my go-to quilt pattern

Do you have a quilt pattern that you return to over and over again? I do. For the past year and a half, one of the patterns that I keep coming back to is for the Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt by Bonnie of Quiltville. Each quilt I've made from the pattern is different, and each time I've been able to experiment with fabric placement, color palettes, and block layouts.  I've used bright, colorful prints for one, and white and cream solids with pops of saturated colors for another.

For this most recent iteration, I pulled white, cream, and light blue strips from my scrap bins. I incorporated some unexpected fabrics, including a vintage eyelet, a hand-printed fabric I received in a swap, and a lightweight linen-cotton canvas.

I pieced the back using largish scraps from my stash, and quilted it in light blue thread with a cross-hatch pattern. It's now for sale in the Etsy shop, if you'd like to take a look.

And this is not my last pass at this pattern---I already have blocks made from bright solids ready to be turned into a quilt top!

All quilt photos by Caroline Okun.

triangle scraps + a finished quilt

I'm so excited to share today's quilt with you! I started this quilt earlier this year, on a quest to clear out my scrap bins---at least enough to fit the lids back on top.  While I didn't manage to do that---my scrap pile keeps growing!---I did fall in love with this scrappy quilt.

The quilt pattern is "Up, Up, and Away," by Amanda Jean Nyberg, and is found in the book Sunday Morning Quilts. I paired white, cream, and khaki squares with little triangles of color, ranging from vintage to modern fabrics. Piecing took forever---lots of trimming and experimenting with the layout---but I think it was well worth the effort.

I used a saturated and bold blue Marimekko print for the back and a coordinating cobalt-blue-and-white stripe for the binding. I stuck with my favorite cross-hatch quilting, which added a nice texture to the quilt.

 

This quilt is now listed for sale in the Salty Oat Etsy shop, and I'd love to know, what are your favorite scrap-busting projects?

All photos by Caroline Okun. 

do. Good Stitches banner quilt

Way back in August, I was tasked with deciding on what quilt my circle of do. Good Stitches (the Wish Circle) would make. I eventually settled on making a variation of this quilt, by Ellen Luckett Baker. I asked my circle members to make the banner blocks in primary colors: red, blue and yellow. You can see the two blue blocks that I made here.

After receiving all of the blocks from my circle members, I pieced the top together, adding white sashing between each block. I kept the quilting simple, outlining each banner.

For the backing, I pieced together larger pieces from my stash that fit within the color scheme, including some Lizzy House and Heather Ross prints. I also added in an extra banner block.

I bound the quilt in blue and yellow scraps and added a do. Good Stitches label to the back.

I'll be donating this quilt to the Raleigh chapter of Project Linus this week, the charity that our circle supports. Hopefully the quilt will brighten the day of a child who needs it!

prismatic quilt

Not long after sharing a sneak peek of this quilt, I finished it! Consisting of oversized half-square triangles, the simple quilt pattern is called Prismatic, and can be found in Kathreen Ricketson's Little Bits Quilting Bee, one of my favorite quilt books.

To make it, I paired almost all of the light blue prints in my stash (ranging from vintage to new) with solid white---I love how well the various prints work with one another, despite differences in scale and value.

For the back, I pieced together a number of larger scraps, including a few treasured prints I'd been hoarding.

I quilted it on my own machine (!) using an all-over stipple. This is by far the largest quilt I've ever quilted (it's approximately 81" x 90"), and while the stitching is far from perfect and took forever to complete, I love the final, crinkly results.

I bound it with a beloved Kei Honeycomb Dot I snatched up in a sale a few years ago, and added a new label.

P.S. The DC Walk to End Alzheimer's is this Saturday, and we'd love your support! Details about the walk can be found here.