When I saw this fabric in my local quilt store, it reminded me exactly of some English Chippendale china that my husband’s grandmother gave us. I love the look of that china and so I just couldn’t pass up the fabric. I set about designing a quilt around that fabric as soon as I could.
The fabric is called “Garden of Enchantment” by Maywood Studios. Because of the large design in the fabric, I didn’t want to cut the fabric up into real small pieces. I even entertained the notion of just cutting squares about eight inches and alternating them with some kind of patchwork. In the end, I opted for doing hourglass blocks with a couple of different fabrics.
The other fabrics I used were Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in Bone and Art Gallery’s “Stamped”, a text fabric from Amy Sinbaldi’s Paperie line, and a fabric I absolutely love and want to sneak into quilts every place I can! This text fabric is delicate but adds so much.
The hourglass blocks are 8″ after being set in. There was a total of 42 blocks in the quilt.
I quilted this with 40 wt. Aurifil Thread by doing a double diagonal line along the hourglass blocks with a 3.5 stitch length. This was pretty easy, because I just used the width of my walking foot as the guide.
For the binding, I debated about it very little – I knew I wanted to use the Garden of Enchantment fabric itself. I thought it finished the quilt the best, instead of using something completely different as an accent, which I usually do with my bindings.
For the backing, I wanted something modern as a contrast to the more traditional front, so I chose a fun fabric from M&S Textiles Australia called Sand Hill by Anna Pitjara. It’s an aboriginal inspired print and I think it’s so interesting.
The batting is my usual 100% cotton Warm and Natural. The quilt finishes at 48″ x 55″, a nice lap quilt size.
Thanks for stopping by – hope you’re making something!
Elaine
You may also want to see English China Quilt Work in Progress
I’m linking to Sew Fresh Quilts, Free Motion by the River and Blossom Heart Quilts.
Beautiful!
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What a beautiful quilt – the blend of the more traditional fabric and that beautiful text fabric is wonderful and very inspiring
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Sent from Samsung tablet.
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What a lovely quilt! I have a question about the batting. Do you find the Warm & Natural shows through a white top? I have seen some bloggers say they only use Warm & White when it is a white top, but I am hoping that is overkill because I have a lot of Warm & Natural that I’d rather use up!
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Janelle: You are absolutely right! If you look at some of my other quilts which have a lot of white fabric, I always use Warm & White. In this quilt, however, it was very creamy so used Warm & Natural.
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This quilt is not at all my style, and I absolutely love it! I hope it builds as many nice memories as the china that inspired it.
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Thank, Robby!
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What a great source of inspiration, and your choice of quilting design is something I’ll be keeping in mind. A beautiful quilt!
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Karen: Thanks!
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Hi Elaine, thank you for sharing your pictures, ideas and inspiration for the English China Quilt. It has come out a treat and very shabby chic-ish.
As much as I love the red print fabric, I would choose a blue print for my quilt as my maternal Grandmother used Blue Willow pattern china in her house.
Thanks again for sharing.
Regards,
Marian
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Marian: Thank you so much! That would be fun for you to do a quilt to match the Blue Willow china, too.
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Everything you do is a masterpiece! I love it all. You truly are very talented. Thank you for sharing. Your posts make my day
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Ginny: Wow! Thanks and your comment made my day.
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Elaine it’s beautiful! Sandhill in white is a wonderful choice for backing – a fabric I’d not heard of before, even though I live in Australia. Your fabrics, design and quilting work together perfectly.
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Thanks, Karen! I also have some of that fabric in the black colorway, thinking it would make a striking binding for a future quilt.
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A beautiful quilt, matches your china so nicely. Nice and fresh looking.
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Visiting from Lets Bee Social – I love that fabric! I adore red with cream, and those dishes are divine!
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Thanks for stopping by, Carole!
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Absolutely stunning. It is such a perfect match with your china.
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Thank you, Jennifer!
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Stunning! The pattern is perfect for that lovely fabric and the back is truly the unexpected. I love it. Great mix.
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Marcy: Thank you so much!
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Wow, the fabric really does match the china perfectly! Lovely finish. 🙂
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Thank you, Yvonne!
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Simply gorgeous! And I love those dishes! Next to fabric they are my favorite things.
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Thanks, Emily! Those dishes are very dear to us.
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Very nice quilt ! Love the picture with the china.
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Thanks, Sophie!
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Very nice choices in fabrics….sooo beautiful. And the quilting is great!
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Thanks, Caryl!
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Oh, your quilt is so lovely and quaint and matches your dishes perfectly!. Just breathtaking
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Beautiful, love the soft text print with the red and cream. Great quilting too,
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This is a beautiful quilt. It’s so soft looking and pretty.
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How did I not know of your blog before now?! Another beautiful quilt!
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Christine: Thank you so much!
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I am new to both your blogs and am so enjoying your recipes, and grateful for your helpful pointers about machine quilting. The English China Quilt strikes such a nostalgic chord with me that I would like to make it, if you would allow this. My backing choice would be different from yours and quite a challenge to replace with another equally as effective. My quilting labels always identify the designer and in this case it would be you if, as I ask, you will grant permission.The quilt will be my own, and not exhibited or sold. Many thanks for your consideration of my request. Regardless of your decision, I will follow your work with great interest.
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Iris: You can absolutely make the China Quilt for yourself! No worries. I would love to see a photo when you are done. Enjoy!
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Thank you so much ! You are very gracious. I’m excited to begin looking for fabric ….
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