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Van Gogh's Roses Art Quilt

This art quilt features the design Roses by Van Gogh for the commercial size hoop. You can use a smaller design, but please keep in mind that you'll have to recalculate the length of all strips. The final quilt will be smaller than ours.

The finished size is about 14 1/2" x 19 1/2".

You will need :

embroidery threads according to the color card of the design,
heavy-weight iron-on cut-away stabilizer,
white or cream-colored cotton fabric for the embroiudery,
small amount of quilting fabrics for the borders and binding (select these fabrics after you made a stitch-out of the design, we used 5 fabrics: 3 fabrics in the hues of the roses, one fabric - batik - which has tones of the vase and leavesm and one fabric in tones of the background),
batting,
fabric for the backing,
quilting thread,
quilter's ruler and rotary cutter, or pencil and scissors.

Embroidery:

Print out the color card and select threads according to the color card.

Upload the file with Roses by Van Gogh into your embroidery machine.

Stabilize light-colored fabric with heavy-weight iron-on stabilizer. Hoop it, tighten the hoop.

Embroider the file. Please don't forget to cut out jump stitches after every color.

After the stitch-out is done, trim it leaving 1/4" margins around the embroidery.

Cutting and Assembly of the Top:

Note: seam allowance is 1/4", press each seam after you made it.

Select fabrics in the same hues as the embroidery. We use light peach fabric, rose pink fabric, a batik in light green and pink hues, light turquoise-green fabric and a batik in dark green and light brown hues. Measure the trimmed stitch-out. Our stitch-out measures 7" x 12".

Out of light peach fabric, cut

2 strips measuring 1" x 7" and
2 strips measuring 1" x 13".

Sew the 1" x 7" strips to the upper and lower edges of the central part.
Sew tge 1" x 13" strips to the left and right edges of the central part.

Out of the turquoise-green fabric cut a strip 1" x 8". Sew it to the upper edge of the working piece.

Out of the green-brown fabric cut a strip 1" x 8". Sew it to the bottom edge of the working piece.

Out of the turquoise-green fabric cut a strip 1" wide and as long as the fabric permits. Out of green-brown fabric cut a strip 1" wide and as long as the fabric permits.

Position the ends of both strips, face to face at a right angle.

Sew together along the diagonal. Trim seam allowance to 1/4".

Open the seam and press.

Out of this new strip cut another strip 14" long, with the turquoise-green part about 5" and green-brown part 9" long.

Sew the strip to the right edge of the working piece.

Repeat for the left edge, but make the turquoise end of the strip 9" and the green-brown end 5".

The third border is out of the green-and-pink batik. Cut 2 strips measuring 1" x 9". Sew them to the upper and lower edges. Cut 2 more strips measuring 1" x 15" and sew them to the right and left edges.

The fourth border is again made of turquoise-green and green-brown batik. Out of each fabric cut a strip 1" x 10". Sew the turquoise strip to the upper edge and the brown strip to the lower edge.

For the side borders sew the two-colored strips as described above. Cut the right border 16" long with the turquoise part 5" and the green-brown part 11" long.

Cut the left border with the turquoise part 11" and the green-brown part 5" long. Sew the strips to the left and right edges.

The fifth border is pink. Cut 2 strips measuring 1" x 11" and sew them to the upper and lower edges.

Cut 2 strips measuring 1" x 17" and sew them to the right and left edges.

For the sixth border, out of green-brown batik, cut a strip measuring 2" x 17". Sew it to the right edge.

For the left border, out of green-brown batik, cut a strip measuring 2" x 7" and out of turquoise-green fabric, cut a strip measuring 2" x 14". Sew them together as described above.

Trim the strip to 2" x 17", so that the turquoise part is about 12" and the green-brown is about 5". Sew the strip to the left edge.

Out of both fabrics, cut 1 strip each measuring 2" x 15". Sew the turquoise strip to the upper and the green-brown strip to the lower edge.

Quilting and Finishing:

Now place the backing on a flat surface (table) face down. Cover with batting. Spread your working piece over it.

Pin all three layers together with 1" pins and start quilting. We quilted through the embroidery with invisible (polyamide) thread in a freemotion style. Then we quilted the second, fourth and sixth borders with a free motion stippling pattern. We left the first, third and fifth borders unquilted, so they have something of a 3D look.

After the quilting is finished, press the work with heavy steam and square the work -- all corners should be 90 degrees and opposite sides should be of the same length.

Finish the raw edges with the binding.