Last fall—when it felt like all my quilting friends were at Market and I was living vicariously through them on IG—a very surprising (and welcome!) comment came through on my feed, from none other than Robert Kaufman fabric designer Jennifer Sampou herself... (The anticipation!) So when she emailed later asking if I would join in on the Insta Blog Hop to celebrate the arrival of her latest line, black & white, I didn't think twice.
From the start I knew I wanted to do something with feathers (consider it an ode to one of her signature prints in the collection). Initially I was going to stitch up (and drafted patterns for) over half a dozen different "painted" feathers, but when it came time to decide on a layout, nothing seemed right. Until I stumbled upon a light and airy dreamcatcher while looking for nursery inspiration... (Lightbulb!)
I quickly got to work merging all my sketches in photoshop and ultimately came up with this...
A subdued, crib-sized dreamcatcher dripping with five brightly painted feathers. Most of the quilt is pieced with black & white fabrics (and coordinating Studio Stash Yarn Dyes) in the "ash" color story. To add some dawn-inspired splashes of color, I used a range of blazing shades from the kona sunrise charm pack. (The pack itself also has a great selection of pinks and greens, but I went with the more heated hues to play off the sun rays in the design.)
For the quilting, I was going to stick with what I know best (straight lines along the "rays"), but when I asked my friend Amanda of Material Girl Quilts for a second opinion she suggested I venture outside my comfort zone and try a little free motion quilting.
..I mean I'm no Angela Walters, but e for effort, right? ;o) For the binding, I used one of Jennifer's Studio Stash Yarn Dyes, with a little fiery gradient from the kona sunrise charm pack for another added pop of color.
C'mon, how cute is that?
In the meantime, there are other great ways to win too! Jennifer will be giving away a fat quarter tower of the complete collection (just head over to her opening post before February 8th), plus a taquito pack and a copy of one of her new patterns over on IG (just post your own black & white project—or a favorite from the hop!—and tag it with #blackandwhitefabrics and #jennifersampou).
And of course you can visit all the other stops on the hop for more inspiration and extra chances to win, too!
January 23 JenniferSampou.com / Robert Kaufman Blog
January 25 Teresa Coates - Fabric Depot
January 26 Amy Gibson - Stitchery Dickory Dock
January 27 AnneMarie Chany - Gen X Quilters
January 28 Casey York - The Studiolo
January 29 C&T Publishing - Stash Books
January 30 APQ - All People Quilt
January 31 Angela Pingel
February 1 Angela Walters / Janice Zeller Ryan
February 2 Sarah Sharp - {no} hats in the house << you are here :o) >>
February 4 Nicole Daksiewicz - Modern Handcraft
February 5 Liesel Gibson - Oliver + S
February 6 Christopher Thompson / Natalie Barnes
February 7 Jennifer Sampou
Thanks for stopping by :o)