Hand Made Karma: La Passacaglia - Quilt Complete (Named "Rondeau")

Thursday, February 22, 2018

La Passacaglia - Quilt Complete (Named "Rondeau")

I'm so pleased to have completed my La Passacaglia quilt based on the design on the cover of Willyne Hammerstein's book Millefiori Quilts, an ingenious pentagon-based pattern. I made mine using English Paper Piecing and, while she states that any method of assembly is fine, I cannot imagine trying to do this any other way. All of those pieces coming together at a variety of angles would be a disaster for me if I tried to do this using other methods.

La Passacaglia Quilt - named "Rondeau"

I have named my quilt "Rondeau", a nod to the author's use of a musical term for her quilt and a bit of a play on words, referring to the musical reference and the root word "round". This quilt is made up of a variety of "rounds" or "rosettes", instead of traditional "blocks".

La Passacaglia Quilt Label

I enjoyed making this quilt, mostly while watching TV in the evenings. It took two years (almost to the day) to complete, with the vast majority of that time spent on piecing the body of the quilt. I sewed the borders and quilted the finished top with a domestic sewing machine.

La Passacaglia Quilt Detail

For the body of the quilt, I used a rather small swirl or spiral pattern in free motion quilting. I was concerned about detracting from the already busy quilt design, so a small, all-over pattern and a neutral (medium gray) embroidery thread seemed to do the trick. A heavier thread would have stood out too much, in my opinion.

La Passacaglia Quilt Detail

I wanted to keep the border simple, so I went with a diamond pattern that is intentionally wavy.

La Passacaglia Quilt Border Detail

I played around with some pieced blocks to break up the quilt back. I didn't have the right amount of fabric to really get a mostly-solid quilt back, so I added these japanese-inspired pieced blocks to the back so the rest of the quilt back could be added around them.