Help...I need inspiration
 

I have been collecting musical themed material to make a quilt for my best friend who recently received her masters in music. I have finally collected enough to start her quilt and I am blanking on what pattern to use, even going so far as to look at cross stitch pattern to maybe adapt into a quilt.

I am stumped.
Does anyone have a great musical themed quilt example that might break my brain's log jam free.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I am probably considered an intermediate level quilter. I am not afraid to go small and detailed, but some of the fabrics would losevthere impact being cut small. I have debated doing something simple like using the friendship star block and alternating it with a more complex square with the more forgiving patterns. Thought about doing a twisted French braid quilt. The other thing is I am not an applique'r. I tend to like more modern style quilts and usually don't work off of a pattern rather use an inspiration quilt or ten and adapt it to what is in my head. The hang up I think is I don't want to cut these materials small. I have debated creating a large piano keyboard pattern using the colored fabrics to make maybe 5-7 inch "white" keys and the black patterned pieces to do the flat and sharp keys. That just seems very much like taking the easy way out. I know I am over thinking this.

Not all quilts have to be complicated...specially when you want to
showcase the fabric. Modern might be the way to go. Have you checked
Google Image for musical theme quilts? There are some nice ones there.

I just finished a quilt for my DGD. It is called "Sliding Scale". It was a free pattern on the Wyndham Fabric site.
It turned out so great. It had notes and piano keys.

You could make a Swoon Quilt with the fabric, since the 24" block version would still lend itself well to large scale prints. That's what I'm using for my musical quilt after I finish up quilting my current project.

Actually, my current project would also work well if you're ok with something simple, since the pieces are also large. This is the Boho Girl Quilt Pattern that's available on McCalls website.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]583258[/ATTACH]

I also recently finished a diagonal striped quilt that would work well too.

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I've done this kind of stuff before....interpreting a life into a fabric piece.

If she is a music major, then how about following sheet music. A bargello with sections where the size of the square indicated the bravado of the music. Ask her what her favorite song is. Then choose parameters for high notes vs. low notes and assign a size of the bargello strip to the melody. How big does she want? Then choose 3 or 5 (odd numbers) sections across the quilt.

Maybe not your skill level. I could help you with it if you PM me.

Marcia

[ATTACH=CONFIG]583271[/ATTACH]This is a rag rug I did to commerate the loss of the Twin Towers in NYC. It's on my wall in my living room right now. My interpretation is that the skyline is a blur. I was raised in mountains and not around any buildings, so all buildings look about the same to me. So the buildings in the skyline look indistinguishable. Then the twin towers, (blue-green-teal) are gone in the skyline. They are only found in the reflection of the water (orange background) of the Hudson River. All we have left is the reflection in our minds of what they were. The skyline is navy for the dark streets. The breaks in the lines of the towers are shimmering in the water's reflection.

It's a rag rug. But it is much taller than my ceiling, so only part of the sky is shown which is a bit smokey.

When I had it in my studio I would ask people what is it??? What does it say??? Only one in about 300 would get it, but those that did burst into tears.

After I pointed out the specific parts, then they could see it, but as the creator, I wanted them to come up with it by themselves.

I've since sold the rug business and bought a long arm. Was trying to hand stitch a binding yesterday and my hand kept going to sleep.

Does your friend have a particular instrument that she plays?? I saw a fabulous pattern a number of years ago using a watercolor-style technique that featured a large piano as the focus of the overall quilt. I was actually going to make one for a friend of mine as well but decided since it was a joint (husband/wife) quilt and the piano was 'her' thing, to go in a different direction.

Granted, with that technique your fabrics would end up being cut relatively small they would definitely lose some of their focus value but you could do some fussy-cutting if you were up for that. A different watercolor style quilt I did a number of years ago I used 2.5" blocks and it wasn't too horrible.

And welcome from NJ.

I did one for my Grandson with MSQC Big Star pattern and it was a big hit. Works great to show off all sizes of prints. I had MSQC do the machine quilting with a musical note pattern so it was reversible with white backing and black thread. Front is red, white and black. I don't have a picture.

Would it be possible to show us a photo of your fabrics, as to help guide you in the right direction.

I have done a few chevron quilts where the pattern "wanders", like a melody across the page. This might appeal to you.

I love this simple pattern for showcasing themed fabrics. I've made it several times.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iXQ4EELCM...0/IMG_7788.JPG

Just a thought.......have no idea what your fabric looks like but would a string quilt work?...my vision is basically a black and white quilt with strips of musical notes , piano keys and other musically related objects and always using a white strip in the middle of each block.

The BQ quilt is a good option for fabrics to tell a story and is defiantly modern in style. The name of the manufacturer is Maple Island Quilts. If you want to find them on line, here is a link with all of their patterns.

https://mapleislandquilts.com/

You say you have been collecting musical fabrics. Is it fat quarters or yardage? How many different fabrics do you have? Could we have a picture of the fabrics please? Is there a specific instrument she likes?

The BQ patterns are wonderful for showing off theme fabrics. I have only used the original BQ. You could make a quilt with squares of the musical fabric cut at 6 inches and make matching 4 patches, 9 patches or whatever other block suits you. I searched for modern musical quilts....Maybe one of these will speak to you. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...tern&FORM=IGRE

Edited to add: This lady has several websites listed for musical ideas http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1122.asp

music theme quilts, some good ideas here!
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...lt&FORM=HDRSC2

Several years ago I made a wall hanging for my granddaughter that is musical notes alternated with Puss in the Corner blocks. I don't know if it's still available online but it was from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2010. It would have been a freebie pattern.

What do the fabrics look like? Are they all fairly small patterns? If so, any pattern will work. If there are one or two larger prints, then you may want to consider a pattern that uses a larger center square so you can cut those prints bigger. It doesn't have to be a complicated pattern, a churn dash would work fine for a some larger prints. Depending on how many prints you have, every block could be different and just use the same color for the background to tie it all together. To figure out which background works, audition them. Lay a dark, medium and light on the bed and lay your prints across them. Leave it for the day and every time you walk into the room see which one catches your eye first. If you want more of a 'musical theme, you can quilt the centers with a basic musical note. Please post pics of what you pick. (Your friend is a very lucky person!)

Here's my music quilt..
 

I have been collecting music fabric for years, and wanted to also do a red/white/black quilt. The pattern was the theme quilt in our guild, so I killed three birds with one stone.

I have two ideas:

1 - if you have "big" pieces of music fabric that you want to highlight, attic windows could be a good choice.

2 - If you are good with applique, you could cut out the shape of the instruments and lay them out somehow (not sure how LOL ... that's all I have!)

Good luck with whatever you decide!

I like using the pattern "Life is Good" for lap sized quilts in which I want to showcase some fabrics. Hope the link works. http://www.connectingthreads.com/pat...__D10925D.html

Thank you everyone! Sorry I didn't get back right away had family issues come up This week. I am quite simply impressed with the generosity of your ideas.
Today in a complete fluke I stopped into my favorite lqs and lucked into meeting a few ladies from the local quilt guild. I knew they existed but had never attended any of the events. I explained my struggle and the sat down with me to help develop the pattern for this quilt. I am so excited to start working on it. I will post a photo when I get it pieced and quilted both. If it turns out how we have it planned it will be amazing. Battle I did a bargello quilt for the birth of her granddaughter. They went with a Harry potter theme so was able to pull the colors of the four houses in with the pattern. Otherwise I love the idea. Again thank you everyone for responding��

Look forward to seeing the plan you came up with at your LQS. Maybe it will inspire me. I have some music themed fabric.