Making a Maple Leaf Quilt

For the first post of the new year, this seems strangely out of order, but that is probably because I am late finishing it. On the other hand, it is really not out of order at all, because this quilt is a very special one and a memento of our beautiful old Sunday School House, here in Yorkshire. We are moving!

We bought this house when we came back from a long spell of working abroad on overseas postings and for me it seemed the closure of a perfect circle and you can read about that here. I always said it was for 10 years. Now, 10 years on (how on earth did that go so quickly!) it is time to refresh the page and downsize and begin retirement on the coast. It is a big sea change, but a welcome one and I feel ready to move on and look to the future. I hope very much to have a sewing room in our new house, but I know it won’t be on the scale of here. Somehow, it doesn’t matter and I am not sure I can explain why. Perhaps it is just the feeling of getting older and a natural inclination to consolidate. Perhaps it is because I have explored so many avenues of needlework that I am ready to concentrate things a little. Perhaps it is just because the big quilts are harder to make these days and anyway our house is loaded with them. I’m a practical sort of gal too, so I understand that it is simply no good to be overloaded with ‘stuff’ that ends up never being used. Whatever the reasons, it is time for change and we are very much looking forward to living on the south coast by the sea, closer to our kids and wider family and with easier access to London.

What will I miss from here though…many things….from trips to Haworth and the Bronte House and Salt’s Mill to Halifax’s very own splendid Piece Hall. What else, well….one thing are the two glorious maple trees we have in our garden, one is a robust Canadian Maple with fabulously syrupy leaves and the other is a delicate Japanese Maple that just wafts it’s shapely treasure in a golden glow of magnificent seasonal colours. This year it was just resplendent.

I decided (quite last minute really) that I needed to do two things, one was to make a maple leaf quilt and the other was to try some botanical dying with some of the autumnal leaves that I could use later with embroidery and embellishments.

I spent two happy afternoons working on the botanical dyeing, but I’ll save that for another post, when I actually get around to doing something with them. Suffice to say, it turned out rather well and I am glad to have these safe in my sewing box while I contemplate exactly how to use them. As to the quilt, well that came about by chance and good timing really. I was browsing the Tilda’s world blog (which is simply divine) and saw this lovely free pattern and was instantly charged to take up arms (or needles)… fabric at the ready raided from my somewhat overwhelming stash.

I will pop a link to the pattern at the end of the post, but interestingly, as you can see, the Tilda version has a pale green background. I often get caught up in just making quilts on a white background but this was a real change. I didn’t have anything as pale as the pattern picture, but I did like the idea of using this fresh green kona cotton as a substitute. After a couple of blocks, I could see that it was going to work well and wondered why I am so hesitant in not using more bright colours for backgrounds.

The blocks were very simple and quick to make and I loved putting all the print fabrics together. It seemed like I was whipping up the autumn indoors and these colours are such a change for me. I really just thoroughly enjoyed making this.

Using the Tilda cover picture as a guide, I focussed on all the lovely colours that autumn brings from velvety greens to burnt oranges to chestnut browns and golden hues. It was just a joy to put together.

As I began to line up all the blocks into a quilt formation, it just looked so pretty and it really was going to be a memento of our maple trees.

Over the course of the few weeks that I was making this quilt, the maple trees in the garden began to drop and the whole process of shedding turned my thoughts to moving and decluttering. It was quite calming to think about this while I worked. I felt energised to look the whole moving process in the face and apply some yorkshire grit to both clearing out and saying goodbye to this lovely home. It became a cathartic process. It enabled me to consolidate all the emotion of leaving our garden into a beautiful quilt that I can take with me.

As the days drew in towards the winter solstice, I began to focus on quilting this. Layering a larger quilt is always a pain in the back, literally, but I have a system that works for me and I use bamboo wadding which is less bulky and easier to work with. Once it is all layered on the carpet in the hall, I put a few curved pins in, but then I take it over to the ironing board where I make sure there are no creases. As I iron, I pin it all in place.

I decided this time to follow the ‘Tilda’ quilting design and this involved stitching a leaf (or feather) motif in the printed leaves and then just straight but freestyle lines down the length of the quilt. I quite liked this idea because it reminded me of the rain (we have a lot of rain in Yorkshire). Beginning at one long side, I began, tentatively, but very soon got into the swing of it and it looked really pretty.

Although my Juki absolutely mashes quilting, I still had to pace myself alittle to avoid backache and shoulder ache but actually it soon came together. I did a couple re-presses and re-pins with a hot steam iron every 3 rows to make sure everything was smooth on the back because as you quilt along you can push the backing fabric too.

For the binding, I used all the scraps up to make a lovely contrasting edging. I always think this is the best and most economical option.

Finally the label and I am a great fan of making pretty labels for quilts. This is what will carry them onwards for generations to come. It identifies time and place and maker and it sets the scene. I chose to name my quilt ‘Maple Syrup’ as it is a glorious tribute to both our maple trees and the words conjure up a glorious rich melange of natural colours. As homage to my ever growing obsession with all things Japanese, I decided to embroider a little tree and add the name of the quilt in Japanese.

I’m so happy to have finished this before we move. It will find it’s place in our new home, wherever that might be. It really is a quilt that has a meaning to me and that has made all the work so worthwhile.

I will be updating the blog as our move goes along, but it might be a bit quiet on the sewing front for a while. However, my new years resolution is to focus on dressmaking and embroidery for a while so I hope to be back soon with some more projects.

Meanwhile, wishing you all a peaceful and prosperous new year.

Ruby x

The tilda pattern can be found here for free and do check out the Tildasworld blog for all sorts of fantastic quilty things.