The Naomi Quilt - Shot Cotton Valentine Version
I have a rule for myself with my quilting: do not start something you won't finish. It has mostly served me well, but it does mean that I end up with fewer spontaneous projects; if I am going to take the time/energy/resources to make something, I like to put some thought into it first.
But occasionally an idea will pop into my head and I just can't help myself. For the past few months I have had a bin of leftover shot cotton scraps sitting on my sewing room floor. They were mostly from this quilt, plus I have added to them here or there over the past few years and used bits and pieces of them in other projects. Last time I did a deep clean of my sewing room, I couldn't find a place for the bin so it just lived on my floor.
Even though they are a bit of hodgepodge color-wise, there are a lot of pinks and purples in that bin (my favorites!) and they were just perfect for a Valentine's Quilt.
Since I had been working on The Naomi Quilt pattern, I thought the pattern + the shot cottons seemed like a splendid idea. And it was.
In case you aren't familiar with shot cottons, they are a woven fabric where fabric from one direction (warp) is a different color from fabric that is woven the other direction (weft). It creates a fabric that looks like a solid, but that has more dimension and has a little extra panache. Because they are woven, they can be a little stretchy to work with (starch can help if you want, but I am not a fan of starch). They are also a little more prone to fraying than other fabrics - I haven't personally had an issue with this when making a quilt, but I haven't used them extensively in projects so I can't really speak about that with authority.
After posting photos of my in-progress quilt on Instagram, I had lots of requests for the brands and fabric colors of the fabrics used in my quilt. I am going to do my best here - there are a number of brands represented and some of these have been in my stash for about a decade.
I am going to link to as many of the fabrics as I can find, but the links will be from a variety of sources since there are different brands represented. If you aren't really interested in my colors but would like to shop for shot cottons on your own, both Kaffe Fassett and Peppered Cottons are excellent.
Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons
Peppered Cottons
White Sugar (background fabric)
Atomic Tangerine (I did not use this color but I think it is a good sub for the orange Kaffe Fassett that I used)
Moda Crossweave
Dark Red (I couldn't find this anywhere)
Those were the only two Moda fabrics I used, but they are very good quality and white on red, flamingo, purple violet, and honeysuckle would also work.
Alison Glass Kaleidoscope - these are woven fabrics, but they aren't shot cottons
Since I was using scraps, I used more fabrics than the pattern calls for. You could easily use fewer. Because the shot cottons have two colors, I think that makes them very forgiving - they pretty much all look good together.
While I was making the quilt I was just sure I would have the perfect fabric for the backing in my stash. I didn't. But I did find the perfect fabric! It is a print from Alison Glass' Kaleidoscope line - she recently added some stripes and plaids to the collection and the magenta plaid was just what I wanted for this quilt.
