I don’t know what is happening to me. For almost a decade I hadn’t made one single quilt using all solids fabrics. Now however, well . . . I just finished this quilt using Shades, a Basic Fabric (tonal) solid. I am currently working on a quilt that uses shot cotton (a woven solid). At the beginning of the year, I finished a quilt with Confetti Cottons, another basic fabric that is a true solid. Last year, I made a queen size quilt for Bluprint with what else? All solids. Even now, at this very moment, I have a pile of Shades fabric in blues and teals on my cutting table ready to go. Solids are slowly and surely invading my world. And surprisingly, I love it!! 

For this quilt, I used a pattern designed by Brittany from Lo and Behold Stitchery called Interwoven. It is made up of bold graphic lines. Each line is made from a 1 1/2″ strip of fabric, creating a modern quilt resembling a maze, labyrinth, or pathway. Some paths join and continue on into different blocks, while some paths are short and stop right after they have started. True to life, this quilt is inspired by the paths and journey of life. I love everything about it! It leads my eyes in so many directions. I can stare at this quilt forever. 

What is a Basic Fabric?

For the fabric, I picked from a collection of Basics from Riley Blake Designs called Shades. It absolutely lends itself to this quilt design. What is a basic fabric? For Riley Blake, a fabric from one of their Basic collections is a fabric that will match with many of Riley Blake Designs upcoming fabric collections, current collections, and some of the older ones as well. A basic fabric stays out on the marketplace for a longer period of time. It is almost a constant. This particular fabric line is Shades. It is a solid fabric that is similar to a grunge. Specifically, Riley Blake Designs classifies the line as a mottled print; rich in textures that are created from colors found within the same color family. A little darker and a little lighter, walking the line of being a solid but not being a solid. I call it a solid with a bit more pizzazz! 

I decided to challenge myself to make a gradient quilt. Proving that there is great depth and dimension in the collection to support the variety of colors. I pulled eight different fabrics from the Shades collection. Whites, grays, and blacks. My selection included Snow, Linen, Gray Fox, Slate, Overcast, Granite, Asphalt, and Phantom. Starting with blocks made with Snow and Snow, working myself down the gradient until I reached Snow and Phantom. I used that color in two rows and finished the last row with a dark gray that had a hint of blue to it. 

Is it a trend?

I feel like this quilt is on trend right now. If you look at the Crate and Barrel website and go to the kids bedding, you will find a black and white striped geometric quilt. To keep on trend, for the back, I used another Basic fabric from the Shades line called Apple. It’s a variation of chartreuse, a color that happens to be Etsy’s color of the year. I am so happy with how it turned out. It is the perfect size for a wall hanging, or even better, perfect for a first birthday gift. The finished crib size quilt is 42″ x 57″.

Quilting lines with an on point layout

All of the blocks are on point, eliminating any horizontal or vertical lines. Because of that, I decided to quilt it with horizontal lines on my domestic sewing machine, leaving only 1/2″ in between each stitched line. It can be a little tricky to find a straight horizontal line in an on point block layout, so I found all the top points in one row and connected them with a piece of painter’s tape. That became my guide. If I started to worry that it wasn’t straight anymore, I would find a row and add strips of tape until I got to my last stitched row. Painter’s tape to the rescue yet again!! The quilting complements all of the other lines in the quilt and doesn’t draw attention away from the quilt itself. 

Stay tuned for more quilts to come using Shades as my love for solid fabrics evolves. If you like this quilt you will love my Mod City Center quilt, click here to see more. I hope you are staying healthy and not going stir crazy in this time of quarantine.