scrappy strip-pieced quilt

This is a quilt that I sent as a Christmas gift to my sister-in-law who recently moved to Taos, New Mexico where she is taking care of children, skiing a ton, and working on learning how to ride a snowboard. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

When I asked her for guidance on color, one of the things she said was “bright and fun” so I ran with it. The multi color polka dot is a fabric that I used as binding fabric on a fleece blanket I made for her a few years ago.  Since I had some scraps leftover, I used it as the basis for selecting the rest of the prints that I used in the quilt. Doing this really helped me to stay focused on a particular set of colors. From there, I tried to select a few prints that had meaning. For example, the prints from Denyse Schmidt’s County Fair line is a fabric that we used quite a bit when we were planning her older sister’s bridal shower. Some of the greens are prints that I have used in my son’s twin sized quilt. And because the recipient is a naturalist and animal lover, I incorporated a few novelty prints {frog, octopus, seahorse} that were designed by Heather Ross.  I did a good amount of strip piecing to save time, but because I used a good variety of prints, the quilt still has the scrappy look that I love.  I did straight line quilting, which is all I ever do because I haven’t been brave enough to try anything else. I also decided to incorporate rounded corners because I love how they look and I needed to finish this one up quickly. I ran out of fabric for the binding, so I used some scraps from the main body of the quilt.  The scrappy bit of the binding is my absolute favorite part. I didn’t remember to measure it, but I’d say its a generous throw-sized quilt.

The recipient also sews, therefore I knew that every last stitch would be loved, appreciated, and understood. It was such a pleasure to make this for someone who is so dear to our family and whose personality is as bright and fun as this quilt.

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