Peruvian Village Quilt

I'm partial to house quilts, so when I saw the Suburbs pattern by Allison Harris from Cluck Cluck Sew, I fell for it immediately. But instead of an American suburb, I wondered if I could instead create a Peruvian-inspired village and make something for Ben and Kristen to use in their new home. (Their wedding is in one week!)

Night in Ollantaytambo throw quilt

Kristen and I took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Peru back in September before she and Ben were engaged. Even then, though, I knew our days for such a mother-daughter trip were limited, which made it extra special. (You can read about our travels here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Ollantaybambo is the Andean village that we made home for the bulk of our trip. We loved this ancient place which spills down a mountainside! Not all the houses in town were not quite as colorful as the ones in my quilt version, but some definitely leaned toward warm pastels. To guide my fabric selections for the quilt, I made an inspiration board with photos from our trip.


Here's the view we had from outside the apartment we stayed in.

Ollantaytambo 

Before we arrived in the Andes we had spent about 24 hours in Lima. Rather than take in typical tourist attractions in the capital city, we (mostly accidentally) lodged at a small Peruvian hotel off the beaten path in a commercial/residential area. From our hotel base, we took numerous walks in the surrounding neighborhoods filled with little parks, houses, and small shopping areas. It was lovely! Among other things, we were impressed with the beautiful, ornate garage doors on the houses. Clearly these doors were handcrafted, not picked up from the local Garages Doors Plus dealer!

Typical Lima house with beautiful door

As an homage to the Liman door artistry, I quilted a wide variety of designs on the village house doors.

It's hard to see, but this door has a wood grain pattern.

And because I hope Kristen and Ben will enjoy snuggling under this quilt, I backed it with cozy fleece. I quilted clouds in the sky area and a simple double loop pattern in the white space. Even in Atlanta, it will sometimes get cold enough to want something warm to wrap up with, right?