June's Modern Ombre

A Modern Quilt for June

As I've proceeded along A Quilter's Path, modern quilts have increasingly appealed to me.  When I saw the post on See Kate Sew for the Modern Ombre baby quilt, I knew that this is what I wanted to make for my newest granddaughter, June.  I just wanted to jazz it up a little.  (Click on the link to see the original inspiration).

Wandering around the web, I discovered a fantastic fabric by Laurel Burch.  This became the focus fabric for June's quilt.

I swapped out the black and white print in the original pattern for lavender; I thought a print wouldn't work with the black print.  The color scheme is definitely informed by June's older sister, Greta, who's all about pink and unicorns.  For all I know, June may end up being a girl who wears all black and wears boots in the summer and has pierced I-don't-want-to know.  But for now, pink.

Since the entire quilt was triangles, I starched the bejeezus out of the fabric before cutting.  I wanted to fussy-cut the Laurel Burch fabric to make an I-Spy quilt.  But the template in the original pattern didn't quite work for the fabric.  After an entire weekend of fiddling around, I finally came up with a shape that allowed me to isolate one animal at a time (mostly).  The giraffe was hard!  Fortunately, I had some template plastic that allowed me to see the animals and still keep a seam allowance.  I marked the black fabric with a chalk pencil and cut it with scissors.  I wanted to preserve every possible inch of fabric.

If you look closely, you'll see that the outlines on 

the animals are metallic gold.  Lovely!

For the solids, I just cut strips the height of the template, then used the template to mark the strips and cut them with a ruler and rotary cutter.

I fiddled around with the layout, playing with the colors, since they didn't match exactly the original pattern.  But it ended up that Kate's layout was the best option (thank you, Kate!).  Once I'd selected the layout, the rest was a piece of cake.

On the design wall.

Other than the agonizing over layout, this was the quickest quit I've ever made.  No seam-matching until I put the rows together!  And no border.  I wanted the quilt to speak for itself.


I quilted straight lines on either side of the seams -- simple, geometric, keeps the modern feel going.

For the back I used a gray print that I've been ogling for weeks at the store.   I had actually talked one woman into buy the fabric for her quilt, so I kinda hoped that the store would give me a discount.  No such luck.

The binding is a flannel zebra stripe that I'd used on another baby quilt about a year ago.

 For the label I used a leftover pink triangle.  I love the way it looks on the back of the quilt.

And for an added touch, I cut out a tiny bird from the animal fabric and appliqued it to the label.

 P.S.  I didn't want Greta to be jealous (her quilt wasn't pink).  So I made her a pillowcase with leftover triangles and backing fabric, a pink stripe (to make it long enough) and some white eyelet trim.

Back with more soon!