“Donwell Abbey” is Complete!

My tenth quilt in the Jane Austen Quilt Collection is now complete, quilting, binding, rod pocket (oops, still have to make a label).  It is named after Mr Knightley’s home in Jane Austen’s “Emma”.

I am very pleased with the end result and I am looking forward to seeing all the different interpretations from my very clever students when I start to teach it next year.  My quilt has been magnificently heirloom custom quilted by Helen Hayes of Melbourne.

I began making this quilt over two years ago.  Lots of ladies ask me how I design my quilts.  Here are some progress shots to give you an insight.

As this is a medallion quilt, I started with the centre block.  I designed as I sewed, making each section and then looking at it on the design wall before deciding what to do next.  I already had the beautiful final border fabric and a metre of the coordinating all over print, so this inspired my colour scheme of black and gold with touches of blue/grey.  Of course I am a “red” girl so I had to add red for pizzazz.

The inspiration for the centre medallion came from the idea of the “mandala”, a Sanskrit word literally meaning “circle”.  A mandala is a ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism representing the universe.  These intricate circular designs have become popular recently in colouring in books.

I hand drew my mandala design on paper using lots of circle and scallop shapes.  The very centre is made from two fussy cut English paper pieced flowers.

I fussy cut a lot of repeat pieces of the Border and all over print for the scallops and trim on the corner pot triangles.

Check out Helen’s quilting on this section.

For the cornerstone blocks, I fussy cut eight pie slices to form unique circles, all four make a different design.  Magic!

I then added red scallops around the circles and then more tiny circles in gold.

For the Dresden flower border, I designed my own double Dresden petals and appliquéd them with gaps of background between the petals.

I love the way Helen created diamond shapes around these flowers with her superb quilting.

Here it is on the design wall at this stage.

I wanted the final appliqué border to be very detailed so I repeated some of the flower shapes from the pot triangles to create a symmetrical effect.

Lots of template prep.

Fussy cut flowers and more of my favourite small circles.

More looking on the design wall.

Here is the flower border on the quilt.

The corners of this border were mitred and a heart shape flower design was appliquéd over the join.

Then one more black sash border and the final border.  I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the making of one of my quilts.

You can join me at any one of my regular teaching venues to make this quilt in 2019.  See my teaching schedule tab at the top of this blog page.