Mustard and Grey Liberty Quilt — Hand Pieced Patchwork
June Clark has made this stunning mustard and grey Liberty quilt with 1,600 hand pieced two-inch Tana Lawn squares. This neutral Liberty patchwork features a carefully curated palette of mustard and grey fabrics with vintage Liberty prints hidden within the piecing.
June told us a little bit about her quilt:
“I first made a log cabin quilt from fabric I had – that took so little time that I started on this hand sewn one. I had made one a few years ago with vintage Liberty – clothes that I had made and taken to pieces when I stopped working. I vowed I would never do another one and then lockdown came. So I asked a local copy shop if they could cut me the squares from ordinary copy paper. I chose fabric from you (my first order – yay thank you June) – measured two and a half inch squares of Tana Lawn and cut the fabric. I cut one layer at a time as I find Tana Lawn moves when you cut it.”
“I thread basted 1,600 squares to the papers and ‘made’ my pattern on the carpet. This way I could change it until I was happy. I then photographed it and numbered each square, eg. A1 – row A, square 1 – I have 39 rows across and 41 squares down. I sewed square to square (21 squares and 20 squares) and then joined those two together to get each row. I joined 5 rows together and then joined the blocks of 5. I removed the tacking and paper square from each fabric piece.”
Making the Quilt Sandwich:
“I placed the backing fabric (Moda French General) face down, then the wadding and finally the Liberty right side facing up on top. I tacked the ‘quilt sandwich’ starting from the middle. I had my A1 cutting mat under the sandwich and used quilt pins. Then I started the hand quilting. Finally I machine sewed on the first outer band (my second and third order from you – double yay!); ironed it and then quilted close to the seam. I did this for the final two bands. I then hand sewed the edging band to the underside. There is an imperfection in the quilt – three squares of a different Tana Lawn in one of the top corners so as to make my quilt more human.”
“Useful tools: felt pens that you can iron out of the fabric (a present); wrist pin cushion; small quilt clips for holding two squares together at first for sewing and then for holding one strip of sewn squares to another strip.”
“I used the French general backing fabric as I used to teach French and also for the colours. The red reminded me of the turkey red that the New Englanders used for their fabric when the Colonies were blockaded and could no longer get cotton from the UK. (I did a City & Guilds I and II in Embroidery and Design many years ago).
The quilt took about three months to make. I loved your wee parcels tied up with Tana Lawn you sent me and I have copied it, especially since I ruined half a metre of fabric when I tried to cut six layers at once. I ended up with half a metre of squiggly strips.”
Thank you for sharing you beautiful quilt with us June – it is simply stunning. I wish I had the patience to hand sew 1,600 2″ squares together. I can’t wait to see what you make next over the winter!
