Great Fun with Fabrics - Quilting - Japanese Ladies- Oriental Quilt.

We've recently brought ourselves a caravan for traveling around Australia, starting next year.

I decided that rather than buy a boring doona for the beds (we opted for 2 singles for more walk space) I would make quilts for the beds.

This is the first of 2 that I am making. I choose to do this one first as I just loved these fabrics the most. The second one is for my hubby's bed, so I choose black and white for him. He didn't really want a pretty "girly" quilt. Strange man. (LOL) Still working on it.

How I choose:

I went to a Craft and Quilting Expo armed with $$$$. I've always loved Asian prints, so went straight to a stall selling them. Decided on a center piece panel. (Design in my head) Wanted it to be simple, but colorful. Also I have a serious addiction to purple, so naturally, it had to have purple in it. Fell in love with the 3 piece panel of beautiful women in traditional Kimono's. Then matched up fabrics to go with it. Kept it simple. Just rectangles and squares.

Got home. Laid the center panel out on the floor, then mixed and matched the other pieces of fabric around it. Cut fabrics in half to get 2 squares of the same and laid them opposite each other etc. Simply put, I played with my rectangles and squares until they were pleasing to my eye. Then I simply sewed them all together. Took the quilt top up to Spotlight with me and found some fabric (humming birds) that I liked to use for the back. Asked the assistant to cut it to go with the top, only larger. Also wadding. Took it all home.

Laid the back on the tiled floor, right side down and taped it to the floor. Placed wadding on top and then the quilt top, right side facing up. Using safety pins I sat in the middle of the quilt layers on a cushion and pinned from the center outwards, about 7 inches apart. Removed quilt from floor, trimmed the edges.

Put my free style foot on and free sewed around the ladies to emphasize their beautiful dresses. Then sewed around the frames. Lastly I free sewed within each fabric block.

Used off-cuts of fabrics to made a 2 1/2 inch binding around the quilt.

Here's the end result. I'm one happy girl.

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