Moroccan Tile Quilt

I love the texture on this quilt for many reasons.

You will remember from my previous post that the quilting on this quilt is based on the designs on hand-painted Moroccan tiles. 

A big mix of different designs. Only a few of the blocks are the same.

Some up close shots? 

I feel like I succeeded with making the transition from tile design to quilted design.

The jewel tones of the peppered cotton and against the gold thread is a combination I could definitely work with again. The gold thread is subtle, a hint of glimmer - not too much sparkle. (But enough for us girlie sorts!)

I know this was a lot of photos but it was hard to choose my favorites!! The batting I used for this quilt was wool - with the washed peppered cotton and wool batting the quilt is very soft and drapes softly - as you can see it doesn't hang so well - but I am hoping it will be perfect for wrapping yourself up in when good friends can not be there to hug you.

Moroccan Tile Quilt

This is a quilt that I am making for a very dear friend of mine who has broken my itty bitty heart by moving away from New York to Indiana. As we get older I find it gets harder to make friends whom you identify with fully, whom you can cry on or tell off - an unconditional sort of friendship - warts and all.

I used in this quilt a pashmina that this friend had unceremoniously thrown at me saying "perhaps you can recycle this into something." So when she said she had to move away I thought maybe I could recycle into something just for her. I forgot to take a picture of the whole pashmina before I began cutting -  but here is a glimpse of what it used to look like. It is full of pretty pinks and aqua blues.

Luke helped me select the fabrics during his stay from a the handy pile of ever so gorgeous peppered cottons (my new obsession) - the purchase of which was the fault of Earamichia who recently introduced me to this fabric.

I chose the simple but lovely Frienship Star block for the quilt. (Quietly sobbing here!)

My friend - who has always wanted a full on Moroccan style party - was the source for the quilting inspiration. I was looking at all things Moroccan and decided to use the patterns I found in hand-painted Moroccan tiles as the free-motion quilting patterns.

You might (or might not) see where I am going with this idea.

I have through this project become quite obsessed by this idea of quilting tile patterns into a simple square quilt tops.  I hope to take this idea further next year.

I made my own template out of cardboard to help me mark each square quickly.

I had some 20 designs sketched up on paper.

And then  I went to it - using a gold thread to draw a tile pattern on each block.  Some are more complex than others - I found the ideas and variations on the tiles just kept coming.

Want to see what the finished quilt looks like? Stay posted ....