My First Quilt

One of the things I wanted to push myself to do this year was at least one crafty/sewing project a month. For January, I made a tote bag for library books and a ruffle jersey knit scarf (which clearly looks like I still need to photograph and brag about on here). I wanted to get a little back into the swing of my sewing machine before plunging into the ultimate project I wanted to try this year- my very first quilt.

I wanted something modern and stylish in a home decor kind-of-way since I wanted to make a throw blanket sized quilt for our family room. I spent quite awhile browsing online patterns and tutorials and found nothing quite right. Eventually, I found an almost perfect Amy Butler Brick Path pattern:

She has several tutorials for all sorts of amazing sewing projects, which I definitely bookmarked for future reference. I loved the brick/subway tile pattern, but it seemed too “busy”.  After some Googling of “subway tile quilt pattern” , I found my long lost, meant to be pattern- Color Brick by Rachel at Stitched in Color. It’s even outlined as a step-by-step “quilt-along” for total beginners- even more perfect. Serendipity.

I searched high and low at all the local fabric stores for a collect of fabrics I liked, and…. nothing. I had a very specific color scheme in mind of navy, light blue, white and had spoiled myself by pre-browsing online all the juicy designer quilting fabrics, like Amy Butler and Michael Miller. Suddenly, Joann’s just wasn’t cutting it. So I went with Fabric.com and ordered:

From Free Spirit’s Modern Meadows Collection:

 

And from Westminster’s Chestnut Hill Collection:

Oddly enough, the same design created both collections and even more odd… double-checking my fabric quantities against the Color Brick tutorial, I realized that Rachel also used the Modern Meadow collection for the majority of her “bricks”. Clearly her choice in fabrics influenced me in loving her pattern :)

However, my cart was just $9 short of free shipping, which is how a yard of this entered my cart:

From Kaufman’s  Metro Cafe collection:

Perfect for some dish towel and hot pad trim. I guess I know now what March’s project will be.