Kemball - Euphoria tapestry quilts: 40 appliqué motifs & 17 flowering projects

Publisher: Amy Marson

Creative Director: Gailen Runge

Editors: Liz Aneloski and Joanna Burgarino

Technical Editors: Helen Frost and Debbie Rodgers

Cover Designer: Page + Pixel

Book Designer: Casey Dukes

Production Coordinators: Freesia Pearson Blizard and Tim Manibusan

Production Editors: Jessie Brotman and Alice Mace Nakanishi

Illustrator: Jessica Zimmerman

Photo Assistant: Sarah Frost

Instructional photography by Diane Pedersen, unless otherwise noted

Published by C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549

DEDICATION

For my mother, whose creativity inspired mine.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to the Oakshott family for their generous supply of gorgeous shot cotton fabrics (oakshottfabrics.com).

Original Fuchsia and Dahlia Pillow

Preface

The Euphoria quilt was born when my family moved from one continent to anotherfrom Canada, at the very north of the globe, to Chile, at the very south. When we arrived in Chile in July 2010, still aglow from a Canadian summer, we found ourselves in a large, empty, cold house with thick walls and hard stone floors. The house, which was perched on a hillside in Santiago, had huge windowsall the better to see the white, hazy smog that hung about throughout the day. Through the mist was a birds-eye view of the trees with their dead leaves curiously still attached. It was a bleak arrival for all of us, made even more so by the loss in transit of all our possessions.

Because of my previous experience with such moves, I had had the foresight to pack a bag of quilting fabrics, silks, and cottons, along with some embroidery thread, to travel with us in our luggage. I knew they were too precious to be out of sight for longer than a plane journey.

Once the boys were settled in school, I sat in what would become my studio, large and light with a window that stretched the length of the room and looked out onto the winter landscape. Always freezing, we had bought electric radiators within a couple of days but soon discovered that if more than two were plugged in simultaneously, the houses electrical wiring would blow a fuse. So during the day, while my husband disappeared into his warm, cozy office to new, exciting work challenges and our children to their bright and heated school, I sat huddled on a kitchen stool next to a radiator, enjoying the warmth of my iron every time I pressed the button to whoosh steam on my work.

And work I did. I was determined to put some immediate color into my life and into the house. Our possessions didnt arrive for another six weeks, by which time I had made one bright wall quilt, a pillow, and a window boxall to reinvent some sense of the Canadian summer we had left behind when our Montreal garden was a riot of color. I was particularly thrilled with the silk pillow that became the basis for the Peony and Mimosa Pillow.

Original Peony and Mimosa Pillow

This was the first time I had drawn out a design on paper before beginning to appliqu; I wanted to make sure ahead of time that the design would work well both vertically and horizontally. The mimosa was an auspicious choice. Unknown to me, a few weeks later we would be surrounded by trees of it in full bloom. My Peony and Mimosa Pillow with its turquoise silk background, a fusion of the summer peonies we had left behind in Montreal and the Chilean aroma mimosa trees still to come, were a perfect symbol of our transition.

As soon as the pillow was completed, but with our possessions still to arrive, I had the idea of a window box quilt. Our Chilean house had many long expanses of empty sills to fill, but no curtains or carpets to soften their lines. I drew out a line of pansies and had completed the panel within a week. I cut up some cardboard to fill the sleeve and then propped up the little quilt on the windowsill.

My first window box quilt

I loved working on the deep inky, blue-black-purple background of this window box and decided it would be the background for my next quilt. I continued to draw out designs for a bigger quilt, with all the block measurements being factors of 36. Up to this point, I had worked all my quilts on one large piece of fabric, but I had begun to tire of working appliqu with voluminous pieces of work gathered around my feet.

By the time our possessions, including all the rest of my fabrics and notions, arrived in Santiago, Euphoria was in its very beginningsa concept and a couple of panels I had worked that turned into a project that would absorb me for an entire year. By the time December came around with its glorious Chilean summer of color and flowers abounding, Euphoria was beginning to bloom into a riot of joyous color, too.

Introduction

Euphoria is composed of fourteen panels, all of which can be worked individually as projects in their own right or joined to make larger projects in a variety of ways. Whereas the projects in my book Beautiful Botanicals depend heavily on fussy cutting and patterned fabrics for interest, the projects in this book rely on plain fabrics and embroidery.

Although the quilt Euphoria is heavily echo quilted in my signature style, some of the projects are not quilted at all or are quilted very simply. I find my appliqu pillows look best left unquilted for a more contemporary feel.

I like to think I bring appliqu and embroidery back to the simplest they can be. I use no special equipment at all except for freezer paper, and I am very relaxed about the notions I use. I find that with a less rigid approach, people enjoy their work more. They also complete projects faster without any negative impact on the final piece. I encourage you to relax and enjoy the process without getting too hung up on accuracy and perfectionism. The designs in this book are all flexible enough to allow for lots of personal interpretation!

Euphoria, 80 86
(project)

How to Use This Book

With all its tendrils and butterflies, the fourteen panels that make up Euphoria can be hard to distinguish. It is divided up like this:

Water Lily Window Box

Spring Table Runner

Fuchsia and Dahlia Pillow

Pomegranate and Acanthus Pillow

Summer Table Runner

Iris and Lotus Pillow

Peony and Mimosa Pillow

Pansy Window Box

Bougainvillea and Violet Pillow

Passion Flower and Dahlia Bud Pillow

Tudor Rose Panel

Crocus Window Box

Tulip and Starflower Pillow

Poppy and Daisy Pillow

Full-sized patterns for the Spring Table Runner and the Tudor Rose Panel are on the pattern pullout pages in the back of the book. The patterns for the other projects can be enlarged directly from the book using either a photocopy machine or a computer scanner. For those patterns split into two sections, enlarge both sections and join together for the full panel. All the patterns can be downloaded as full-sized copies from http://tinyurl.com/11144-patterns-download. Its also easy to make your own templates using these full-sized patterns.