The ACE Quilt

After ignoring my blog for four years, I will document the making of the ACE quilt here. What's the ACE quilt?
I was fortunate to be commissioned to make a wall quilt for the ACE ward at Ipwich Hospital. (Queensland, Australia). The letters stand for Acute Care of the Elderly.

Here's the brief:

• It is to be a wall hanging and will not be framed. While framing protects the textile, there is a charm and immediacy in a wall hanging that will fit in well with the purpose of helping to bring some beauty into an acute aged care ward.
• Maximum 1m x 1m
• Something pretty with flowers
• It will hang on a cream wall 

My idea to use the letters as a design source, with vines, leaves and flowers through it and coming out of it was accepted.

What next?

I made some quick sketches, printed the letters out and made a full size lay-out on butchers' paper to see how they looked.
They looked best simply centred inside a square. Finished size of the quilt would be 40" x 40" (most quilters, no matter whether their country has gone metric or not, find inches easier to work with and many tools only come in inches anyway). 40" x 40" is close enough to 1m x 1m

The inside panel would be 35" x 35".  No doubt inspired by the  Quilting Arts issue I had just bought a week ago, I wanted to background to show a very pale 'Trip Around The World' colour wash pattern.

This is a partly coloured sample of what a 'Trip Around The World' pattern can look like.

Keep in mind, this is the pattern, not the colours I will be using. They will be much softer and lighter, but becoming darker towards the edges.

Having lots of confidence in my sewing skills, I decided these patches will finish up 1" x 1". Total number of squares: 1225 YIKES!

However, if I stitch those in blocks of 7 x 7, it should not require me to tear my hair out. The effect I am looking for is that there is a subtle progression from white in the centre to dark at the corners that will create a kind of 'lit from within the centre' behind the flowers and letters.

I drew the full size grid of 5 x 5 squares on a piece of butchers' paper, each 7" x 7" , pinned it on my design wall, covered it with some fine Pellon that works like a flannel board.  Because the patches are cut 1.5" to allow for seam allowances, I have to overlap them and in spite of the lines, they do go crooked.



I think I will stitch  progressively, rather than wait till all the 1225 patches are on the Pellon, although that means I have to be happy with the fabrics.

Once the background is complete,  the letters and flowers will be appliqued in bright colours. I will definitely have to make sure there is a clear contrast between the background and the design. Worst case scenario: I have a beautiful 35" x 35" colour wash Trip Around The World quilt top, which doesn't quite work, but there is always the fabric shop to get a nice background piece, right?

The flower patterns I will use are those from my book 'Shadow Applique' and while the selection and placement of the flowers won't be exactly like those on my Shadow Applique Quilt, they will be in the same style.

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