Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Nightfall Parade | | A Midnight Observer Quilt : :

Owl in Trees

The Nightfall Parade continues today with my Midnight Observer QAYG Quilt, featuring my Bird of Night owls in the Slate colorway, along with Nightfall prints and AGF Solid Smooth Denims!

The Nightfall Parade

I'm so excited to follow yesterday's tutorial with this quilt! It was made using the same exact method with just larger batting squares and additional fabric strips. Each block began with a fussy cut owl at the center, but this time while I added my fabric strips (logs) I was inspired by this Converging Corners quilt block pattern. I'm constructing these blocks similarly to my Mini Log Cabin QAYG blocks I shared yesterday, with a little twist! After I frame each owl with low volume prints and solids, as I work my way out into the corners of each block, I'm adding darker solid and printed fabrics to two opposing corners. This creates a really cool, interesting design once a group of four blocks are put together.

Owl Log Cabins

Looking at the quilt as a whole, notice how those dark corners seem to form a scrappy four-pointed star. To me it appears to sparkle, such a perfect reflection of the Nightfall theme!

Owl QAYG Quilt

Using the owls in this way was so much fun for me! I had a very limited amount of strike offs when I began this quilt for Quilt Market, but as my army of owl blocks grew it was so satisfying to see how such little fabrics could stretch into a quilt that I really love!

Owl QAYG Quilt 2

Owl QAYG Quilt 3

Once my quilt blocks were finished and joined, because of the beauty of quick quilt as you go, all that was left to do was back & bind with minimal quilting!

Nighftall QAYG Owl Quilt

From the reverse Prisma Element side of my quilt you can see how I attached the backing by simply stitching my way down from the top of the quilt to the bottom, as well as from side to side, sewing about 1/4" from both sides of each of the seam lines. It works perfectly!

Owl Quilt Backing

I chose to bind the quilt in a yummy stripe from Pat Bravos' Essentials II collection. I love how the yellow of the stripe brings attention to the golden butterflies of Nightfall!

Bound in Essentials Stripe

I hope you're all enjoying the Nightfall Parade projects thus far! I think tomorrow it's time for our first Parade Giveaway, so be sure to stop back!!

♡ Maureen

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* You can find the list of online retailers currently carrying Nightfall under my SHOP my Fabrics page -----> https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

27 comments:

  1. This is beautiful!
    Your right, the "star bursts" in it look awesome and very fitting!
    I will have to try that effect :D

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  2. Love this fabric! Your quilt is so pretty!

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  3. Love this quilt!!! My daughter would go nuts over the owls! Can you share how much fabric it calls for? Then I'm off to the shop! Thanks.

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  4. Love this quilt!!! My daughter would go nuts over the owls! Can you share how much fabric it calls for? Then I'm off to the shop! Thanks.

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    1. I used so many different fabrics and was working from such tiny pieces of strike offs I have noway of calculating how much I used when I made it. I would cut random strips 1-2.5" in width X WOF, would use them up and would just cut more as I went, so not to waste. I added in a ton of denim and solids!

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    2. Thanks. May just buy a fat quartet bundle and the owl yardage.

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    3. Two yield the twenty owls you'll need I suggest a 1/2 yard of the owls. These quilt blocks were squares up to 14" blocks. Hope that info helps!

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  5. Maureen,
    The quilt turned out beautiful! I have some questions about size--what are finished dimensions of each block as you've shown them here? Also I'm trying to figure out how much fabric of he owl pattern I would need to get the twenty owls? I can't find anywhere that tells me how many owls you would get from a widthh of fabric cut and what the size of a the repeat is--can you answer that? Is there enough fabric between each owl as they repeat across the WOF and vertically to fussy cut each owl with at least a half inch seam allowance as well as vertically-- or do you lose part of a neighboring owl with each fussy cut? I figure since you designed it, you must know this info? It's so hard to have to buy fabric on the internet where you can't just lay out the bolt and figure out the info for yourself. Thanks for any help on these questions. Katie S.

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    1. Hi Katie! Thank you and great questions! I started each of these quilt blocks with a cotton batting square measuring around 15" for some extra wiggle room, but squared them up to a finished 14" block before joining them. As far as the owls, yes I designed them with fussy cutting in mind. There is just a little more than a 1/2" in between each one, so fussy cutting will give you the standard 1/4" seam allowance needed for piecing. The way the repeat is designed, if cut properly, you would only need a 13" x WOF piece to yield the twenty owls, but since I'm not the shop cutting the fabric, I would suggest at the very least a 1/2 yard cut or more to be sure you had the amount of owls needed plus a few extras. I hope this helps! -Maureen

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    2. Thanks a bunch, Maureen! I really appreciate that you actually answer questions on your blog--it keeps me very loyal-- aside from much I enjoy your artful sewing. Katie S.

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    barrow industries

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  7. Love all the owls peeking through. Beautiful quilt.

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  8. such a beautiful quilt - the colours are striking.

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  9. What an adorable quilt! Love the owls, love the block!

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  10. Love this fabric Would love to make a quilt with it.

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  11. Adore this idea. It perfectly sets off the owls and gives the quilt such interest. thank you for sharing. i love your line and so appreciate the ideas you share.

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  12. Bravo ! Votre blog est l'un des meilleurs que j'ai vu !
    voyante serieuse par mail

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  13. Bird of Night Slate is amazing! I love all Nightfall fabrics!

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