It sounds like it has been raining here most of my time away.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the quilt you are making. Those fabrics in the squares are great! Looks like it is going pretty fast, too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is going to be one great quilt ! I love all the fabrics - the newlyweds are very lucky !

    ReplyDelete
  9. Those fabrics are just beautiful. I would be so nervous to cut into them. I love the bright fabrics you're using, they look just lovely together.
    *hugs*
    Tazzie
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. and having a longarm, at least you can quilt it up fast too! great choice of fabrics, pattern, and love the colors too. good luck with zipping through this quilt in time to present them later this month???

    ReplyDelete