Sunday, July 14, 2013

Finished: "Delft Blue"

Here's my finished lattice quilt:


I actually got it done a couple of weeks ago,  but I didn't get the hanging sleeve and label on until today.  The main fabrics come from Moda's "Kasuri" line, which is based on traditional Japanese fabric designs.  The quilt reminds me of 17th-century Dutch blue-and-white porcelains, which tried to imitate Chinese pottery designs, but ended up looking rather different.  Hence the quilt's title: "Delft Blue."

As I've mentioned before, my lattice quilts are based on a simple pieced block that consists of a single square cut in half both ways and interspersed with crossed strips, as in the block at the very center:


I wrote earlier that I developed the block independently, but the pattern was so basic that I couldn't imagine that it had never been done before.  More recently, I saw another quilt--iquiltforfun's wonderful Daiwabo quilt--made from the very same block.  I have yet to see anyone use the block the way I have, however, to produce the illusion of the interwoven strips.  In the case of "Delft Blue," the pieced "diamond in a square" background adds an additional visual element.  I've thought since that if I used a similar design, but with very light fabrics at the center and darker fabrics towards the edges, I might get more of an illusion of depth in the background.  Something to ponder in another lattice quilt, although not the next one, for which I already have a different plan in mind.

Here's one final detail shot, which shows the straight finish on the bottom left corner:


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