Tune in to Texture - Project Quilting challenge 8.3

For the third challenge in the Project Quilting challenge series, we were asked to be inspired by texture.

When I think of quilts and texture, for me that means the quilting.  And where is the quilting more highlighted than in a whole cloth quilt?  The designs on many whole cloth quilts remind me of mosaics and tiles.  From there my mind went immediately to the beautiful pressed ceiling tiles in the church my husband and I belonged to when we lived in Fairbanks, Alaska.

I think all of this went though my head in less than a minute after I read the challenge post.  Inspiration rarely comes to me that swiftly, easily or completely so I was super excited to get started.


I thought I had some pictures from my wedding that were taken from the choir loft of the church and would show the ceiling tiles.  But I was not able to find them.  I still have friends who live there so I sent messages out asking if they might be able to pop in to the church to get some pictures for me.  My dear friend Lori W. took up the call and made a special effort to go that very day.  Unfortunately, by the time she was able to get there, the church was closed and locked up for the day.

Luckily Immaculate Conception Church is a historic building and frequently visited by tourists, so I was able to find some images online.  None of them showed the detail of the ceiling as much as I would have liked but I was able to use a couple of them along with my memory to make out the basic shapes/design of the tiles.

I have written a separate blog post detailing my process for creating the tile.  You can read about it here.

But basically I started with a design grid to sketch out the main elements.  Once I decided on the design I made a symetic tile by starting with one wedge of the design and then tracing it multiple times.  ,Then I made four copies of that on my home printer, cut the tiles out and taped them together.  I used that to trace the design onto my fabric.

After stitching all the drawn lines, I went back to the paper copies and sketched ideas for adding detail to the tiles before I stitched them out.

Referencing the church photos, I added an arched border to the tiles and then crosshatching beyond that to finish it off.

Because it was inspired by the church where my husband and I were married, this quilt has a lot of personal meaning to me and I am thrilled with the way it turned out.

Blessed Tiles

For Project Quilting Tune in to Texture challenge - January/February 2017

inspired by the ceiling tiles at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks, Alaska

Size: 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting