Gypsy Wife: New Fabrics + Blocks
This post is part of the 2019 Gypsy Wife Quilt-Along! See all posts.
If you’re new at Stitched in Color, you may be wondering what this Gypsy Wife stuff is all about. “Gypsy Wife” is the name of a quilt pattern by Jen Kingwell. It’s a sampler quilt with a unique layout that’s captivated quilters for years. In 2019 I’m hosting a quilt-along based on the pattern along with my cohost @ScrappyViolet. If you’d like to join us, purchase the pattern and then visit the main quilt-along page to find links to many helpful posts.
New Fabrics!
One of my favorite fabric designers is Anna Maria Horner, and I’ve been collecting favorites from her collections since 2010. For my take on the Gypsy Wife I decided to incorporate as many AMH fabrics as possible, arranged as a rainbow blend. See more at Choosing Colors + Fabrics.
As I’ve worked with my AMH stash these last few months I’ve noticed some color shortages. I particularly needed a true blue fabric and some low volumes for my background strips.
Here’s what I found! Anna Maria Horner has a new collection called Second Nature via FreeSpirit Fabrics. This collection has many versatile tone-on-tone florals. The bold cobalt blue “Joy” flower print already made its appearance in my Nurses Cross block. I plan to use most of the others, which are from her Tambourine collection (available at Quilt Sandwich), as part of my background strips along with
this array of Freespirit Designer Essential Solids! I hope that mixing solid and prints in my background strips will have the effect I want. I feel like I won’t be sure until I start cutting. This rainbow array of solids is so lovely that I’m afraid it might upstage the blocks themselves. In order to keep the focus on the blocks, I may need to use the solids with a light touch, interspersing with some AMH low volumes from Second Nature as well as cream/light gray low volumes from my stash.
New Blocks
This week’s blocks for the quilt-along are a pair of matching HST blocks. They’re simple, but stunning. Isn’t that some of the best kind of patchwork?
In order to help me focus on another quilt top that’s been waiting for some attention, I’ve also finished Gypsy Wife blocks for next week. These are Old Maid Puzzles.
I’m really pleased with the yellow version, but not so sure about the aqua one. Because of fabric limitations, I switched the value of the patchwork pattern in parts of the aqua version. it doesn’t translate as crisp and clean as I’d like. But, no worries. As I’ve said before, with a quilt like this, not every block needs to be fabulous. The combined effect will still be quite special!
Do you have trouble cutting yourself slack when something doesn’t turn out quite right? It is a fine line between knowing when to accept, learn and move on and when you’ll be happier redoing something. I know it’s a line we all have to find for ourselves. I wish you the best with it, and much satisfaction in your quilting!
