Earlier this year, Christopher Thompson, (aka The Tattooed Quilter) asked if I would make a mini quilt using solids and near solids that complimented his first fabric collection, Blue Carolina. The package of fabrics arrived and I’ll admit that at first I had a difficult time trying to decide what to make. The color palette was not something I would normally select. Being a designer is all about problem solving, so that’s exactly how I approached the project. After brainstorming and sketching, I decided to go with a new design, inspired by sewing. I named it (not so creatively) Needle Up and Down.
This summer, I decided to take a closer look at the design and make some modifications to this foundation paper pieced pattern, including altering the size and adding additional needles to show more movement. I made the pattern easy to make using a strip roll (also known as a Jelly Roll). I also renamed the quilt Sew Speedy. I made a prototype as I wrote the pattern.
As you can see, my first complete Sew Speedy sample is basted but not quite quilted yet:
For this sample, I used Kona® Cotton Solids (Pomegranate, Watermelon, Goldfish, Buttercup, Chartreuse, Pool, Caribbean and Mulberry) by Robert Kaufman
A couple of weeks later, I was approached by QT Fabrics. They had a new collection, entitled Ombre Stitches and wanted to know if I was interested in working with it. My Sew Speedy pattern was a perfect fit, especially since they were offering this collection as a strip roll.
When the fabric arrived, I first selected which 8 colors I wanted to be the needles and used a subtle white on white dot print for the background.
and then came the piecing and quilting!
QT Fabrics teamed up with Aurifil to create a special thread collection that coordinates perfectly with the Ombre Stitches collection. Included in the box are the following 50wt colors: 4670, 2515, 2540, 2735, 2710, 2810, 4654, 2870, 5017, 2150, 3920 and 4660. Before quilting, I played around with 8 (out of the 12) thread colors I wanted to use. I added White (color: 2024) for the quilting in the background. Batting is Warm and Natural by The Warm Company.
Leftovers from the pre-cut 2.5″ strips made for the perfect scrappy binding.
Many thanks to Laura McDowell Hopper (@sonicstitches) for testing this pattern. Here is a detail shot of her Sew Speedy.
Sew Speedy isn’t just for a rainbow palette. Check out a sample I have in the works using Cotton + Steel basics.
Want to make your own Sew Speedy? Get the pattern here!
5 Comments
Love this!
Thank you Kathleen!