Gnomas in the Window

Part of the 3nd Quarter FAL. My original post is here.

I've really been looking forward to today. It's finally my stop on the Winterkist blog hop and I get to share a project with you that I have thoroughly loved working on this summer. If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome! I hope you will take a moment to look around and hopefully come back and visit often.

First of all, major thanks are in order to Lecien fabrics and Monica Solorio-Snow, aka The Happy Zombie, for generously sharing this fantastic collection with us. Sometimes I like to think Monica designed this one just for me, that's how much I adore it! ; )

The story of this quilt actually starts way back this past spring when I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Monica's blog for a much loved bundle of Winterkist goodness. I received a precious charm pack plus some gnomas to play with. Since I knew immediately that I wanted to make a quilt, I decided to wait until Winterkist would arrive in August before getting started so that I could purchase more fabric. Much to my delight, about a month later, Katie asked if I would like to join this hop. I think I must have responded to her e-mail with a resounding "YES!" only about 5 minutes after she sent it. I quickly went to work drawing the design for a quilt top, knowing that I wanted to bring together all of the colors in the collection along with some appliqued gnomas.

Soon a little story started to emerge in my mind about a group of particularly cheeky inquisitive gnomas peeking in through a brilliant stained glass window on a snowy winter night. That's how the idea for "Gnomas in the Window" began. : ) 

In addition to building this quilt (and my pretty elaborate story!) around Winterkist, I decided to also work with some quilting solids to highlight the colors in the collection. Here is the list of mostly Kona cottons (and one dear Stella solid) that I found paired best with the collection:

Kona Cotton Solids:

Papaya

Ice Peach

Caribbean

Peacock

Bahama Blue

Chartreuse

Cactus

Honey Dew

Pomegranate

Medium Pink

Ruby

Coral

Tomato
Charcoal
Medium Grey

dear Stella Cotton Solids:

Light Orange (similar to Kona Cheddar)

 

I used a lot of hand sewing techniques to make this quilt top including needle-turn applique on the gnomas and traditional English paper piecing to make the snowflakes/star shapes. I enjoyed getting the chance to work on this part of the quilt slowly, stitching in the evenings while watching movies with my husband. I kept thinking how fantastic it would be to work on something like this during the longer winter nights, with a quilt across my lap of course.  : )

I also used the crazy piecing technique from Quilting Modern to create the smaller "stained glass" blocks. While I wouldn't say that they were especially quick to sew (mostly because this was a new way for me to work), they were immensely fun to put together and very intuitive. I really like the movement that they add to the quilt and the way that they very much convey that stained glass look.

I plan to finish this one with some hand quilting over the course of the coming fall months, so I will most definitely get my wish to stitch while enjoying being cozy inside on a brisk night. I can imagine that my festive friends will be peeking in on me to check on my progress. Actually, on second thought, maybe I should draw the curtains? ; )

And now my dear friends...would you like the chance to win some free fabric? I thought you might!

Just leave a comment and you will have a chance to win a Fat Quarter bundle of fabric of your choice from the Fat Quarter Shop. A winner will be drawn from all the comments from the 5 blog posts of this week's Winterkist blog hop. Katie will pick a winner on Friday night, so be sure to leave your email address if you are a no-reply commenter so that she can get in touch with you. GOOD LUCK!

Finally, I'd like to give a big heartfelt thanks to Katie for organizing this hop and for inviting me to play along! It's been so exciting to see what everyone has created and I hope that you have also found inspiration along the way as well:

Aug 6 Katie at There & Back

Aug 7 Rachael at imagine gnats

Aug 8 Jennie at Clover & Violet

Aug 9 Courtney at mon petit lyons

Aug 10 Sara at Sew Sweetness

Aug 13 Bianca at Sweet Diesel Designs

Aug 14 Chelsea at Pins & Bobbins

Aug 15 Rebecca at Sew Festive Handmade

Aug 16 Diane at from blank pages

Aug 17 Allegory at {sew} Allegorical

Aug 20 Kim at My Go-Go Life

Aug 21 Di at Random Thoughts...do or "di"

Aug 22 Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts

Aug 23 Jenelle at Echinops & Aster

Aug 24 Katie at There & Back