Have you heard about Casey York's new book, The Applique Book? It's a comprehensive guide on applique outlining the techniques for many different kinds of hand and machine applique. Works from 21 designers are included along with 16 quilt projects you can make.My quilt, Astrid, is in the "reverse applique" section of the book. I love the minimal look of this quilt. The design is made from an arrangement of very simple blocks.
The background is a pretty peacock Peppered Cotton with the warp and weft different colors, one black and the other the peacock blue. You can see the effect in the different blocks here.
I like the subtle color change that happens depending on the viewing angle.
Fading Foliage is in the "turned edge" section of Casey's book. I had been wanting to make this quilt for quite some time. The key to the design is finding just the right fabric. You need a large scale two color print, the blue and black print in this quilt. The other two fabrics for the quilt should look like the two colors of the large scale print, the blue print and black solid here. With this combination parts of the applique design will "fade" into the background giving an unexpected look to the applique.Here you can see the shape of the applique in the light blue fabric on the black background.
I made six blocks of the same design but used all six possible combinations of the three fabrics. Here, the block is made with the two color print appliqued to the black. Notice how the design fades away where the black of the print is on the edge of the applique. This was just what I was hoping for!
This block has the two fabrics reversed. Again, a subtle design in contrast to the first photo above.
My daughter-in-law fell in love with these blocks while I was making them and helped design the finished layout of the quilt.
Here's the full view.
With the fabric print playing such an important part of the design in this quilt, I really want to make it again in different fabrics. I'm on the hunt for another fabric!If you would like to purchase a signed copy of the book, you can get one directly from Casey here.
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