It’s done! And it’s Vast. This is the Vast quilt pattern from my friend Jeni‘s new book Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle. I was so excited to receive her book. She’s so smart and put together her book beautifully.

I love the 12 quilt patterns, each one just as beautiful as the last. But then, Jeni offers so much more. The book is divided into sections and each section has a sort of ‘workshop’ type portion that goes into depth about elements of that particular section. I think new quilters will really appreciate her in-depth coverage of half-square triangles and can grow and be extremely comfortable making some of their first quilts. Of course seasoned quilters can also expect awesome information on how to take their quilts to the next level.

From the tiny peek I saw of Vast when Jeni showed me last spring, I waited patiently to give it a try myself. I love that this quilt uses huge blocks! Seeing the large expanses of some of my favorite fabrics is the best! This color palette really speaks to me. I love neutral and the slightly masculine feeling these colors give. Vast will be living on my bed! And I’m happy to have a little change of colors in there. I used Quilters Dream wool batting again and really love how it makes the whole quilt feel. It’s light and cozy. I backed it with one of my most favorite prints by Sarah Watson.

For the quilting I tried something a little different. I quilted it in four sections with straight lines that turn at a 90-degree angle at the center. I’m not super crazy how it quilted up. I did end up blocking the quilt because there was a slight bulge in the center. I don’t feel like it’s a super big deal, especially since it’s for me, but I don’t think I’ll do quilting like that again. I suppose that’s why I usually start in the center and work my way out to the edges? I’ll have to think about it a bit more.

Pattern: Vast from Patchwork Essentials by Jeni Baker
Fabrics: Cotton + Steel (Alexia Abegg), Lotta Jansdotter, Carolyn Friedlander, Leah Duncan

Yep, I think this may just be one of my most favorite baby quilts I’ve made. And I love making quilts for babies, especially ones that get used and loved. It started with a Ten-Square of Shimmer 2 Coordinates from Jennifer Sampou. Oh these colors! So divine. Usually I find it difficult to work with pre-cuts, mostly because I love mixing and matching to my hearts content. I also love to have total freedom when it comes to sizes, etc. It’s good though to have some constraints this time and it felt really great to dive into this stack.

Jennifer did an amazing job with this palette. I didn’t add a single thing. I came up with this block design concept, then sewed and pieced until everything was used up! I didn’t want to over think it. I find that for me I can spend hours and hours with fabrics and designs, but its way more fun to dive in and not be sure how it’ll all come together. Lucky for me this ended up being so fun.

I used Quilter’s Dream wool batting and I love the loft and hand once it has been quilted. My kids even walked by while I was quilting it and admired how soft and cozy it was. I’m also a big believer in soft quilt backings. I think a soft backing can make all the difference! I had stashed a couple yards of this beautiful soft gray double gauze with polka dots. And it’s such a dream and the color couldn’t have been better.

I spray basted as well as adding some pinning. I didn’t have any trouble with shifting at all although I did end up blocking the quilt. I used a concentric square design that radiates from the center of the quilt. I think it’s easy for the quilt to get wobbly after quilting, so I soaked it in Soak Wash and laid it flat to dry. Worked great! I also used this same concentric square quilting for the Picnic Plaid quilt in my book.

This quilt is winging its way over to a dear friend and her new baby boy.

Pattern: none
Fabric: Shimmer 2 Coordinate 10-Square by Jennifer Sampou for Robert Kaufman Fabrics,
backing is Kokochi Double Gauze in Gray Dots

I’m excited to share my Sunny Side Up pattern with you today! You may recognize the quilt from last winter, the full-size quilt was featured in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of Quilty Magazine. I wanted to be able to share it here with you, in case you need a little sunshine in your life. The PDF pattern includes instructions for full-size and baby size quilts as well as quilted pillow instructions (for a 24″ pillow form).

I made two fun pillows for my bed. It always seems like a treat to add a new pillow or two on the bed, it’s fun to see how a simple project like this can really change up a room. I love the colors in the new Umbrella Prints collection: Flowers. Seemed fitting to use them paired with one of my favorite basics, Robert Kaufman Yarn Dyed Essex in Indigo. I call for a 24″ pillow form in the pattern, but I’ve found that the cheaper the pillow forms, the less stuffing they have. I used some old 26″ pillow forms from Target in these two pillows. So you might want to experiment with different size pillow forms so you can pick your perfect fullness. And invisible zippers, always love how they make a pillow look so professional.

The fun part, too, is that even though I show my quilt and pillows using 2 fabric choices, I think it would be amazing scrappy. Keeping the background fabric the same would make whichever fabrics you pick really shine. I hope to try it out with a the baby quilt!

You can find the pattern in my shop. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Fabrics: Umbrella Prints Flowers collection, Yarn Dyed Essex in Indigo for pillow tops. Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics and Leah Duncan’s Tule for backings.