BLUE COLLECTION

BLUE COLLECTION

PATTERN BY MAGGIE WALKER

WITH MY VARIATIONS

While Maggie's pattern included pottery and motifs which were not entirely Oriental, I drew entirely from that ethic as I love and collect blue and white Oriental  ware.  The scroll motif is mine as is the large rice bowl with the cherry blossoms at the top of the quilt.  Maggie had a lovely fan there.  Further, I researched traditional Chinese pottery shapes replacing some of her generic pots with these more traditional shapes.  I redesigned the vines and added some peonies and lotus flowers as well as the cherry blossoms as these evoke the Orient.

Here is Maggie Walker's design:

This pattern is so well designed and removed from the clunky, everyone line up in rows, design layout.  The edging is composed of 1 inch blocks using all the fabrics of the pots

 I I searched for dragon fabric but to no avail.  The dragon pot is composed of  pieces which I appliqued on a light blue background.  The dragon was from an unlikely piece of fabric with red flames and the top and bottom trim are from another piece of fabric.  Then I created and appliqued the dark blue wavy bits.

This is the center top of the quilt with the large rice bowl with the cherry blossoms.  The blossoms are hexagons and I made the brown stems from some batik.  I like their shapes.

 The small blue bowl began with the lid which was on some fabric with blue and white motifs. I made the bowl from some blue and white fabric and added some appliqued motifs to it to make it a bit fuller.
The center of the quilt.  I also could not find good stork fabric so I took some dark blue and appliqued the stork and green shrubbery motifs on it.

Center right of quilt


 I love the koi fabric. And here are the lotus flowers I designed.

Bottom right.

Bottom center of quilt

Bottom right .  The dark blue round bowl I embroidered with a traditional sashiko design (Which is really Japanese rather than Chinese) .  I love the cherry blossom fabric of the tall vase.

Here are the peonies growing out of the cherry blossom vase.  I added some honeybees which used to be earrings.

After all these yeasrs, I still find myself looking at blue and white fabric and thinking -Oh that's perfect.  But....the quilt is finished for better or worse.

I lost most of my china collection when our farmhouse burned down.  These are some blue and whites I have collected over the years.  The hutch I found on my way to work one rainy day lying on its back at a rummage sale.  I gave it a good, loving paint job and new fixtures.  I added my dishes and so here is another version of the quilt.