Modern Heirloom Quilting by Amber Elliot - A Book Blog Hop

Deborah Fisher

Posted on November 17 2022

Modern Heirloom Quilting by Amber Elliot - A Book Blog Hop

Welcome! Amber Elliot of Alderwood Studio has a new book out and I am so happy to be part of the blog hop!

Modern Heirloom Quilting Book

Modern Heirloom Quilting is a beautifully photographed book with lovely and simple, yet striking quilt patterns. The book is available HERE in hardcover. It will also be available on Amazon in paperback.

Introduction Page

Although Amber uses a wonderfully soothing, clean, color palette throughout the book, I knew her patterns would be perfect in a variety of fabrics - solids and prints, darks and brights - as well. Her quilt patterns are perfectly classic that way!

For my project I used the Rose Quartz pattern.

The Rose Quartz block is super large, and is the perfect size to make a cover for a King-sized pillow insert. Amber even includes instructions on how to make a pillow cover from a mini quilt and it worked great for the Rose Quartz block.

For my pillow I used the bold fabrics from my upcoming Hothouse collection from Windham!

Rose Quartz Pillow

For the front I used Wonder Garden in Bouquet, Sprout in Cosmos, Cold Frame in Downpour, and Cold Frame in Tomato. You can find them all HERE.

After I pieced the pillow top, I sewed some scallops with big stitch quilting using perle cotton, plus machine sewed stitch-in-the-ditch around the navy (Cold Frame in Downpour).

I also did some tying with tapestry wool, including colonial knots in some of the scallops, and in the center of some felt circles and flowers.

Detail of big stitch quilting and colonial knots

To make fluffy knots, I made ties within the red border (Cold Frame in Tomato). Then I put the whole thing in the washer and dryer to fluff out the knots. I am quite fond of fluffy ties!

I wanted the backing fabric to be a bit heavier than quilting cotton, so I used a Marimekko for Crate and Barrel print that I had in my stash. Amber’s instructions tell you just how to cut the 2 panels for the back of the pillow. Easy on and off, and no zipper!

Marimekko for Crate and Barrel dark orange fabric

For the binding I used Boundless Binding Stripe in Apple Green from the Sew Good collection. The green with red dots was just right!

Binding detail

I love how you can give the same pattern to different sewists and come out with projects that are totally unique. Modern Heirloom Quilting is a beautiful book with very customizable projects!