I have to give a shout out to Janet at Simply Pieced. Last month, when she hosted our local MQG meeting, that girl was cleaning out some of her stash! She made this quilt with the Eden's Dream line by Studio E, and decided that she was finished with the fabric. I ended up with almost a full fat quarter of 8 different prints. A girl can always use more fabric, right? Thanks, Janet!
I wanted to use this fabric judiciously, so I needed a fairly simple pattern that would create as little waste as possible. I stretched the fabrics by adding some Kona Coal, Kona Baby Blue, and that cute lime green print which coordinated so perfectly! I ended up making some 25 patch blocks and alternating with framed 9 patches. The squares are 2 inches finished. I used Kona Bone and the creamy ivory is the perfect compliment to the soft colors of the fabrics. I quilted with a meander in soft pink, and I just love how it looks against the quilt.
I don't see many 25 patches around. Usually, I see either 16 patches or 36 patches, with good reason now that I think of it. You can't speed piece 25 patches in the same way since there is an odd number across. So, to make the 25 patches quickly, I made a 16 patch, then attached a row of four to one side, then a row of 5 down the other side. Well duh! That makes sense, right? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it actually took a couple of blocks before I started doing them this way. Then, of course it went much faster.
I used every single scrap of fabric in the top, so that left none for the backing. That allowed me the freedom to choose a busier print for the backing though, so it's all good! I just love this gray and cream scroll fabric, and I added an offset stripe of blue just to break it up a little bit. The binding is Kona Coal, since I already had plenty of it in my stash.
When I first saw these fabrics, the colors immediately reminded me of dawn. The colors are bright, but something about them is soft as well. Maybe it's the gray and cream mixed in? The framed patches give the illusion of looking through windows and peeking out at the sometimes foggy early morning light of dawn. So, I've named this one Discovering Dawn. It measures 50x50. I'm really happy with the way this one turned out, and I'm listing it in my etsy shop!
Besides the fact that Fall Break is ending, the other reason that I rushed to get this one finished up is because my beloved Bernina's service light came on. It's a little bit troubling, since I've only had her since April. My dealer assures me that she shouldn't need regular service already, but since Discovering Dawn is her 28th quilt, I wonder if that's the case. Even though several of these quilts were baby quilts, I think that's still a pretty big workload for 6 months. I really hope that's it and nothing is actually wrong. Seriously though- what am I going to do for 1-2 weeks while she's gone?
