A friend contacted me in November to discuss having a quilt made. She is a breast cancer survivor and she is currently recovering from a knee replacement. She has a bright outlook on her future, and she wanted to celebrate turning the page on illness in her life with a cheerful quilt. Hearing her discuss her optimism and hopes for the future touched me and made me so excited to create a beautiful lap quilt for her.
We live at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in central California, and she loves the mountains and being outside. After getting a good list of things that she likes and her vision for the quilt, I spent some time creating a couple of designs. We both quickly agreed that the bold and graphic quilt I called “Out of the Woods” was clearly the quilt to develop.
Out of the Woods Modern Lap Quilt Design
Another one of the sources of inspiration that was discussed was water and the flow of life, and I also kept thinking about her description of a journey and a path coming out of a forest. I selected a backing fabric whose dots seem to be a path flowing down a river and going around obstacles or even like the dots on a hiking trail map.
Backing Fabric
My friend is in no particular rush to receive the quilt, so I had the pleasure of taking some time to work on other projects and stepping back from the design for a while. Early last week, I knew it was time to come back to this project with a fresh perspective. I decided to “play” with the design a bit and evaluate using some modern prints instead of solid fabrics, and after a quick look at how the design was evolving, I was excited enough to see if my friend liked the prints over the solids.
Out of the Woods – Evolution Using Modern Prints
My friend was enthusiastic about the modern prints and asked me to continue pursuing the idea. I couldn’t help myself and selected a selection of Carolyn Friedlander prints. Not only is Breeze in Sky from Carolyn’s new Doe line beautiful, but it really captures a sense of topography and movement of the constant wind that we live with in our mountain pass town. I also selected the bright yellow Mercury by Alison Glass for the sun. I increased the size of the framing border a bit and slightly reduced the sun with some offset to get the scale a bit more pleasing.
Out of the Woods – Final Design
The Out of the Woods quilt design should create a flimsy that is 72-inches wide by 88-inches long. I am really excited to start working on this quilt!
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Thanks for sharing your design process. That going to be a fabulous quilt and I look forward to seeing it as you progress. Those are great fabric choices!♡
I love solids but the prints add SO much to this design!! And you have chosen some of my very favorite fabrics 🙂 Can’t wait to see this one progress!
Personally, I totally love these and my favorites are the ones with the patterned fabrics.
I’m really interested in seeing this go from concept to quilt. I like that you make the border a bit bigger and shrunk the sun. Those are pretty fabrics you’re using – I can’t wait to see the finished top!
What great quilt. Your friend will be so happy.
I love how this pattern changed with the addition of the prints. Besides being a Carolyn Friedlander addict, I think they add interest to your design, while maintaining it’s simplicity.
What a thoughtful design for your friend’s quilt! The prints really look great. Have you considered piecing the mountains out of many prints?
Beautiful! I’m sure your friend is going to love this one! I too love the prints! Fabulous!
It looks great, Yvonne! It is nice and big (really twin size in my book) so it will be perfect for snuggling. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.
This is going to be amazing! I can’t wait to see it! Especially when you get to the quilting stage. So much wide open space to work your magic on!
very cool, I love it with the prints, perfect prints for the sky and sun, and I love the mountains, what fabric did you use for them?
Very nice, the simple design is stunning and will allow for some awesome quilting.
So wonderful that you can let your creativity flow and make your friend/client happy. Those are the best kinds of commissions! Enjoy the process…
I love large fabric spaces. This looks really good – could see this in my house too!
Are those images created in EQ? It’s so awesome that you can actually SEE what it will look like with various fabrics without having too sew up each sample. I’m excited to see the outcome!
Good idea to work with prints; they had an extra dimension. It will be cool to see this take shape, and eventually to see how you decide to quilt it too.
Oh yes, I really like the printed fabric version … those bikes are fun in the sun 🙂
I like your fabric choice. Looking good!
Wow. I didn’t expect it to be as big as you plan! This will be fun to see develop.
I love it with the solids, it gives it more of the ‘texture’ look and gives it a bit more life… especially that sky background! Beautiful! I love the star scaled down as well so it gives it more of the floating effect and again, you chose the perfect background to go with the ‘water’! Good eye!
What a lovely quilt pattern and story behind it!
What a brilliant name for the quilt, and I really love it with those prints rather than just the solids. Are you planning on making the design from as large a piece as possible of each of the fabrics or by piecing smaller elements together?