Funky Aboriginal Windows

Carlene Westberg's Funky Windows Quilt

Ever since I saw this Funky Windows Quilt designed by Carlene Westberg I have been trying to find the right fabric to make it!  I bought the pattern from Carly almost a year ago and still it sits lonely in my pile of Quilts to Create gathering dust.

Then it hit me...a few months ago my friend, and mother-in-law, Shirley introduced me to aboriginal fabric produced by M&S Textiles.  We fell in love with the crazy colors and unique patterns that we immediately began collecting various fat quarters and half yards to create a quilt.  At first I suggested we create a Brick Path Quilt a la Amy Butler's Lotus Brick Path Quilt.  The Brick Path quilt design is great for modern large patterned fabric and is very simple to create using strips of large rectangles.  It is one of my favorite patterns and I've had great success using it with Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks Collection (adore this collection - it is hard to find today but I've had luck finding it on www.Etsy.com)

Amy Butler's Brick Path Quilt Design in Lotus

When I recently saw the aboriginal fabric again in person I noticed that the fabrics are so varied with slight overlaps in common coloring and small circle designs that I immediately thought of the Funky Windows Quilt.  What better way to literally frame the unique aboriginal designs while celebrating their contrast with each other?  After bouncing the idea off Shirley I decided to hop on the computer to try to make a draft image of what the squares could look like using our fabric collection...

After playing around with this image we laid out the fabric and tried it in person on Shirley's dining room table.  I wasn't able to snap a photo (my camera was being held hostage in my daughter's room...while she slept) so you'll just have to take my word for it that it looked amazing!

Now came the quilting math that each quilter either Loves or Hates.  Personally, I am a hater of Quilt Math but a lover of coming up with my own spontaneous patterns.  As a result I am notorious for compensating by buying too much fabric in my efforts to sidestep worrying about whether I will end up with enough.  Inevitably this leads to a grumbling husband about extra bits of this and that fabric everywhere...but it leaves me with a mean patchwork quilt or diaper clutch every so often!  (In other words, worth the grumbling.)  Anyway, I digress, in this instance we had already purchased the fabric and had to modify the original Funky Windows pattern (which calls for 32 Fat Quarters) to our own fabric stash.

My Math Sheet to Figure Out Squares

We ultimately decided on a pattern of sixteen 14" squares.  Although the original Funky Windows pattern calls for rectangles of varying sizes we are going to create all the same shaped square.  Given that the aboriginal fabric is so varied we believe the quilt will be busy enough using one consistent shape.  Each square will have a 10"x10" center and a 2" border.   To set off and frame the overall quilt we are also including a 3" border around the entire sixteen squares to create a 62" quilt.  Stay tuned to get the complete pattern and photos of the design layout in a future post!

- rebecca lynne