The Richmond Quilt

Here's my newest version of the Richmond quilt.  It's called the Richmond as the inspiration for it was an upholstery fabric I saw on a chair in a High Street shop window in Richmond, England, about half way between London and Heathrow airport.

I actually made a tutorial for my first version of this quilt (which at the time was unnamed) that I shared as a guest blogger on Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict blog back in 2012!

This version is for a former colleague and her husband.  He has been diagnosed with ALS.  They are an amazing couple and I wanted them to know that I am thinking about them as they weather this storm together.  Sadly, quilts don't come with healing power, but I do believe they come with restorative powers and sometimes—just a quick cuddle under one—can help make things feel just a little bit better.

She loves purple ... like everything in her cube at work was purple.  So I wanted to make sure I included a little of her in it as well as choosing a few colors that would help it feel more masculine as it is for both of them.

I had recently received my new Kona Color Card which I had turned into a foldable poster that has the color swatches attached to it with velcro.  This allows me to pull them off and look at them together—against a white background—to get the best color combination.

I haven't been to their home, so I am unsure of their style or colors, but knowing her, I felt that a slightly more modern quilt would work well.  So I designed these two versions on Excel.

  

The left one, Option #1, had used Kona Snow as the offset color in some blocks and Kona Ash as the offset color in others.  For Option #2, on the right, I chose to use just Snow for the offset.  Ultimately, I decided to go with the Option #1.  Feeling like the Ash gave it some visual interest as well as echoing a larger patchwork feel.

As you can see, I used the Ash on the blocks that were using the darker hues and Snow on the ones where there were lighter hues.

I chose to go with straight-line quilting at a slight angle.  Again, it's a simple quilt, so I wanted to add a little visual interest and because it's a busy quilt, this highlights the pattern rather than competes with it.

For the back, I had some leftover 108" Kaufman Blueprint Basic in Fog.  But not quite enough, so I used a little more Kona Ash on the side.  The simple floral on the back is a nice reprieve from the very geometrical front.

And I finished it off with Architextures Grey Crosshatch by Carolyn Friedlander (also Kaufman).


Quilt details.

Finished Size = 67" x 56"

Fabrics (all solids are Kona):

Front:  Snow, Ash, Lavender, Princess, Limestone, Slate, Blue Bell,  Celadon, Seafoam

Back = Kaufman Blueprint Basic Fog, Ash

Binding Architextures Gray Crosshatch

Thread = white Aerofil

Sorry the pictures aren't the best.  It is bucketing rain outside and I want to get this in the mail in the morning, so no outside pictures this time.

I have made this pattern a few times now, so I am going to go ahead and update the tutorial and re-publish it on here in the next week.

Have a great week all ...

All the best

Lisa