✨ the studio is currently on hiatus ✨ quilt patterns and supplies still available ✨ thank you for all your support through the years, it’s been an amazing journey ✨ with gratitude, from Maine, Dash ✨

Journal

RJR What Shade Are You

RJR What Shade Are You

A quick hello to welcome you all to Prow House Quilts new Notes page. Here you will find blog posts, news updates and other tidbits of info that are share worthy. Our first post is an exciting one! It marks the completion of the months long process of constructing the Intertidal Quilt which is now available in our shop. The pattern is also releasing today on pre-sale!

For those of you who are not familiar with the What Shade Are You series let me explain. RJR Fabrics has a beautiful line of solids called Cotton Supreme Solids, which are truly swoon worthy. They then have a blog hop where each Friday different quilters make any solid quilt they can dream up to share with the RJR community. And, today was Prow House Quilt's week! Later today, a giveaway will happen both on my instagram page and on RJR's instagram page where you can win a fat quarter bundle of all the colors in my quilt. So, be sure to check it out!

Without further ado, here is the blog hop post from the RJR Fabrics What Shade Are You blog hop!

 

Happy New Year folks! Dash Masland here and I am SO excited to kick off 2018 by sharing my What Shade Are You quilt with the RJR community! A bit about me… My mother taught me to quilt when I was 8 years old and always stressed the importance of a handmade gift. I continued to sew during my young adult life, tinkering with my own creations, but it was only recently that I got back to quilting in a major way.

I live on the coast of Maine with my husband and 2 young boys in the small town where I grew up. The coastal landscape provides such natural beauty that is full of wonder and is the inspiration behind my quilts.

I make original handmade quilts and design quilt patterns for sale from my little home studio. You can find my work at www.prowhousequilts.com and follow along with my journey on Instagram @prowhousequilts.

I’d had a vision for a quilt design inspired by tidepools in my mind for quite some time and knew I would need a beautiful gradient of blues and greens that were representative of the ocean shallows, depths and everything in between. When the opportunity arose to participate in the What Shade Are You blog I was super excited because I knew the Cotton Supreme Solids would be the perfect fit. The color card arrived and all I had to do was run my finger down the blue-green teal columns and pick 20 perfect shades, it was as easy as could be as they are so beautifully curated. I also threw in 4 colors from the more true greens to provide some contrast and interest to the quilt.

The colors I selected were:

Iceberg  377

Cove 294

Luau 376

Pool Side 327

Seaside 426

Turks & Caicos 292

Horizon 354

Bora Bora 328

Proud as a Peacock 289

Atlantica 374

 

Sea Glass 234

Julep 403

Jam Jar 400

Toyboat 366

Pistachio 404

Notting Hill 309

Sour Apple 346

Spring 405

Robin’s Egg 391

Schooner 392

Teal 401

Twilight 353

Putting Green 290

Spearmint 389

I then sorted them into shades learning towards the blue (for the background) and leaning towards the green (for the log cabins) and got to work. Constructing the blocks was such a joy as I watched these vibrant and rich colors begin to meld.

The challenging part for me for this quilt was deciding on what backing and binding to use. I finally decided to go with the Cotton + Steel Netorious Collection. I felt that the small angular design would be a great compliment to the front and the colors blended seamlessly. The main light green background is Jam Jar with a Teal and Toy Boat triangle for added interest.

 

It then came time for quilting and since this quilt finished at 64” x 80” I decided I would like to send it off to a long arm quilter rather than wrestle through my machine. I have never used a long arm quilter before, but have been admiring Kaitlyn’s (@knotandthread) work so much that I knew she’d be a great fit. Give that this quilt is inspired by the ocean, I wanted a design that was fluid and wave-like, but still somewhat angular to compliment the blocks. Her breadbasket design ended up being perfect, reminding me of little seashells and waves and added so much amazing texture.

Once it returned home, a quick hand binding session with C+S Netorious Toy Boat and the quilt was complete. The final decision was what to name it. I really struggled to find a name that represented the ocean depths and the playful nature of the quilt, but finally decided on Intertidal. I love the idea that the quilt name represents the water moving in and out from shore, the full range of ocean colors in the water column, the little intertidal critters, tidepools, and the intertwined nature of the block construction.


 We’ve been having record low temps in Maine, in the negative double digits, so it was a real blessing when a 15°F day presented itself 2 days before the deadline. My dear friend Bethany (@bethanymcnaughton) and I drove out to our local island and she captured this quilt against the frozen coastal landscape. Believe it or not, sea ice is pretty rare around here, so it was pretty cool to get to capture the intertidal ice and the blues and greens of the quilt just radiated against the snow!

Thank you all so much for following along and please stop by @prowhousequilts on instagram and say hello! And keep a look out because I will be releasing this pattern soon! Happy New Year Everyone!

Leave a comment