Another Nancy Drew Quilt

    Last year, I created two Nancy Drew quilts for some dear friends.  Another friend, for whom I made a Kaffe Fassett purple quilt, asked me if I could make another Nancy Drew quilt for her sister, a lifelong Nancy Drew fan.   Of course! My first commissioned quilt!

 

      This was a bit of a challenge, because while I had some leftover fabric from the earlier quilts, I did not have enough to create a new quilt.   I scoured the web to find some remaining yardage from that Moda collection.  I couldn't design the quilt until I had the fabrics in hand.   I found blue dotted material, a panel of the book covers in blue, and the the yellow magnifying glass fabric.  Enough to start with, adding in pieces remaining from my earlier quilts.

     I am always interested to see how others plan their quilts.  I see in some blogs very detailed colored  plans on graph paper, and even computer-aided designs.   My plans for this quilt were not so fancy.   Using the size of the books as the start, I tried to build a quilt pattern that would result in a nice lap size quilt, using the limited fabrics I had on  hand.



 

My plans!

      I knew I was going to need a solid to go with the prints, and started trying out some combos on my design wall.  I didn't like the green, so decided to stick with the blue and yellow combo.

     I ended up getting a Kona in Royal to blend with the blue dotted fabric.  It also seemed to go well with the little blue border I created from the book panel.  I used the yellow to make a nice wide border around each book.

Here are close ups of each of the 4 panels I used.  I have since cleaned up the messy counter!

    I ended up using the blue solid to sash around the yellow bordered panels, and used bits of the Nancy head fabrics as corner blocks.  Then I used about an 8 inch run of the blue dottend fabric for the outside border.

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     I love the Nancy head fabric.  It is hard to quilt, as I try not to run the stitches right through her face!  Below are some close-ups of the various Nancy Drew heads.

I ended up with a big stipple quilting pattern, with a royal blue thread.

     I have been buying fabric to make backings when it goes on sale, and liked how this red starburst fabric was so different from the front.

     Here  is a picture of the finished quilt on the rug.  I used some of the yellow magnifying glass for the binding.

 It  was  a  windy day when I tried to take a photo on the deck overlooking Lake Erie.    Glad my trusty quilt holder had a good grip!

     I finished this quilt a few weeks back, but had to wait until it was gifted.  Happy Birthday to Mary, a Nancy Drew fan!  I am hoping everyone is enjoying a nice beginning to the summer.

Take care,
Gretchen