Winter in Paris

Rooftops Under Snow by Gustave Caillebotte 1878

My daughter Kate, is spending this year au pairing in Paris, working as an English  Nanny for a lovely family with  two young boys who live in the centre of Paris. She lives in a garret apartment over the family home. It all sounds rather romantic but perhaps a bit drafty and cold. So I thought it might be a good opportunity to make a quilt.

Kate's fond of neutrals and she wanted a white quilt. She suggested that perhaps I get lots of different kinds of white fabric and piece a quilt with it. As I'm very fond of colour myself I struggled with the idea. It seemed pointless to spend lots of time cutting and piecing white fabrics. Then I got a brilliant idea. Forget the piecing. Do a wholecloth quilt but in a modern style. Keep it simple and use wonderful materials.

I wanted the fabric to be special so I ordered 4 meters of a 'snowy white' from Oakshot Fabrics. I'd looked them up online and then rang to ask about what was in stock. They were so helpful! I mentioned that it was for a Christmas present and they posted it right away so it arrived the next day. Impressive service. Gorgeous fabric! I'm really looking forward to getting some Oakshot fabrics in colours for a future project.

Piecing the fleece with my JUKI Exceed 600

I wanted the quilt to be warm and soft and cuddley so fleece was my best choice for backing. It's an economical choice too as fleece serves as backing AND wadding. Since I splashed out on the Oakshot fabric for the top it was nice to save a bit of money on the other layers. I purchased some snow white fleece from Boyes for £5.50 a meter. The fleece is 64 inches wide from selvedge to selvedge, which is just perfect for a single bed quilt. But Kate wanted a double so I needed to piece the backing to get it big enough. Piecing fleece is simple; butt the ends together and use a zig zag stitch to join them. This creates a join with no bulk which is perfect for quilting projects. More to follow...

zig zagging to join the fleece