Quiltingboard Forums - How I made my panel into an attic window quilt

I posted a picture of the horse panel that I made into an attic window quilt, and some members PMed with interest in knowing how I went about doing that. So I thought instead of PMing them all separately, I'll post what I did here.

Just a quick note, I am a fairly new and inexperienced quilter, so my methods may not be up to par with the rest of you, so I guess I am hoping no quilt police reads this :lol:

Any panel that features a scene would be a good candidate for an attic window quilt, it is hard to post exact measurements and directions, as this may vary depending upon the size of the panel itself and the scale of the prints it features, but here are some general points to consider.

1-Look at your panel and try to envision how many pieces you want to cut it into. You could cut it into squares or rectangles. You can have as few as two windows and as many as you wish. Consider the scale of the print..if it is small flowers, you may wish to go with more windows, if it is featuring big animals you may want to go bigger. I examined with a copy paper covering around the window and making sure I like the scenes from each window. Another factor to consider if your panel has horses like mine or other animals or faces, is to cut through a more general area than the face..consider that when you add the window panes (sashing) some parts of the scene will be lost, and it would be a lot harder to match a small face than it would be a body for example.

2-Once you decide upon the cuts you want to make into your panel (triple check your decision) and cut the panel into windows. Lay out as they were cut and would end up in the quilt. What is the size of the windows you cut? They may be of different sizes (mine were), what is the size of you smallest window? Consider cutting your sashing strips no larger than one third the size of the the smallest window. My smallest window was 6.5'', and I cut my sashing into 2.5'' strips..I think anything larger may eat up your window but feel free to experiment and let me know.

3-Choose three different colors that are high contrast to each other and the panel for your sashing to achieve the most depth. I use my digital camera often to study the value of fabrics. Take a photo of your panel, and some of the possible fabrics you need to use for the sashings and convert to black and white to study the value. I decided (and I may be totally off) that the most depth is achieved when you use the three values in your window. My panel's value was medium in comparison to the fabrics I chose, so I went with a dark and a light for sashing. If your panel is of a light value, I'd suggest going with medium and dark values for the sashings, and if your panel is dark, go with medium and light sashings..you want to try to achieve as high contrast as possible to create that depth in the window. As far as the ledge goes, I went with a dark, but I imagine a light may have worked too, why don't you play with that one? BTW, I cut my ledge fabric into one inch strips. That created the most depth in my eyes.

4-You have your windows cut, and you have your sashings cut. Now you need to lay everything out as it would end up in the quilt. Rearrange the sashings around and see where you want the dark/light to go, their placement affects the orientation of the the light and therefore tricks the eye to where the depth is. When you lay out your quilt, make sure to cover a quarter of an inch off of each side of the windows and sashings. Stand back and look at your quilt layout, you want to connect the lines of the prints on your panel. It is easier if the scene is just of meadows, rivers, mountains or flowers, a bit more tricky if it features animals or faces. You want to make sure that the window panes (sashings) don't cause the prints to look distorted. Because you want the sashings to "hide" some parts of the print and the scene to "flow", and imagine a horse with a very elongated body!!! Depending on you panel, you may need to trim some parts from your windows. I folded the offending parts and laid them out folded to double check before I trimmed. This may be the trickiest part in this whole quilt, but you really need to stand back and imagine that some parts of the scene are hiding behind the window panes and that what is showing doesn't look deformed by looking too long or too wide or whatever. You may need to trim the whole width of your sashing away. I didn't need to though, with the panel I used I could get away with just a half and inch on some and a little less than in inch on others, but again this will vary based on your scene. Make sure your scene flows behind the sashing.

5- Assemble your attic window blocks and keep them in order if yoy have so many to keep track of where each one goes. There are many tutorials on the internet for making the attic window block, which is not as hard as it looks really. Here is one http://www.hgtv.com/crafting/attic-w...ays/index.html

6- Add the ledge strip in between each block in a row and assemble your rows. And then add a ledge strip in between each row and put your rows together. Wallah! you just made an attic window, finish it with borders as you like.

I hope this makes sense, if you all have any questions, please let me know. I don't have any other panels, or I would have made another one taking pictures in the process, but I hope my words make sense.