Stick a fork in it. Or, uh, wait. Don't.

Finished and sent.

I did a few things differently with this quilt than I normally do. First, I starched my fabric after washing and before pressing. This made the cotton nice and crisp to work with. Probably more trouble than it was worth, given the simplicity of the piecing, but I'll do it again in the future when I have something more complicated going on.

Next, I mostly used prints from a single line. I guess I was feeling lazy uninspired. Oh, they all look great together, just as they're designed to do, but I don't feel there's much of my personality in the quilt. That's all right on this one, I think, since I didn't invest a huge amount of time in it and it's not a gift I'm giving directly to a loved one. But I don't plan to do it again.

Third, I pieced the back. Didn't take a picture of it, but I inserted big 8" blocks of the Pop Garden prints between the large panels of the backing fabric. I like the effect, but everything does need to be aligned just so before quilting to assure a straight column when finished.

Finally, this is just so much simpler a quilt than I usually make. I had a lot of reasons:

• Wanted to make it quickly
• Wanted to showcase the big prints without hacking them up into tiny bits
• Wanted to use up a lot of fabric
• Wanted not to think too hard during construction
• Liked other quilts I've seen that were comparably simple

And I'll certainly go the simple route again. Although I wouldn't call this quilt technically challenging, I really enjoyed just making something, and it was a real pleasure to go from inception to completion in what was, for me, a pretty short time.

See also a closeup of some blocks and the label.

Comments

[kris]

Do you have a pattern for this? I have some of the same material in my stash that i don't have anything planned for, and would love to make a quilt like this! It's wonderful!

[Julie]

Thanks! I don't have a pattern, but I can tell you how I did it.

The blocks are each 8" finished. There are two blocks in this layout:

Block 1 is a 2" finished strip plus a 6" finished rectangle

Block 2 is TWO 2" finished strips plus a 4" rectangle

The sashing is 2" wide and the borders are each 4". Couldn't be easier. I wanted to keep the blocks simple to showcase the big gorgeous prints. Let me know what you make with them — I have a bunch of leftover fabric and could use some more ideas.

[kris]

Thank you! I was thinking of making the Denyse Schmidt Flock of Triangles quilt out of her book. But as you said the prints are so pretty and big.That's what I liked about yours, all the prints were showcased. Flock of Triangles would be a great quilt pattern for scraps though. You did a great job with this quilt!

[Emma]

I agree with so much in this post, I could porobably have written it myself!