A while ago, Nina Fosse (@ninafosse) shared a photo of her blue version of the Knitty Rose quilt pattern, and I immediately felt the urge to make another Knitty Rose quilt myself. Because this one is seriously beautiful!
Instead, I asked to borrow hers for a photoshoot – and I'm so glad to be able to share this beautiful quilt with you!
A Selbu rose in blue and white
The Knitty Rose quilt pattern is inspired by a traditional motif from Norwegian Selbu knitting: eight ram’s horns arranged into a rose or flower shape. You can read about the history of the quilt pattern in this blog post.
My original cover quilt for the pattern is scrappy yellow and white, which I still love. But because those colours are fairly close in value, the rose shape becomes a little soft around the edges. In Nina’s version, though, the white rose stands out immediately against the blue background. Plus: Who can resist a good gradient? Not me!
Nina's Knitty Rose is made with Bluebird's Nest fabrics by Kansas Troubles Quilters for Moda, and sewn in the Large Throw size measuring 70” x 70” (178 x 178 cm).
The quilt started with a Bluebirds Nest layer cake, where each 10” square was cut into 16 smaller 2 1/2” squares for the web piecing process. Nina also added extra yardage from the same collection, especially more of the darkest blues and lightest fabrics, but also a bit extra of the medium blue tones. She also added a low volume white that's not part of the collection.
The quilt top was assembled during a solo trip to Spain, where the whole house more or less turned into a giant quilt layout zone! Nina carefully arranged all the tiny squares into a planned gradient: dark blue closest to the center, medium blues further out, and darker fabrics again around the outer edges. At the same time, she made sure no identical fabrics ended up directly beside each other.
Custom quilting & a Norwegian quilt shop tip
The custom quilting by Brit Schjelderup (@britschjelderup) adds so much extra texture to the quilt. Each blue square contains a cathedral window motif, while the white rose sections are filled with softer feathers and organic quilting designs.
As I mentioned, I've been lucky enough to borrow the quilt for a photoshoot before it returns to the quilt shop Quilt & Sånt in Bryne, Norway, where the fabrics were sponsored from. Bryne is just outside Stavanger, and coincidentally it's also the home of the famous soccer player Erling Braut Haaland! It's a very nice little shop that also has Scandiquilts patterns printed on paper (In Norwegian, that is...)
(That's my greenhouse in the background!)
Adventurous photoshoot by the sea
Besides photographing the quilt at home, I also brought it along on an evening boat trip in the archipelago outside Tønsberg. The sun stays up late and the evening light is just so beautiful now that we’re approaching the summer solstice, and I’m so glad boating season has started again.
Our vessel for these adventures is our little vintage boat Bodil. Isn’t she the cutest? She’s named after my grandma.
And yes – I also photographed the quilt flat from above while leaning out of a second floor window... Because I am seriously considering replacing the original Knitty Rose pattern cover quilt with this blue version instead.
Thank you so much to Nina for making this beautiful quilt and letting me borrow it for photos 💙
Are you inspired to make your own Knitty Rose quilt? Get the pattern here!
Also, don't miss the tester quilts, which are also wonderful and very different from this one!