Fancy Fox Quilt - Retro Style (#46)

I loved making Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox Quilt with Riley Blake Shades (here) - but it was time for a whole different look and feel: beautiful coordinating  Retro 30's Child Smile from Lecien was perfect.

It took a while before I settled on these medium to small colorful prints from Lecien - I had my heart set on the 'Joie De Vivre in Beryl' by Frances Newcombe and Essex black yarn dyed linen. 

After making a few blocks, I felt the large floral design distracted from the simple beauty of the fox face. 

Fabrics like this lavender Dot to Dot Mixmaster (Robert Kaufman) look great however, as do cross hatch and burlap textured looking cottons from Carolyn Friedlander, Timeless Treasures & other manufacturers.  

1.5" sashing in Essex denim linen was sewn around every side of the fox block and trimmed to 8x10" unfinished, not much waste at all.

Lots of ironing & starching made the cotton & linen easy to handle - and using a scant 1/4" seam is a must with the different fabric weights. All seams are ironed open.

All piecing & quilting was done using Aurifil 50wt. Dove #2600.  A wavy serpentine stitch follows the larger seams, and the wavy stitch again into a 3" diagonal diamond pattern overall. I changed needles twice to keep everything sharp and the thread worked beautifully through the heavier Essex linen and the delicate backing. 

Not being a free motion quilter, following the seams and doing a grid pattern looks rather simple when compared to intricate FM designs that add lots of pizzazz.  But, every time that Aurifil looks so consistent as it sinks into any weight of fabric - I do a happy dance.

Lastly, a nice binding is this Hatch Basic in Graphite by Timeless Treasures - not heavy looking like a flat black but dark enough with a hint of texture.

There are 64 foxes so a 4" border all around allows them space to float and not run into the edges.  A beautiful rainbow of foxes made with a fun pattern that works every time.

Materials:

Retro 30's Child Smile Spring 2015/ 2.5" sushi roll / Lecien

Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in denim (Robert Kaufman)
Far Far Away 2 (Unicorns in Blue) / Heather Ross
Hatch Basic Graphite /Timeless Treasures (binding)
Fancy Fox Quilt Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

Aurifil 50wt. Dove #2600 & Medium Grey #1158

Warm & White batting

Size: 65" x 81"

December 2015

Fancy Fox Quilt (#32)

 (Update: Below is my first fox quilt in natural tones, but I made another Fancy Fox Quilt here  in December 2015 using a Retro 30's jelly roll - showing that each quilt has a unique look & feel with different fabrics.)

Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox Quilt pattern was the perfect design for my next "guy quilt' - and it was a great stash buster too. Instructions were clear and chain piecing went quickly.  I did use starch and ironed a lot ... lots of starch makes happy foxes!

Maybe being new to this type of piecing was my problem -  but most of my fox 'faces' measured larger on top and less on the bottom.  Not to worry. 

 I only planned to make 42 fox faces knowing that number was realistic for my time - I added 2.5" pieces of sashing around each fox to fill out the space. This sashing allowed me lots of wiggle room for errors, the blocks were cut to 9.5"x11.5" - the tip of the nose was my center point.

I did make a few cutting mistakes and by the end I was down a couple of fox blocks - so decided to put stars in the four corners using the measurements & instructions from Happy Zombie for her Manzanita Star.  

To make this more 'manly' and rugged I used Mammoth Flannel on the back which is lovely to sew and soft.  All my fabrics had been pre-shrunk since they were leftovers from other projects, the only exception being the Warm & Natural batting which was tumbled in the dryer to remove wrinkles.

Since I don't know how to free motion quilt, my goal was to not mess with the fox face - so the ears are the only area that you can see the zigzag quilting.  I used Aurifil 50wt. Grey Smoke (5004) which was perfect for disappearing into the yarn dyed denim and blending into the plaid backing. I spray based the quilt layers together and the Aurifil thread just glided through beautiful and smooth.

I am partial to the broken zigzag stitch and for this quilt I used a medium width and length.  I tend to zigzag smaller for pretty quilts and juggle between larger widths & lengths for 'man' quilts.

Materials:  

Robert Kaufman's Essex yarn dyed linen in denim

Moda/3 Sisters Winterlude Aged Solids in Black

Riley Blake Shades (or Blenders) in Slate & Granite,
& Orange Fox Trails stars

Moda Funky Monkey sock texture (brown)

Timeless Treasures Sketch (black & white)

White jelly roll 
Aurifil 50wt. grey smoke (#5004)
Size: 59" x 83"
February 2015

Fancy Fox Block

My first time piecing and it's so fun with Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox PDF pattern from her blog Oh Fransson.  Here are two samples.  On the right is Riley Blake's slate blender and yarn dyed denim linen from Robert Kaufman. 
  Left is Amy Butler with Essex linen flax, also a yarn dyed. I tried the flax to see if it would be a good neutral background for a 'scrap' fox quilt and I think it will work well with a variety of patterns & colors.