trimmed for Valentine’s Day

This quilt has really grown on me. I wasn’t totally sure about all the pinks and reds, but as I continued making blocks, I really became quite smitten! In addition to the pink, red and purple solids (mostly Konas and Cotton Couture solids), I also found that this was the perfect opportunity to add in some wonderful pieces of Oakshott cottons. I love the shimmer and extra dimension these shot cottons add to the quilt.

As I mentioned earlier, I decided to make it a bit more difficult (more difficult to sew together, that is!) and made up rectangular blocks in many different sizes. I cut the center rectangular shapes without a ruler so they’d all be slightly wonky.

Most blocks have a solid white trim, but I added in a couple blocks with some Liberty of London as the trim, and there are a couple using a gray, just for a little extra something something.

And just to really drive home the Valentine’s Day-ness of this quilt, I found a text print in my stash with hearts that I pieced into a few of the blocks. They’re not very noticeable on first glance, but I thought it might be a fun little something to discover if you looked closer.

Putting it together? Well, that was a bit of a puzzle, and I even woke one morning realizing I had been dreaming about how it was all going to fit together. I put them all up on my design wall, and then started by trimming and sewing together the easy ones – those that were similarly sized. Since I had left the blocks untrimmed and on the larger size when I made them, I had room to trim them down as needed when trying to fit them all together. And mostly they all went together pretty easily, though it did require several partial seams (and more use of my brain than is usually required for sewing a quilt top together!)

(it’s definitely not possible to get a photo of a quilt without this one jumping in front of it!)

I’m debating on a suitable backing for the quilt now. I’d like to use something from my stash, but haven’t found anything that works. I can imagine that great Ikea black and white text print on the back, but since I’m miles (and miles and miles – I checked!) from an Ikea, that may not be an option. Any other suggestions? (Thanks to a kind reader, I think there may be some of that Ikea print headed my way!)