yellow-and-white diamond quilt

After making the yellow cross quilt for our do. Good Stitches circle early last year, and seeing how cheerful, yet simple and modern, the final result was, I was itching to make another yellow-and-white quilt.

I decided to use a new shape for my own iteration, and chose diamonds so that I could try out Latifah Saafir's half-rectangle triangle tutorial. I used various shades of solid yellow, along with a few tone-on-tone prints by Leah Duncan and Marimekko, for the triangles which formed the diamonds. For the background, I used a mix of white and cream solids (I love having a varied background).

I first did simple outline quilting in white in the background section, and then brainstormed other ways to add more quilting, which I wanted to have to keep the batting stable. I wound up quilting angled yellow lines within each of the diamonds, which in turn made the diamonds look like they were faceted. It was such a happy accident, and one of the things I love most about this quilt!

I used a deep purple/plum/eggplant Marimekko print for the back, which was wide enough that it didn't need any additional piecing (I used similar Marimekko backings on my Scattered Squares and Up, Up, and Away quilts). I then hand bound it with a scrappy yellow binding.

I still find myself quite smitten with this color combination (I used it in my recent whole-cloth quilt), and know that I'll be returning to it again for future quilts. In the meantime, this quilt is now available in the shop. What color combinations do you find yourself drawn to lately?

Quilt Stats
Finished dimensions: 40" x 48"
Fabrics used include: Comal in Saffron from Maya by Leah Duncan; Curry Foliage Grid from Botanics by Carolyn Friedlander; yellow and plum prints by Marimekko for Crate and Barrel; yellow solids from Modern Solids by Alissa Haight Carlton
Block tutorial: Half-Rectangle Triangle by Latifah Saafir for the Modern Quilt Guild

P.S. I'll be a vendor at the South End Open Market in Boston this weekend, and will have this quilt there, along with many others. Please stop by my booth and say hello if you're in the neighborhood!