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carolyn friedlander

carolyn friedlander

fabric and pattern designer

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Eads Quilt Pattern and Quilt Along.

June 7, 2017 by carolyn friedlander 13 Comments

My Eads quilt pattern is one of my newbies. I showed it at Quilt Market in St Louis, and I’m excited to share it with you here now. It’s a lot of fun, but I’m also biased, because I don’t make things that aren’t fun.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

I’d been wanting to do a big, graphic, paper-pieced project for a while now, and this spring presented a great opportunity. Eads is a project where lots of fabric and color can play together in new and interesting ways–my favorite type of project.

Eads quilt fabric . Carolyn Friedlander

After nailing down the design, I pulled fabric from many places–friedlander, friedlander lawn, euclid, kona cotton, essex linen… I wanted a big mix of prints, solids and textures to play with and to use to highlight the design in a variety of ways.

(By the way, Robert Kaufman put together a little kit, which you could ask your local shop about. Otherwise, all of the fabrics are also listed here.)

Eads quilt fabric . Carolyn Friedlander

The design works with fat quarters, which makes the fabric gathering pretty easy. After that, the instructions work from strips which then makes it easy to start mapping out your blocks.

Eads quilt fabric . Carolyn Friedlander

I love this way of working–first gathering a bunch of inspiring pieces, breaking them down into smaller chunks, and then having the ability to react along the way as you work through the project. I find this to be a massively engaging, creative process and big reason why projects like this are so much fun. Grab your fabric, start making some blocks, throw them up on the design wall, assess, make more blocks and continue to grow your composition.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

In the end, my project doesn’t follow a perfect color gradation–although that could be a lovely path to take! But instead, I liked finding new and different relationships between the colors and shapes as I worked. By just shuffling around some fabric, I discovered new color friendships and new ways to expose or conceal the motif itself. So much fun.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

I’m often asked about overcoming creative blocks, and this project is a perfect example of how I keep myself creatively charged. My wheels were turning so much while making this guy, that I couldn’t help but think about other ways to explore the project, things to do with fabric and other things to make in general. I find that creative satisfaction in one place can overflow into many others.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

I had such a good time making this project, that I couldn’t help but think about other versions to make while I was making it–always a good sign in my book. Because of that, I thought it’d be fun to do a little quilt along this summer. You interested in joining me?

Eads quilt along . Carolyn Friedlander

The plan is to keep it mostly informal, but I do have a structure in mind that I’ll at least be holding myself to. To make this size, which is a good-sized throw, there are 120 blocks, which at 12 weeks (3 months) is 10 blocks a week. I think that 10 blocks will be a perfect amount of creative cardio to schedule in each week. There are also 48 fabrics in this version, which breaks down to 4 fabrics/week if you want to set goals for that too. Personally, I’m not sure I’ll partake in that way…but it’s a helpful number to consider.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

The quilt along will start next week, June 15. Expect weekly blog posts, including the first next week to kick things off. You can also follow along on my Instagram for weekly visuals, as well as in my newsletter (see “subscribe to the newsletter” at the top right corner on this site) for recaps and updates.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

And for you, please join in! I’ll be checking in on anyone else’s makings by scouring the #eadsQAL hashtag on instagram. Since there are so many ways for this project to pan out, it’ll be fun to see where your projects take you. My bet is that we’ll all start to inspire each other, and it’ll be quite merry.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

Plus, I’ve got some prizes planned. To be eligible to win, you’ll need to be posting to the hashtag on IG. Sound good?

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

To start, you’ll need a copy of the pattern. Hard copies are starting to appear in shops (like Hawthorne, Fabric Bubb, Etsy Studio, Jones & Vandermeer, I Love Fabric, etc), and the PDF version is available here too. Then start thinking about fabric…fat quarters are perfect.

Eads Quilt . Carolyn Friedlander

Oh, and make sure to keep your scraps! I’ve got plans for those, but it’s a surprise to be uncovered towards the end, so stay tuned.

Eads quilt fabric . Carolyn Friedlander

Looking forward to sewing with you!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carol Stanley says

    June 7, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    I would love to do the Quilt Along. I’ve. been holding on to some of your fabrics just waiting for the perfect project

    Reply
    • carolyn friedlander says

      June 8, 2017 at 2:02 pm

      Great! I’m looking forward to seeing what you make!

      Reply
  2. erin says

    June 7, 2017 at 2:31 pm

    Oh man. This is tempting!

    Reply
  3. Linda says

    June 7, 2017 at 3:38 pm

    Count me in.

    Reply
    • carolyn friedlander says

      June 8, 2017 at 2:02 pm

      Yay! Looking forward to it!

      Reply
  4. Stephanie Hill says

    June 8, 2017 at 3:57 am

    Pattern is purchased and going to prepared fabric this weekend. Looking forward to the newsletter and instagram to inspiration and assist.

    Reply
    • carolyn friedlander says

      June 8, 2017 at 2:03 pm

      Great-thank you! Looking forward to sewing with you!

      Reply
  5. needlerebels says

    June 9, 2017 at 11:45 am

    Pattern purchased… my first qal…

    Reply
    • carolyn friedlander says

      June 9, 2017 at 12:22 pm

      Thank you and welcome to the QAL!

      Reply
  6. Maryann McEvoy says

    June 9, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    I’ve sent for the pattern. Looking forward to creating with you!

    Reply
  7. In The Boon Docks says

    June 10, 2017 at 1:39 am

    Looks like great fun hopefully I will be ready to start by the end of June! My daughter has a surgery on the 16th

    Reply
  8. Ramona says

    June 19, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    Oh goodie scrap surprises. 💁

    Reply

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Carolyn Friedlander creates quilt and sewing patterns for the modern maker. Find projects, inspiration and Carolyn’s fabric collections.

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