Tutti Fruitti

Erin here. Yes, my top is done. I should have tried harder to get this posted before I had some house sitting jobs without internet access but I didn't. My mother has declared it to be the ugliest quilt on the planet. [Yes, the woman is a beacon of love and encouragement...] I don't really value her opinion very much any way. My oldest daughter loves it though and has to pet it on the design wall every time she comes in my sewing room. Her opinion I do value and not just because she likes my quilt. LOL I like it and that's all that really matters in the scheme of things I suppose. This is my original design idea based on the photo of my "inspiration quilt."



I think I successfully "liberated" the color palette and the setting. Except for the piano key border, it doesn't even look that much like my original design idea let alone the original quilt. Tee hee. I blogged a bit about the process of deciding on the center setting here and here.



The particulars:
Name: Tutti Fruitti
AKA: The Color of Fruit [from a line in the BBC production of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South which I have watched w-a-a-a-y too many times of late...]
Finished size: approx. 61" x 61"
Fabric: Krystal by Michael Miller Fabrics
Quilting: I'm going to start hand quilting it with black perle cotton as soon as I make the trek into Las Vegas to buy some.
Batting: I haven't decided whether to stick with cotton or try some wool. I live in the desert. I'm afraid I might melt under wool batting.

The Color of Fruit

AKA: Tutti Fruitti

Erin here. I thought I should show some of my quilt in progress -- well at least the words -- before I get the top together. I worked on the words first to be sure that the center of my quilt would be big enough for all the words. I was going to put "Tutti Fruitti," my name, town/state and Liberated Amish 2010 in the borders, but as you can see I changed my mind.


papaya, grape, mango, citron, plum, mandarin, raspberry, blueberry, pomegranate

The only thing I might change is the "r" in mandarin. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with them -- even plum and blueberry which are a little dark against the black. They will be like a surprise in the borders you'll notice when you're close enough to read them.

Getting a late start

Hi, Erin here. When I last posted, I was getting ready to order my fabrics while I was house sitting; but I didn't have an internet connection so I never did order my fabrics. It's just as well because I changed my mind on my inspirational quilt. I was thinking of using #070 as my inspiration, but while I was looking at some quilt photos in my inspiration file, I noticed that #070 looked too much like a Kaffe Fassett quilt that I like. I decided on #094 for my inspiration instead.

It took me a while to narrow down my color choices. I kept wanting to add in more and more colors. I'm using the Krystal line from Michael Miller Fabrics. I finally decided to add only those fabrics named for fruits to my shopping cart and see what I ended up with.


I thought it looked like a pleasing combo. So I have fun color names like mango, pomegranate, papaya, blueberry, raspberry, and citron. That influenced my word choices. I'm going to call my quilt "Tutti Frutti." Unfortunately I'm house sitting [again] and my camera battery is dead so I can't show you any more than that right now.

My choice, I think

Hello everyone! This is Erin in Nevada. Thank you, Tonya, for putting this all together. I'm excited to be able to participate! I think I've made a final decision on the quilt that will be my inspiration. I have to share that I was intrigued by this quilt on the Brown's website. [Edit: Well, I linked directly to the photos and now they've disappeared. So instead I've linked to the pages.]

#111: Unnamed

It's a little bland for my tastes but I love the swirl effect. [Is this quilt pictured in the book?] But I'm wondering if the swirl effect would still be evident if you used more colors in the strips between the red and the blue? I just may have to play around with this one to see what happens.

This quilt is my inspiration except I'll be using a more "liberated" color palette.

#70: Unnamed

Also not what you'd think of as your typical Amish quilt but I tend to be drawn to unique and unusual quilt blocks. Oh, who knows? I may end up doing a Roman Stripe because I really like all those too!

~Erin