Boy this post has been a long time coming. I finished this months ago, but my bottleneck is almost always taking the photos.
The beginnings of this quilt actually happened back in 2021 when I first sketched it out. The idea for it came because we had this big blank wall in the bedroom that I really don’t like looking at (the previous owners painted everything grey, and we hadn’t had the chance to paint the bedroom before moving in so, BIG GREY WALL). I didn’t have any super large photos, and I didn’t want to artfully arrange a bunch of small ones in a non-boring way (also frames cost a bloody fortune), so the idea for the Twelve Crowns wall hanging was born.
Side note: can we please stop making everything grey? It’s the default colour and it is SO BORING. Grey laminate, grey paint, grey grey grey. You’d think people were allergic to colour.
Anyhow…
I also knew I wanted it to be predominantly white; it’s a look I love but is not necessarily always reasonable for a quilt that’s going to get heavy use. But on a wall? Perfect, because it’s not going to get dirty dog prints and messy baby hands all over it. I also knew I wanted to use my naturally dyed fabrics, and I had been holding onto the small stash I had dyed before I got pregnant.
So I began sketching. When I say sketching, I don’t actually use a pencil and paper. I use PreQuilt, which I have no association with besides being a user. I am not a super skilled artist and I find the idea of sitting down sketching, erasing, sketching, erasing, rinse repeat, incredibly frustrating. I see other quilters with their beautiful notebooks full of lovely sketches, and that is absolutely not me, so PreQuilt is a good option and one of the few things I’m not sore about paying a monthly subscription for.
The “sketch” of this quilt actually came together quite easily, and I love it when that happens. Sometimes there’s just a harmonious fitting together of the idea and it takes very little effort; like the quilt was always there, it just needed to come out (if you want to get all metaphysical about it). But, then the idea sat until January 2023 when I finally had a chance to begin working on it. I had almost all the fabric dyed that I needed, except for the cutch. Thankfully, cutch extract is particularly easy to work with and it was a quick dye session to get that ready.
From cutting to finishing took from January to April. The nice thing about sewing is that I’m finding it a particularly easy craft to work on with a busy toddler that never stops moving. Pick up, put down, do a bit here and there. Knitting I hate stopping in the middle of a row, spinning I have to pull out the wheel and put it back, lest little hands grab fibre and stick fingers into moving parts. Dyeing is time sensitive so that can be a bit tricky. But sewing? It’s super easy to fit a few seams in here and there as time allows.
The quilt itself uses all traditional blocks, and I used indigo, madder, and cutch as my main dyes. The red I got by combining madder and cutch, and the grey is madder and iron with a gallnut tannin base. I mention the tannin because it absolutely will alter the tone of your iron-shifted fabrics depending on what you use. Gallnut is my go-to tannin because it gives nice, clear colours, but I do also enjoy using myrobalan, sumac, and quebracho as tannins. The blue is a few different shades of indigo that I had dyed in 2021.
The backing I didn’t care too much about, since I knew I’d never see it. I used a second-hand sheet, which I have a small stash of for backings. This one in particular I didn’t like, so I wanted to use it for a personal project. It’s some kind of poly blend that’s quite silky feeling that frankly, made the quilting difficult. I’m sorry I ever got it, but now I have it and I will end up using it, although likely only for small projects in the future where it won’t shift too much. I had to pull out the quilting on two occasions because even with heavy basting, the backing shifted. Even still, there are a few spots where the backing is creased slightly. If I had been making this to sell or give away I would have started over with a different backing, but again, it was for me and I knew I’d never see it, so there it is imperfections and all.
The slippery less-than-ideal backing wasn’t the only time I had to pull out quilting. At first I had started with an extremely light cotton batting. I didn’t want a lot of poof to this piece, so I went as light as I could go. Well, after quilting about 1/6th of it, I decided I didn’t like the look at all and pulled it all out. That was a little frustrating, I’m not going to lie. But, I’m glad I did. I knew I’d really regret not doing it if I just kept going. So, I switched out for my standard mid-weight cotton batting and began again.
Speaking of the quilting, it’s hand quilted with Olympus sashiko thread in natural white. I decided not to run the quilting through the blocks, so the actual quilting works around the blocks. It’s something that I’ve never done before, and I like the effect for this, although I’m not sure I’d do it all the time.
To make it a piece that you hang, I simply added a few squares that I folded in half to the corners, along with a few strips in the middle of the quilt so it didn’t bow. I incorporated those into the sewing when I put on the binding, and voila, instant wall hanging. Even though I intended to hang it horizontally, I didn’t want to bar myself from hanging it vertically in the future if I want to change where it is, so I added a few more along the short edge as well, so I have the option in the future of changing the orientation. Then, I got a piece of 3/8″ doweling, popped that in, and hung.
That grey wall is still there, but at least there’s something to break it up a bit.