Brown Quilt made from recycled fabrics

Brown Quilt made from recycled fabrics (photo copyright the artist Hanna Andersson)

My second quilt is brown. I’ve been mixing beautiful rosy fabrics with my collection of browns.

I have a thing for browns. Maybe it has something to do with being born in the seventies, when everything was dark brown, with hints of orange. Back then even living room walls here in Sweden (where everything gets depressingly dark in the winter) was painted brown. No matter what design trends will be born in the future I don’t think I could ever paint my walls brown, or any dark colour for that matter. But still, I do enjoy hues of brown a lot. So for quite a while I was collecting thrifted fabrics with browns in them, for this wee quilt project. And now I’ve recycled them into something that is useful, warm and very much finished!

Brown Quilt

I don’t think you remember,
but I actually started this project back in January 2007, but never finished it then… The brown quilt top have been folded away in one of many plastic containers around here, all full of fabric and scraps of fabric. But as you can see from the photo evidence it is now a gloriously finished project, paired with a pink backside fabric with white dots and a romantic edge fabric that I’m quite found of.

New, and the first
The two quilts I’ve made in my life so far, hanging outside in the sun together. One pink and one brown!

Instead of finishing the Brown Squares Quilt I started and finished a Pink Striped Quilt (and quite a few quilted log cabin pillows) in 2008. Both my quilts are simple and quick (even if I’m a rather slow quilter), with no patterns used. I call them my TV-quilts, perfect to snuggle under while watching a good movie and doing some embroidery. Cozy! Can’t watch anything comfortably if I don’t have a cozy blanket or quilt to roll up under!
Here is a view of the pink polka dot backside:
Polka dot backside

And some snaps from the quilt corner and edge sewing:

Quilt corner 1 + 2
Quilt corner
I tried another version of folding in the corner than before, it’s called mitered corners. I just winged it and these are a bit more fancy but not difficult. Next time I’ll try to do them following any of the tutorials that come up when searching for “quilt corner tutorial” for example, like this mitered corner video tutorial.

It’s time. Let’s have a I-Finished-A-Project-CelebrationTM and do a Little Happy Dance! Join me!

If you don’t feel like dancing, please have a cookie:

My favorite cookies (Photo by iHanna - Hanna Andersson)
My favorite cookies. Mmm! Now it’s time to test the quilt…

Brown is beautiful
I took a test drive of my quilt the other day, sitting outside watching the snow melting. It’s working it’s magic. I’m happy with the quilt results. Me, I’m wearing a brown wool shawl that my mother knitted for me this winter. This yarn is very cool as it has brown sequins, brown sequins that shimmers lovely in the sun. Brown can sure sparkle too!

So, what’s next in quilting horizon? I’m not sure, but I’m interested in rounds, so maybe I’ll try a raw edge circle quilt some day?


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20 Responses

  1. I remember that brown and orange era quite well! Brown has never been a favorite color of mine but after seeing your beautiful quilt I have changed my mind about it. Paired with the pink on the back it’s just perfect.

  2. What a gorgeous quilt, in fact they both are! Beautifully done and the browns and pinks work so well together.

  3. Gorgeous quilt! And yeah, I remember the Swedish brown and orange era very well. We even had a brown bathroom!

  4. I hated those browns!!!!!!!
    In the 70tis my room was always white with a certain shade of blue – same as it is today, after many moves.
    From what I remember brown was more in the early 8otis. Back then I lived in so called WG’s (Wohngemeinschaft), sharing a flat. I could never ever understood why my flat mates used brown TOGETHER with a very dull green.

    Enjoy your quilt!
    Tally

  5. This quilt is so gorgeous I love brown & pink mixed in with one another, but the pink poke-a-dot is just so adorable. I admire your talent to under take this project, and yahoo for the recycling! Nice work.

  6. Congratulations on a BIG project finished Hanna. You deserve to celebrate these moments because there is a huge sense of accomplishment when you complete a UFO. Your color combos are gorgeous. I can see you snuggled beneath it while taking the train to Germany for a weekend of crafternoons…!!???? xoxo tj

  7. this is completely gorgeous! i’ve only made one queen size quilt and it took me forever but i so love it. i do have plans to sew some more. thanks for the inspiration.

    i also noticed that you entered to win a spot in my upcoming e-course “Inside Out”. i wanted to send you a reminder that the course starts monday. i blogged a little about it today if you want to check it out.

    take care and happy day to you.

  8. Yours are the yummiest quilts ever! Beautifully done. I admire your patients in thrifting the fabric, bit by bit, to create your masterpieces. I could not choose between the two. They are so pretty.

    I loved the browns and oranges of the Seventies (Taco Bell Colors back then) but then drifted away on onto other, sunnier combos.

    Now brown is back among us. But really, did it ever leave? Ahhhh… brown, my coffee and my chocolate.

  9. Wonderful quilt!!

    I tried sending a message to you using the contact form on your website, but I don’t think it got through? I was wondering, if you could tell me what the “jewel-it glue” that the tutorial about bookbinding, you linked to earlier, is called in Swedish, since I don’t know what glue to look for in Denmark. I hope you can help me!

    yours
    Elisabeth

  10. Thanks for all your wonderful comments girls!

    Elisabeth, I don’t know what kind of glue that video used but if it’s a bookbinding glue you probably need to look in a specific paper shop that sells those kinds of things. But I think you should try any regular white glue that dries permanent, make a small book or test-glue with what ever you find. The most important thing is to experiment and maybe you can even use something that you already own! good luck with your journal! :-)

  11. Beautiful quilts. Quilting/patchwork is something I’d very much like to learn. It would be great to create something that looks beautiful & can be used to keep me & my favourite people cozy.

    Kat