Saturday, July 18, 2009

Stacked Coins

This quilt was given to two friends who got married a couple of weeks ago. The pattern is certainly nothing new. Not that I know anything about the history of stacked coin quilts of course. They're Amish maybe? This one was inspired by the pattern in Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts though I didn't actually follow the pattern.

The book asks you to cut strips with scissors to get a "wonky" look to your coins. I'm all for irregularity but I'm not totally digging the wonkiness these days. So instead, I cut strips of different widths using a rotary cutter.

This is the first quilt I've made using 100% linen (the closest I've come is this one with a cotton/linen blend). I've got to say I absolutely love the way it turned out! It's so soft and drapes beautifully. It's a little trickier to use than 100% cotton because it shifts so easily. You could do a lot of pinning to combat this. I try to pin as little as possible though so instead I used spray starch when I ironed the prewashed fabric. This technique worked great.

I made my own spray by mixing 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 cup of water in a spray bottle. This mixture does leave a white residue on the fabric but it didn't matter to me since I would wash the quilt before giving it away. I've read that if you boil the ingredients together instead of just mixing this won't happen but I can't say whether that's true or not.

The colors of the quilt were inspired by the wedding invitations. I magically had everything I needed to make this quilt on hand. I don't think I have ever done that before! The two solid blue/green fabrics are what's left of my Kaffe Fassett shot cotton. In these colors at least. And I still have scraps. I just love it so much! I want all of this fabric to be mine!

And of course, there has to be a matching card.

7 comments:

  1. That card is such a great idea! I will have to remember this. Thanks :)

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  2. Anonymous4:00 PM

    Lovely!! I'm sure your friends will treasure it always. Linen is such a great idea, too.

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  3. I really love your quilts... your skills are spot on, and I love your print choices.

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  4. what a great quilt. I love how it matches the invitations

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  5. sure was fun catching up with your posts...lots of quilty eye candy. i love the broken lines quilt...i love simple too!

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  6. this is lovely
    i like that you used a dark color for the coins sashing

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  7. Alison Marie1:13 PM

    I have actually made care tags like your card to go with the quilt. What a great interpretation of the wedding invitation! BTW, I came to your blog via our new LA Modern Quilt Quild.

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