Dandelion Clock Quilt

My Dandelion Clock quilt is finished and ready to share!

This all started when I designed a block for the Summer Sampler 2019 using my Freehand Foundation Piecing technique (tutorial available here).   I thought it looked a bit like the quarter of a dandelion clock (a VERY abstract interpretation of a dandelion clock!). I enjoyed making it so much that I decided to make more and then to offer it as a workshop at this year’s Stitch Gathering.

I really loved the effect I got from grading the different colours of the wedges so that they ‘washed’ around the wheel. The wonky curves are always fun for me too.

Over the next couple of months I made more blocks when I had time and pieced them into the background. I used as many different grey solids for the background as I could get my hands on.

I really enjoyed playing with scale by making some blocks huge and others tiny. The small one above is about 14″ and the largest is around 32″.

Once I had finished putting the top together the quilting began.  I have become a lot more confident with my FMQ since I made my ‘Forty layers of quilting’ quilt and I wanted to use some of the same filling designs here plus a few more.

I used an Aurifil 50wt thread in variegarted green (number 3320 from my Sherbert Dip collection) throughout and had such fun filling the bands of wonky curves with different motifs and patterns . I kept the wedges unquilted so that they really pop out. I then filled the background with a mixture of interlocking squares and square spirals (or ‘squirals’ as I like to call them!).

I even created some ‘ghost dandelions’ can you see them? All of the quilting was achieved using my domestic Janome 9400 and completely freehand (no marking).

I’m so pleased I chose to face bind the quilt. I love that sharp edge it gives and it seems to be hanging really straight. I used Terry Aske’s tutorial for this.

You can see the quilting really well from the back. I used an extra wide Architextures print by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman for the backing fabric.

The quilt photography was achieved (by my wonderful hubby!) in a very brief window between rain and low sun last week, and just in time to enter this quilt to QuiltCon. I am very prepared for rejection though as this seems to happen most years, and if it happens again then at least I will be able to bring this quilt along to my workshop at the Thread House Winter Retreat at the end of January, and enter it to the Scottish show in March.

Plus I have added the Dandelion Clock Block as a new workshop at myBearpaw and it is now hanging in my studio. This weekend was our workshop launch for 2020 (new class mosaic above) and in fact I am writing this while manning the shop in between taking class bookings! You can view all our classes for the new term here.

Now that I look at the blocks again I feel they are actually more like dandelions themselves rather than their seed ‘clocks’ but I don’t think it really matters.

What does matter is that this quilt makes me so happy, with it’s riotous cheery colours (all my favourites!) and those big bright dandelions bursting out from the background!