As quilters, we make bed coverings all the time. In addition, many of us come to quilting from a general sewing background. So it’s not surprising that one of the hottest trends in the quilting world is viewing the entire bedroom as a showcase for our sewing skills.
Tillie’s Quilt is now finished and looks great in this room. The quilt is currently in France, being photographed for an upcoming issue of Quiltmania, the wonderful French magazine with fantastic pictures, patterns and projects. The quilt is a hand pieced and machine quilted mosaic design with large design elements that highlight the toile fabric. The walls were painted soft warm beige (Pratt and Lambert makes an authentic Colonial Williamsburg color called Bracken Cream) that matches the solid beige hexagons in the quilt. Then the toile and one of the theme fabrics were used to make coordinating dust ruffle, and window treatment.
Bedroom furnishings can be made of the same 100% quilting weight cotton fabrics that we use in our quilts. The fabric used for this dust ruffle is a sepia toned toile design featuring a large graceful pheasant on an off white background. The fabric is gathered onto a header – avoiding sewing the ruffle to the traditional platform that is a two-man effort to spread between the mattress and headboard! When gathering the fabric, be sure that the fabric is a minimum of one and a half times the length of the sizes of the bed so that the dust ruffle looks custom made. For further instructions, view the free pattern this month.
There are lots of possibilities for custom designed window treatments that can be made at home. One of my favorites is the Roman Shade – perhaps because it really showcases the beauty of the fabric. Check the website the middle of February for a free pattern for a Roman Shade like this one.
If you are interested in re-creating a bedroom like this, I would suggest using the recently released toiles from the Centennial collection, licensed by Colonial Williamsburg to Windham Fabric. They are absolutely gorgeous and selling quickly! This collection will be gone soon! The toiles are available in red, blue and sepia brown (Fabric # 27216-1, 27216-2, 27216-3). Coordinating fabrics #27209 and 27211 would work well with the toile for the Roman Shade.
Yardage of the In Time of Toile Fabrics from Red Rooster is no longer available. If you are interested in making Tillie’s Quilt, we have only a couple of kits left to make the quilt exactly as it appears on the pattern cover. The kit includes 2 yards of the border print, 2 ½ yards of the off-white, slightly textured beige, 1 yard of the toile and an assortment of the document colorways of the fabrics from the Shelburne Museum that inspired this collection by Froncie Quinn for Red Rooster Fabrics. The cost of the quilt kit is $87. And be sure to watch for the upcoming issue of Quiltmania that features the quilt. If you haven’t seen this magazine, be sure to find it – you’ll be glad you did! And if you don’t have yardage of toile in your next project or in your stash, order now before it’s gone!!!
Enjoy the quiet of winter and the time it offers for quilting!
Karen