Les Amis Quilt 🇫🇷

This "Les Amis Quilt" is the Craftsy 2018 BOM Quilt of the Year.  If you're reading this and you're not a quilter BOM means Block of the Month and it's where you're sent out a different block each month of the year and have a whole year to complete a quilt.  This particular quilt went on sale on Black Friday of 2018 and I was able to get the whole entire kit at once AND at a huge discount.  This kit is now back to regular price ... and what a lesson learned.  Now whenever I see a quilt kit that I really want I'll wait till next Black Friday to see if it gets marked down. Quilt kits are très cher (very expensive) and this french named quilt was no different; so, any amount you can save is a good thing.

My husband, the master quilt holder!

This quilt is technically one of the harder quilts I have pieced together. It comes in just under a thousand pieces and you have to cut the pieces out precisely and then piece them together precisely so that all the points and seams match.  It took me two days to cut all the fabric out.

998 Pieces

It then took thirteen days to piece all 998 pieces together ... with a little bit of life intruding along the way.  I ended up cutting the border smaller as I didn't like how wide they had it in the pattern but otherwise I left the pattern as is and it went together well. 

Moroccan Star Block

This quilt is more traditional than what I've done in the past but oh those colors!  It's made up of Moroccan Star, Flower Star and Flying Geese blocks joined together by sashing blocks that make the quilt appear to have been pieced on point.  

Once this quilt was pieced I looked at it long and hard to decide how to quilt it on the longarm.  I wanted to do something special but after auditioning all sorts of free motion quilting designs it occurred to me that the piecing is so intricate and beautiful, in and of itself, that the piecing should be the star, not the quilting. 

So, instead, I did a lot of stitch in the ditch and some simple ruler work designs allowing the eye to see the piecing first, which allows that to shine while the quilting takes a back seat.

For this quilt I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting because it drapes so beautifully and it's softer than a cotton or polyester batting. For the thread I used Micro Quilter by Superior Threads in #7007 - Silver for most of the top and Bottom Line Silver for the bobbin.  I also used Isacord #3355 - Dark Indigo for the border and some darker blue thread that I had here on hand for the darkest blue in the Flower Star block because the Micro Quilter thread showed up too much on that block.  

I am finding more and more that although I love to piece a quilt I can't wait until that part is over so that I can quilt it on the longarm. That is and will probably always be my favorite part.  It's so easy to want to "overquilt" a quilt because it's so much fun.  And it's very hard to step back sometimes and let the piecing shine like I did on this one. 

This quilt was made for my sister.  Les Amis is french for "the friends" and I can't think of a better friend than my big sister! In January of this year she turned a "special" age that I won't put into print.  (You're welcome, sis❣️)  (She doesn't look that old, anyway!)  When I saw this quilt it reminded me of her so I decided to make it for her birthday.  My sister is eight years older than I am and when I was a little girl back in the sixties my younger brother and I would lay on the floor of the bathroom door, chins in hand, and watch as my big sister teased her hair over and over to get it really high into a bouffant and then used half a can of hair spray on it to fix it into place. As a kid it was really fun to watch, but then all those sixties styles were something else! Growing up, I always envied my sister, she was a beauty and I always wanted to be just like her. She's still beautiful today and I wanted to make her something special for her birthday. I wish her many more birthdays. She is the bestest sister ever and I love her very much❣️

Remember, to pick up a needle and thread and stitch some love into your world!