This piece is a custom order for a new baby girl due to arrive this spring. I had a lot of creative freedom, the only requirement from my client was that there was some monkey fabric in the top. Monkeys have significant meaning between my client, and the person she is gifting the quilt to. With all of that freedom, I dove into my stash looking for inspiration.
While digging through my stash the fabric just started calling to me. I started with prints on creamy backgrounds. How could I resist those Lizzy kitties, hedgies, some cotton and steel, and a few other prints.
Looking through my pink stash I was really drawn to more coral/salmon tones. They are still sweet, and feminine without being too over the top girlie. To balance out all of the warmth from the pink, I started reaching for some cool teals, and mint, with some navy for added saturation. Navy is currently one of my favorite colors. It has just felt so fresh, and clean.
With all of the novelty prints I pulled I really wanted to use a pattern that would showcase how cute the fabric was. Usually I go with just basic patchwork, but I felt that there needed to be a little more interest to the pattern of this quilt. Equilateral triangles seemed like the perfect choice. The prints aren't greatly sacrificed, but there is just so much more for your eyes to look at with secondary patterns.
This was my first time making a quilt with equilateral triangles, and it was most definitely a learning process. Cutting wasn't a problem, but when it came to sewing the rows together I was ready to pull my hair out after the first one. I was getting a lot of wonk, and waviness. Thanks to some awesome Instagram friends I received some great advice.
The advice that worked best for me was to use Best Press. I have never used any sort of spray while pressing my fabric, but boy did this ever convert me! It added the perfect amount of stability to each triangle so I didn't have to worry about the bias edges, and helped keep things from shifting while sewing. I could see a huge improvement on how clean the blocks were lining up, and I was able to keep most of my points on each triangle.
I wanted to keep the quilt simple so the quilt would be super snuggly, and soft. So I went for some light straight line quilting following the angles of the quilt top. It resulted in a lovely diamond pattern.
I do love a pieced back. These teal elephants were just begging to be a part of this quilt, and the wavy teal lines on white were perfectly subtle while adding some great movement.
Besides the quarter yard of monkey fabric (from Joann's), and the binding this quilt was made 100% from my stash. It feels good to use what I have on hand. It helps me justify buying fabric that I'm inspired by without having a specific project lined up for. If you buy what you are drawn to, you will have a stash that will continue to inspire you. :)
This quilt came together rather quickly, and I can see myself using equilateral triangles again. There are many ways to mix up the layout to keep things fresh, and fun.
It isn't always easy to let go of quilts I've made, but I hope that sweet new baby girl will get many years out of this quilt.
