trips around the world quilt

I had this pattern in mind when I got a fat quarter bundle of Aunt Grace “Friends around the world” a while ago. Then recently when I started thinking of ideas to make a quilt for one of our friends who travel quite a bit, I remembered having these fabrics.

I would've loved to share the progress of this quilt here but since it's a surprise present I was not able to do so.
It was intimidating to work with so many fabrics and to balance the colors while keeping with the theme, but the fabrics from this collection gave me a good starting point. I edited out lot of them which were either too busy or too bright and replaced them with various neutrals and prints. I took the longest time shuffling & editing the pieces.

For the solid squares in the quilt, I wanted to use a fabric which is somewhat delicate and finer than a regular quilting cotton. So, I got Berry Stripe in Taupe which is a cotton lawn. But I had to cut off the stripe and make use of the solid part which accounted in more yardage. And just for fun, I sprinkled Akiko dots here and there.

I love Atelier Akiko collections and was set on using this white dot on brown double gauze for the binding. I like how the weave makes the prints and colors look more sober and very soft to the touch. But I was unsure about how well it would withstand the wear and tear.

So I wrote to Kelly at Superbuzzy where I got this fabric from and Kelly assured me that double gauze is great to use for binding and they in fact carry a bias tape made from double gauze specifically designed to be used as binding. I can’t thank Kelly enough for the timely advice. It was really sweet of her to get back to me so quickly.

And I have to extend this thanks to Superbuzzy for all the super cute prints I was able to get for the quilt. I don’t think I could’ve dreamed up this quilt without their incredible choice of fabrics.

Backing is from ‘Grandma’s garden’ line. Our friends’ engagement story is a very sweet one and roses were a big part of it. So I thought something with roses would be perfect for the backing and when I saw this print, my heart skipped a beat.

I also included some of our friends’ favorite things on the back like scooters and poodles. It was Kalyan’s idea to add a row of scooters at the bottom.

For the quilting I decided to do straight lines in every other row and column and keep it simple as I wanted the prints to be the focus of this quilt.

~ It measures around 96” x 96”.
~ Each square is 2” cut and 1 ½” finished.
~ Pattern is based on “Fiesta wear” from the book “Quilts for all Seasons” by Sandy Klop.

If you've missed my earlier posts about this quilt you can see the close up pictures here and here.

After a day of rain and clouds, we are having a sunny day today. Hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring day too (' v ')