I am so glad to have this quilt finished. It was the bane of my existence for a while because it was too hot and cumbersome to spend very much time under it while I quilted it. I call it Gees Marimekko because it was inspired by the Gees Bend quilts. I wanted to try to make one which looked kind of like theirs, and then I remembered the Marimekko fabrics I had. Crate and Barrell use Marimekko fabrics for decoration of their stores and they also sell yardage as does Ikea - but it is rather pricy. For a while the Crate and Barrell outlet in North Georgia sold remnants of Marimekko fabric for $0.39 per pound! So whenever I was in the area, I bought a bunch of the stuff.
I hadn't been able to use any of it really, since it is much heavier than quilting fabrics and doesn't go well in combination with them. And I didn't have a lot of any one of the fabrics. But they were perfect for this project. I just pieced a bunch of the remnants (most of which turned out to be approximately the same size) in no particular pattern or order for the front and the back. In fact, I don't think this quilt has a back or a front. Both sides are about the same, just different combination of fabrics. I hand quilted it with perle cotton using lots of different colors. I thought the big hand quilted stitches would be most in keeping with the Gees Bend look.
Since I didn't have any Marimekko zebra fabric, I appliqued on this zebra I had from somewhere. The front on one side and the back on the other. The finished quilt measures 85" x 101" and is plenty big enough to go on top of the other quilt on our bed to help us stay warm during the winter.
I am so glad to have this quilt finished. It was the bane of my existence for a while because it was too hot and cumbersome to spend very much time under it while I quilted it. I call it Gees Marimekko because it was inspired by the Gees Bend quilts. I wanted to try to make one which looked kind of like theirs, and then I remembered the Marimekko fabrics I had. Crate and Barrell use Marimekko fabrics for decoration of their stores and they also sell yardage as does Ikea - but it is rather pricy. For a while the Crate and Barrell outlet in North Georgia sold remnants of Marimekko fabric for $0.39 per pound! So whenever I was in the area, I bought a bunch of the stuff.
I hadn't been able to use any of it really, since it is much heavier than quilting fabrics and doesn't go well in combination with them. And I didn't have a lot of any one of the fabrics. But they were perfect for this project. I just pieced a bunch of the remnants (most of which turned out to be approximately the same size) in no particular pattern or order for the front and the back. In fact, I don't think this quilt has a back or a front. Both sides are about the same, just different combination of fabrics. I hand quilted it with perle cotton using lots of different colors. I thought the big hand quilted stitches would be most in keeping with the Gees Bend look.
Since I didn't have any Marimekko zebra fabric, I appliqued on this zebra I had from somewhere. The front on one side and the back on the other. The finished quilt measures 85" x 101" and is plenty big enough to go on top of the other quilt on our bed to help us stay warm during the winter.
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