Need ideas for "Pottery Barn" bride

Mar 13, 2007 24 Replies

I need to make a wedding gift for a gal with taste a little beyond my traditional style. I call it "Crate and Barrel" or "Pottery Barn" style. They like clean crisp lines without a lot of print but not the bold batik art type. What style is in the middle? I have several patterns by Blue Underground which make-up well in both traditional and batik fabrics. These are a little too much of a pattern for the wedding gift. The colors are blue and brown with a touch of rose-red. The bride has already received a wholecloth brown quilt (made in China but nice) Today I am traveling to a store that specializes in more modern design quilts. Hopefully I will be inspired. Any suggestions?



Susan Price


Buy a toaster.

I did a quilt called Japanese puzzle that had a kind of modern look to it. 6th photo down on this page.

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If it were done in subtle tone on tone fabrics it could work. It took a lot of time but was a fun quilt to put together. It came out of an older QNM issue.

I'm curious to see other suggestions. Lots of the young folks these days are looking for that kind of thing. Last wedding quilt I did was a basic two color quilt. Blue and white. Sort of classic and non offensive for a guest room. Taria

Susan Laity Price wrote:

I wouldn't worry too much about the colors - do the best you can. The best thing to remember is that when it is all put together the fabric changes in look because of the other fabric.

I also wouldn't get too fussy or traditional. Do something with a larger pattern

Taria, you really should have given us a spew warning. That's funny. As to Susan, I think you've just described me. I'm a clean, crisp lines person too. My notion of decorate is: clean it off and paint it the color of vanilla ice cream. Ah yes. Perfect. No clutter, no fuss, no busy or wild and crazy. I've tried to imagine what sort of quilt I would enjoy receiving when I spied the log cabin quilt that covers the shelving in my sewing room. It certainly does the clean/crisp style. You could have a grand time choosing blues, browns, rosy red with gentle neutrals and the block arrangement. Like Taria, I'm eager to see other suggestions too. Polly

Howdy!

Looking at the quilts at Pottery Barn

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seems there's plenty there to work with, lots of floral and stripes and toile. Reminds me of Denyse Schmidt:
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fabric has added another spark in my stash. Good luck; enjoy making the quilt you want to give them. Be their quilter, not their decorator.

Good luck!

Ragmop/Sandy

I like Polly's idea of a log cabin in blues and browns with a rose-red center. I'd select some subtle prints and tone-on-tone fabrics. A lot of the more traditional patterns would probably work; the fabric selection is probably more critical than the pattern.

Julia > I need to make a wedding gift for a gal with taste a little beyond my

Hi, I would check out Denyse Schmidt -- fabric and quilts. And then I'd buy (which I already have) The Modern Quilt Workshop Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.

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The quilts are simple to put together, clean lines, clean colors and totally modern.

Good luck, Sunny

Go graphic. Pick any one quilt block and do it oversized in bold true solids or TOTs. You could either do repeats of the block (4-6 blocks) or do one giant block. You could choose Chocolate, Robin's Egg, and a velvety looking Rich Red for drama, or use Sand, Ocean blue, and cool red for a relaxing sunset on the beach feel.

Double Link would look nice as either a one block or four block quilt, and it has that clean, uncluttered look. You would have to do all the math needed to resize the block, but it looks fairly easy to do. The block pictured here is slightly different from the one pictured in my Maggie Malone book, but not by much.

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If you prefer applique, there is one block that would be perfect no matter the size block you choose to do--Star and Crescent. Simply lovely.
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Debra in VA See my quilts at
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I have that book. I haven't made anything from it yet, but everytime I look through it, I just love the quilts. Not difficult, but very attractive. Thanks for the reminder. So many quilts, so much fabric.....so little time.

Hmmm . . . You could actually get together with the bride and choose the pattern and fabrics (or colors) together, and then you would make something sure to please.

Anyone else want to go visit KJ's library??!! Honestly... if I could have found it locally, it would be home by now... I have a hard time paying as much for shipping as the pattern itself

Jan RCTQ Coffee Diva

The Bento Box pattern can be very nice and graphic. Maybe make it with solids instead pf prints? Sorry, my sinuses aren't letting my brain have much oxygen, so that's the best suggestion I have at the moment...;-)

Sunny, I'm with you!

The first designers that came to my mind were Denyse Schmidt and Weeks/Kerr.

Maybe Amy Bradley, too? Thinking about turquoise, pink, and brown.

Nann

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I think I get the idea, I'm thinking something with quite muted fabrics, and probably not particularly small pieces either. I'm thinking browns, beiges and creams, maybe batik, maybe not. It also wouldn't want to scream "traditional quilt pattern", so maybe the pattern needs to be across the entire quilt, so even though it's made from blocks, few would be the same, if I were doing this for someone, I think I'd try and design it myself.

Anne

(In my best Bob Barker voice) Jan! C'mon down!!!!! (Well, maybe it's up for you.) I'll even put the coffee on while we look.

Coffee??!! I'm starting the truck up!!

Jan RCTQ Coffee Diva

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