Mum’s Garden took me a month from start to finish, although I was itching to use the color palette starting back in April when I brought home all those Kona Cotton solids from my closing local quilt shop. It is definitely one of my favorite quilts I’ve made so far. This quilt has been a joy to work on; I really enjoyed every step of the process (even the cutting, my least favorite step, haha!), and working on it has been a balm to get me through some rough times.
Mum’s Garden
After getting stumped by the color palette (Kona Cotton in Burgundy, Spice, Yarrow, and Bone) and only thinking of fall foliage and leaves, I found a photograph of fall mums which was a great spring board for both the design and the name. Not only is the name a nod toward the inspiration photo, but it makes me think of my mom, who cultivates her garden and flowers year round. I specifically think of daylilies when I think of my mom’s yard. 🙂
Mum’s Garden {Quilt Back}
The backing is Kona Yarrow and the binding is Kona Burgundy. After finishing the quilting (but prior to squaring and binding), I washed the quilt top so that I could block it. I was worried about the Kona Burgundy in the quilt top potentially bleeding, so I used a color catcher in the wash. Surprising me, the color catcher picked up Kona Yarrow.
I think it was a really good decision to re-baste the corners of the quilt and I’m pleased with the way the quilt back finished as a result. I used my domestic Juki TL-2200 QVP mini and a walking foot for the spiral quilting, which required a lot of moving the quilt around.
Mum’s Garden {Detail}
I am really glad that I expanded the quilt out from the 48″ x 48″ central motif to 60″ x 72″, making the quilt a snuggly lap size. After piecing the outer stars as a single unit instead of as four drunkard’s path, I have an idea I’d like to test out which would make piecing the center have fewer seams as well. I guess I know what I’m going to explore this weekend!
Mum’s Garden {Detail}
That being said, I’m really happy with the curved piecing and give a lot of credit to the awesome templates I use from Jen Carlton Bailly.
The past two weeks, I have only been able to work on Mum’s Garden in small, small snippets of time because I have been in a lot of pain. I am dealing with having my first kidney stone, and some days are much better than others. If you have happened to catch me on a high pain day lately (ahem, Tuesday), you have probably found me shorter than normal, and I apologize. The stone is moving and I am hopeful it passes in the near future.
Mum’s Garden {Detail}
I think the photo above does the best job of showing all 4 matching colors of thread I used for the quilting. The thread for the center spiral matches the darkest fabric (Aurifil 2468 Dark Wine to match Kona Burgundy), the next 4 spirals match the medium orange (Aurifil 2350 Copper to match Kona Spice), the next 4 spirals match the yellow (Aurifil 2140 Orange Mustard to match Kona Yarrow), and the outer spirals and finishing echo quilting match the background (Aurifil 2311 Muslin to match Kona Bone).
Mum’s Garden {Binding}
There’s nothing like a good detail photo, is there?
After blocking, squaring, and binding, Mum’s Garden finished at 59″ wide by 71″ tall. If you want to review the process history for Mum’s Garden, all the previous posts about it are linked below.
Linking up with Michelle From Bolt to Beauty‘s Beauties Pageant 87, Alycia Quilts‘ Finished Friday, TGIFF hosted by Jen from Faith and Fabric, Favorite Finish for June 2020 with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs, and Show Me Something with Solids with Sarah Goer Quilts.
I think this is one of your best quilts yet! It’s gorgeous in all areas colors, design and probably the most difficult – the quilting in spirals on a small machine ! Would you ever consider releasing this as a pattern?
I love the colours in this quilt and the striking design – well done!
Yvonne this one is a stunner! I love the circular quilting, it gives the back such simple beauty!
Mum’s garden is such a stunner in so many ways! The palette (duh), the design (inspired), the quilted spirals (speechless!), and the use of different thread colors (over the top) all add components that result in a really wonderfully unique finish! I can see why it’s one of your favorites – mine too!
I love the texture the quilting gives the quilt! It is a beautiful quilt and I can see why it would be a favourite.
Yvonne, this quilt is spectacular! It’s impressive that you can do such wonderful quilting with your Juki. Do you miss your longarm? Have a great day, Mary.
This is such a pretty quilt, Yvonne! You always do such fantastic work on your quilts. I’m so sorry you are dealing with a kidney stone – they are no fun. My husband has had several, so I well know (from the sidelines) how painful they are. Hope it passes soon for you!
The interaction of color, shapes and negative space make this a real winner! I do believe this is one of my favorites too!
Fantastic job! I love the quilt design and the quilting is perfect!
Well done! The quilting couldn’t be better suited to this design. I’ve loved the color palette from when you first showed it.
Amazing Yvonne! The color palette is so gorgeous, the design is fantastic and oh boy!! That quilting! I don’t know how you were able to achieve quilting perfection on a domestic machine, but you most certainly did! Can’t wait to see your next venture in this design. I hope you get to feeling better very soon. I don’t know what a kidney stone is like, but I can imagine!
That is amazing. It is such a unique pattern and your quilting is incredible.
What a beautiful quilt, Yvonne. The design, the color palette, the quilting all combine to create a stunning masterpiece. I hope you are feeling better soon.
Every detail of this is just amazing and so well thought out. I especially love the spirals. Hope you’re feeling better soon.
This quilt turned out beautifully. I love your color placement, design, and quilting. I hope you recover quickly and feel much better.
Super impressed with the quilting on this – and definitely hoping your rough times are behind you soon.
I love this, the quilting is perfect with the design.
My husband has been battling them for years now and just found out he has Randall’s Plaque, so basically a stones garden in the meat of the kidney. Thankfully they have calcified and will not be releasing any more stones, or we hope. My thoughts are with you!! And the Mum’s Garden is gorgeous!!!
I love this quilt. You could easily do in almost any color scheme. Nice job.
This is just SO COOL!!! It just catches your eye and your eye keeps moving to see something else cool!! What a great design and quilting concept!!!
No wonder you are so pleased with this quilt. It is a wonderful design, the colour palette is really striking and the quilting adds great texture and compliments the patchwork so well. I particularly like the way your design has grown the quilt from a square to a rectangle so smoothly – I find that it can be really difficult to create a rectangular quilt design that remains balanced and doesn’t just have ‘add on’ design elements stuck to the top and bottom of the main design.
This is really quite stunning, Yvonne! The color combination is great and I like the overlapping spirals. Spirals are one of my favorite quilting techniques but I’ve never thought to overlap them.
This is one phenomenoal quilt! xo
PS: I hope you feel better soon!
This is absolutely stunning Yvonne! The piecing is very hear perfect isn’t it? Wow! And that spiral quilting is an amazing match to the gorgeous curves in the piecing. I’m so sorry you’ve been experiencing pain… my hubby had kidney stones a couple of years ago and he said they are incredibly painful. I really hope it passes quickly.
I really love this one, Yvonne! The quilting just makes it sing. I hope you feel better very soon. A kidney stone just sounds awful.
This is just gorgeous! I love everything you did and I think it all worked out so well. I have to study your piecing, and do some more experimenting with my templates – I do love Jen’s technique. I will be curious to see if you come up with another way of piecing some of it. The thread colors and back and binding are all just right. You should be pleased.
I ♥ everything about this quilt! It’s amazing.
Beautiful finish! I love how your curved piecing is enhanced by the spiral quilting. Excellent!
It is a stunning quilt! I love how you quilted it. Those spirals must have really taken a lot of time! But the overlap of them… really cool!
I hope you are post-kidney stone very soon! Ouch!
Thank you for sharing you work. It is always fun to see the ways you get inspired!
I love the unusual color palette, looks
Wow! Love the colors. Did you get dizzy doing the spirals?
Oh my! The quilting takes my breath away! And such sharp curves, too! Stunning!