do. good stitches: birds in the air quilt

Right around the time of our move to NH, it was my turn to act as the quilter for the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches.

I requested all of my circle members to create two Birds in the Air quilt blocks, albeit with a slightly different color placement than the tutorial. I asked for a mix of solid whites and grays, with an orange print in only one of the two blocks.

Once I received all of the blocks, I played around with the layout, winding up with something quite different than I had originally envisioned---which I love! I also love the variations in the shades of solid gray, and the random pops of orange scattered throughout the quilt top.

I used an orange Marimekko circle print for the background, quilted it with intersecting lines in orange thread, and bound it with a scrappy orange binding.

This quilt will be donated to my local chapter of Project Linus.

P.S. I'm super close to 2,000 followers on Instagram, and once I hit that magic number, I'll be doing a sale! Be sure to follow me there to be among the first to hear about it.

a custom flying geese wall quilt

 

One of the benefits of making Salty Oat my full-time gig, is that I now have the time to take on commissioned quilts for customers. I was recently asked to make a wall quilt which would be hung above a bed, and needed to work with the room's color palette, which included orange, teal, beige, and gray.

After learning more about the customer's style---including their preference for triangles and diamonds, and a love of animals---I sketched an idea and pulled fabrics from my stash. The design was quickly approved, and I got to work on this 30" x 30" wall hanging, which features two sizes of flying geese, flying both clockwise and counterclockwise.

I loved working with a new-to-me palette, as well as some of my favorite fabrics (like those Japanese elephants!). I also really enjoyed working on something while being able to visualize the space in which it would eventually hang.

I used my go-to Marimekko dots for the backing (I stocked up on so many colors of this print the last time I was at the Crate and Barrel outlet!), and included a hand-stitched hanging sleeve so that it can go right up on the wall in its new home.

I'm currently accepting custom orders for the holidays, so if you've been thinking about commissioning a quilt for holiday gifting, now is the perfect time to get started! Simple send me an email at saltyoat at gmail dot com and we can discuss details, pricing, and turnaround times. Happy Wednesday!

echo baby quilt

When Lotta Jansdotter released her first fabric collection with Windham Fabrics back in 2011, I was super excited. Her collection, Echo, was so different than anything else out on the market at the time, and it was so fun to see Scandinavian-inspired designs, with the look of a block print, on quilting cotton.

I received a layer cake of the collection's prints for Christmas that year and held on to it, not sure what I wanted to make with the 10" precut squares.

Fast forward to a few months ago, when I pulled the layer cake out and was inspired to cut into it and create a small quilt.

Each square was divided into four triangles, which were rearranged and sewn back into squares, with a balanced mix of light and dark values among the prints in each block. With the layout that I chose, a checkerboard, set on point, emerged from the quilt top's design.

Having no real negative/white space in the quilt's top means it's quite busy, but I love the look of having so many saturated prints nestled together.

This quilt is now available in the shop.

Quilt Stats
Finished dimensions: 34" x 42.5"
Fabrics used include: Prints from the Echo collection by Lotta Jansdotter for the top and binding; large beige circles by Marimekko for Crate and Barrel for the back.
Quilt pattern: An original Salty Oat design

donut quilt

This quilt has been in progress for what feels like forever, so I'm so excited to finally have a finish to share with you today!

The Donuts quilt pattern has been on my mind ever since I saw Amanda's Donut Quilt back in 2013. I loved the whimsical nature of the design---donuts!---and the staggered layout, so I bought a copy of the quilt pattern from The Workroom.

Knowing that this would be a quilt I would keep for myself, I chose to use a number of Maze & Vale panels that I'd been stockpiling for the donuts. Leslie's fabrics are gorgeous, and I was excited to sew with them and finally include them in a quilt. I used a blue Essex linen for the background, which paired beautifully with the screen-printed fabrics. According to Instagram, I made the blocks for this quilt a year ago.

I recently had a quilt to send off to Crinklelove for quilting, so I figured this was a great time to take the top out of the WIP pile, and finish it before the New Hampshire winter starts.

Sarah did a beautiful job quilting Denyse Schmidt-style loops across the top; I'm in love with the texture they created! I inadvertently made a Scandinavian backing for the quilt, pairing a large-scale Marrimekko dot print with a text print from Ikea.

I'm so excited to have finished this quilt---and the final result!---and am looking forward to adding it to the quilt rotation in our house. Do you have any quilt patterns that you love and are hoping to make yourself? I'd love to hear!

Quilt Stats
Finished dimensions: 50" x 61"
Fabrics used include: Various screen-printed panels by Maze & Vale; Essex linen-cotton blend by Robert Kaufman; large-circle print by Marimekko; Britten Nummer fabric by Ikea; and Herringbone in Pond by Joel Dewberry.
Quilt pattern: Donuts Quilt by Johanna Masko

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!

scattered squares quilt

Do you have projects that begin in one place and wind up in another? When I started this quilt a few years ago, my idea was to create a colorful, scrappy checkerboard quilt, inspired by those by Red Pepper Quilts. At the time, I pieced five blocks and set them aside, assuming I would continue to add to my pile as I collected more 2.5" scraps.

Fast forward to earlier last year, when I came across these blocks again while cleaning my studio. Rather than doing any more checkerboard piecing, I decided to make a quilt by mixing the blocks I had with large white and cream squares.

The resulting random and scattered layout, with its wide open spaces, is perfect, and I think better than what I'd originally envisioned.

I backed the top with a Marimekko large lime green dot, and quilted it with intersecting straight lines in a matching bright green thread. The binding is a navy-and-white stripe from Sew Modern.

This quilt is now listed for sale in the Salty Oat Etsy shop, and I can attest to its crinkly fluffiness, which makes it perfect for snuggling.

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: Yellow Cross Quilt

In December, I was the quilter for my circle of do. Good Stitches. I decided to keep it simple, since it was the holiday season, and I asked our group members to make two cross blocks, using any shade of solid yellow.

I love, love, love how this quilt turned out! The yellow crosses are so cheery and happy, and I'm so inspired to work with this palette more. I quilted it with a crosshatch pattern in yellow thread.

For the backing, I used a Marimekko print my mother-in-law got on super sale from the Crate and Barrel outlet. It's a wide sateen fabric, which meant that I didn't have to piece it, which I really enjoyed. For the binding, I used a striped, vintage-looking print that's been in my stash for ages---it was nice to finally use it up.

I donated the quilt to my local chapter of Project Linus this past weekend, so it's now off to its new home.