Half Square Spectrum Quilt

This quilt has been in the works for a L O N G time.  One of those quilts that I wanted to work on (because I was making it purely for me), but always got pushed to the bottom of the priority list. I cut out all the fabrics last fall and played with the layout for these half-square triangle blocks, but that's as far as I got. The blocks resurfaced this summer and I started sewing them into rows, but it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. Then in a one-night sewing binge at the Sewing Summit, I cranked this baby out - well, the rows anyway. Then some time to add some borders, get it quilted and she's finally done!

Why do I bore you with all those details? Well, mainly because I do not want anyone under the misconception that I sit and whip out a quit in a weekend or two. The majority of the quilts that I make are L O N G, drawn-out works in progress.  Just because they magically appear finished for a blog post doesn't mean they are whipped up over night.

This quilt was all about playing with fabric and color.  It started out with a couple of Freebird charm packs. (One of my all time favorite fabric collections. I used it in the big circles quilt too.) I didn't have enough for a whole quilt, but the colors and prints played together so nicely with the abundance of American Jane fabrics in my stash as well as a few random Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler, etc. prints. Also I have a thing for color spectrums. (I think it comes from visiting Purl Soho - the whole store is so pretty with everything organized by colors.) I tried a layout mixing the colors but everything looked muddy - putting the colors together made them sing. (Not literally, but you know what I mean.) I love it.

What I'm not sure about is the triangles 'bleeding' into the borders.  It was nice in theory, but the jury is still out about the final result.

The pieced back was born more of necessity - I didn't have quite enough of this yardage for the back, but it's always fun to come up with a solution right?  And applying my goal of pulling from the stash only this is what came from it.  The red floral is probably my favorite print from that good ol' Freebird collection.

Binding again from the stash.  The fabric is a stripe from a Christmas collection that I got on clearance one year. Not sure how I feel about this one either. The colors are perfect, but the stripe feels wide.  I think it will grow on me. Maybe the floating triangles in the borders too. If not, then I can always cut off the borders and re-bind right?

It's so satisfying to complete a quilt for myself that I love. Fun to look at every fabric and color and feel warm and fuzzy about each one. (I know, I'm a dork.) I cut all the HST (half-square triangles) with my Accuquilt Go cutter. Cut all those triangles SO fast.

After I posted the Freebird circles quilt I had a lot of people contact me about where they could find some of those fabrics.  They are scarce these days because the collection came out a couple of years ago. But luckily I heard from Jennifer who runs an online fabric shop, Dragonfly Fabrics in Canada. She still has many Freebird prints available in her shop - and they are even on sale. So if you're one of those folks on the hunt, you're in luck!

Linking up to Quilt Story, Sew And Tell with AmyLouWho