Arrowhead Quilt - Christmas Gift #2
Quilt #2 for this Christmas! My mom likes to keep an eye on my pinterest, and I'm pretty sure I hit the save button on this one at least a million times. My parents just renovated their house, and my mom is really nailing the "I'm afraid of color, but in a really cool, stylish way" palette. She hinted that this would be perfect in their new decor (I think she's been waiting for me to get better at quilting before asking for one- smart lady), and I can take a hint.
The pattern is Arrowhead Quilt by Initial K Studio. I don't normally make things by the pattern in knitting or quilting (I barely use other patterns at all when quilting), but when I saw her suggested grayscale-- <3<3<3
As cool as the front is, I do really think the back is my mom's favorite. As soon as I saw this Riley Blake 108" black polka dot, I knew it was worth waiting for delivery on the Tuesday before Christmas. It's totally perfect for her! The binding is just Kona black, and I think it frames it really nicely.
The pattern was super straightforward, and, like the Christmas Joy quilt, written for use with fat quarters or yardage. Actually, both the baby quilt and the throw quilt can be made with just one fat quarter of each of the main colors.
Also like the Christmas Joy quilt, I ended up cutting this one down a bit. This was super easy, as there's almost a yard of vertical negative space. The quilt clocks in at 64x72, which again, just seemed a bit unmanageable. Plus, my mom also tends towards the smaller size of people sizes, so I thought she'd appreciate having a little less to schlep around and store. I ended up chopping the negative space (motif still the same size) so the quilt top was closer to 66x54 or so (plus, less quilting and binding!). I did a super simple quilting design that highlights the points, and then ended with maybe my best machine-binding ever.
The one thing I might have changed about the pattern had I not been REALLY up against a deadline, but that also would have really complicated cutting and piecing, would have been to eliminate some of the seams. You can sort see above (or more clearly on the Evie pic to the right) that, because the middle is just a big square patchwork quilt, there are times where you end up sewing blocks together that you could have just cut out together in the first place. No big deal, and it doesn't pop out much once it's quilted, but I think I'm a seam minimalist and gratuitous quilt complicator...
At any rate, my mom totally loved it, and I really had a blast making it. I don't make quilts from other people's patterns often, but, when you're trying to get something done quickly, it's nice to let someone else do all the math for you! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is looking forward to fun NYE plans!
