Always Sewin' Somethin!: Puzzle Quilt

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Brionna's Puzzle Quilt

After making THIS quilt for my aunt to give my cousin at her wedding, I decided I wanted more opportunities to make quilts to sell. So I created a listing on Etsy and advertised it on Facebook. And what do you know - another aunt got in touch with me and asked me to make 2 quilts for her adult children! Woot!

It was really cool to work with my aunt to figure out what to make for each of her daughters (my cousins). They live far away from me (well, one state away at least, which is kind of far when one state is Utah and the other is Idaho), so I really don't know them very well. Apparently the older cousin is really into puzzles. And also fantasy. And a little bit of Star Wars. And she likes fall colors.

I'll admit - it took quite a bit of work between me and my aunt before I had a clear direction on colors for this quilt. The pattern I had picked from the very start. Fabrics were harder. Have you ever tried finding fantasy themed fabric that is appropriate for an early-twenty-something girl? Most everything I found was too babyish. And then I found a really pretty Pegasus/Unicorn fabric, but it just didn't go with the color scheme. More on that later.

In the end, I found an awesome puzzle piece print and a dragon print that went really well with the colors I had in mind. (Oh yeah - and check out the red Star Wars print). Nearly everything else came from my stash - WIN!
For the quilting, I went with a simple stipple. Partly because I needed something fast and easy. Partly because it fits so well with the whole puzzle theme.

The binding is actually from April Rosenthal's "Best Day Ever" line. Of course I stitched it by hand. Even though it was early December and I was swamped with Etsy orders. Bindings just must be stitched by hand. Besides, I can't make Rummy mats while watching TV with the hubby, can I?

Now lets talk about the back for a bit. My Aunt requested flannel, since they live in Idaho and it gets pretty cold up there. SO I found a flannel version of that pretty Pegasus/Unicorn fabric and bought a yard of it (no WAY was I going to spend $12 a yard on an entire quilt's worth of BACKING FABRIC). Then I supplemented with some solid flannels from Joann along with some flannel from my own stash.

I had this grand idea to piece together a couple giant puzzle pieces for the back. But I made some HUGE calculation errors (which I discovered AFTER cutting, of course) and ended up having to scrap the whole idea because there wasn't enough fabric. So the back is really a mish-mash of random stuff because I was just trying to get it all to fit together. :p The quilt is SUPER warm and cozy, though!