When I first saw the quilt posted I looked at the pattern and drew it up using Electric Quilt 8 software. As I researched it on-line I found Kim Diehl’s book “Simple Sampler” that had the quilt design in it. The pattern was relatively simple.
The next step in the process was digging through 3 boxes of fat quarters from the Boundless collection and selecting 16 dark fabrics and another 16 coordinating lighter fabrics.
Once the blocks were completed, it was onto the bed to start putting them in some type of order. I try to make sure that the colors are scattered. I always take a picture of when the blocks are in the order that I like in case they get mixed up when moving between a bedroom and sewing room. This is the point where a design wall would really come in handy.
Once I have all the pieces put together I start looking at how I will quilt it. It’s always a tough decision when you start looking at doing an all over pattern versus quilting individual blocks.
When I started out quilting with my Millie I didn’t really have a good feel for what designs would go where. After a few years I have tried to stick with the idea that more is not always better. I try to follow a few rules that I have set for myself.
- Keep small spaces simple unless you want to push them to the background.
- Opposites attract. If you have a geometric design, curves can create a nice effect.
- Not every space needs to be quilted. By not quilting them, they stand out from the background.
I decided to go with quilting individual blocks from the design above. I used a cream thread (Glide) for border and all the cream patches. For each of the colored blocks I used a color that was close to the darker block color. I didn’t want to use the cream for the curls and pearls design in the block and felt that it would be somewhat overpowering.
