The Nazca Quilt

This quilt is an adventure that started back in May of this year. I told you when Dale, Quilting Cowboy, invited me to be part of his design team. I was sooo excited and flattered. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on his fabric. His inspiration board really spoke to me – to the point that a fully formed quilt design popped into my head immediately.

*The Pottery fabric collection will begin shipping to stores in April 2020. Be sure to ask your local quilt shop to order it! You can check out the lookbook on the Windham website.

I am thrilled with the way the quilt came out. I love everything about it. Dale’s fabric is so masculine – I wanted to make something a man might enjoy. I also was really moved by the desert setting that Dale photographs so many of his quilts in.

This is the image Dale used to tease us with his fabric. He calls it an inspiration board, and it worked for me. I was particularly drawn to the black and white image in the upper left (which my lazy old eyes thought was circles with lines) and the lines in the lower left corner. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the line is called Pottery and I am a fan of handmade pottery.

Choosing fabrics was fun – I got a package of strike offs in the mail from Dale, then picked my favorites.

Why Nazca for the name? I love natural phenomena and ancient structures. When I think of the desert, I think of the Nazca lines of Peru, and the sailing stones of Death Valley. I also wanted to capture the feeling of bodies in motion and connections.

I used my Olfa Rotary Circle Cutter for this project. It was shockingly easy. This is the second circle cutter I have purchased, and it is a billion times better than the first one. (Actually, it is the third. I discovered another Olfa one in my stash that I had never used.) All of my circles came out either perfect, or within acceptable limits. I was also able to change the size of the inner circle to match the outer one and get a fairly consistent outer ring. A few are narrower than I wanted, but we will say that adds “tension” to the design.

I laid out the entire piece on my design wall. Circles went on first, moving around a bit until I liked the balance. They were pinned in place. (The lighting in my basement studio suuuucks. Sorry.)

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Then I pinned strips connecting some of the circles.

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I took the entire piece to my sewing machine, and stitched down the pieces. Matching thread in a blanket stitch is not easy to see, but gives a lovely texture.

The next step was to bury all of the thread tails on the back. I cannot tolerate dark thread shadowing through a light backgrounds.

At last, it was time for the quilting. To start, I used a double batting, to really up my texture game. I used a layer of Warm and Natural, followed by a layer of Quilter’s Dream Wool. Double batting makes for a heavy quilt, but I am okay with this one spending most of the time hanging on a wall.

I knew I wanted predominantly straight line quilting. I also knew I couldn’t maintain my attention with just straight lines, so sometimes I echoed the circles, I threw in a few wavy accents, and a row of little circles. I used masking tape to mark out some more connecting lines between the circles.

Every piece of appliqué is stitched in the ditch. Light thread on the light background, and dark brown thread when needed. I used rulers or my channel locks every step of the way on this piece. The interiors of the circles are not quilted. I wanted the fabric to really stand out. This absence of quilting on some areas of a very densely quilted piece mean there is a bit of buckling. If I enter this piece in shows I might have to add some more quilting to the centers of the circles.

I was planning to add some hand quilting in a few areas, but once I looked at the bound quilt, I didn’t feel like it needed more.

The fabrics used in this quilt were given to me by Dale Rowse, The Quilting Cowboy, and Windham Fabrics. Thank you for supporting my creativity!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you use my links to make purchases, I will earn a small commission, which will not affect your price. Thank you!

Windham Fabrics used
Pottery
Paint, Noble – background
Smudges & Circles, Buckskin
Half Circles, Leather
Smudge, Buckskin
Herringbone, Gold
Herringbone, Leather
Plaid, Leather
Half Circles, Moss
Line Work, Leather
Paint, Leather
Smudge, Leather
Palette
Espresso – circle surrounds and lines
Mustard – quilt backing

Quilt Specs
Dimensions – 60″ x 60″
Pattern – Nazca, by Jennifer Strauser
Fabric – Pottery by Dale Rowse, Palette by Marcia Derse both by Windham Fabrics
Batting – Warm and Natural Cotton, Quilter’s Dream Wool
Thread – Superior So Fine 403, Superior Omni 3035
Rulers – Angela Walters Slim Quilting Tool, Quilter’s Apothecary Circles, Olfa Circle Cutter

Oh, right. Want to buy the pattern? It is available for sale! You can find it in my Etsy shop.