My next quilt was one that came together with very little forethought or planning.  Something moved me to start playing with my 2 1/2" Christmas fabric squares as I was finishing up my latest Mega-block Patchwork Wreath quilt this year. (The wreath is a free pattern I designed that is available here.)  You can see the start of my latest scrappy quilt on the wall behind me in the above picture.

This idea originally started with the above sketch that I did in 2016.  As I started to lay squares out on my design wall, I didn't like all the negative space - I was going for something a little denser with this design.  So I took the center out-lined cross block and started to work with that (the 9 center squares). I love what I came up with!  Using low-volume fabrics as the outer ring on alternating blocks was a design decision based on the fact that I didn't have enough low-volume fabric for the entire background. 

This quilt is also distantly related to my red and white quilt - both of these quilts have the "on point" granny square blocks (confusing because normally it's the granny square blocks that are on point).  However, this one is made entirely of squares (no rectangles), so you can totally web-piece it.  I'm calling this one "Granny's Christmas Quilt and it is available as a free pattern if you subscribe to my newsletter.

This quilt is again backed with pistachio Minky and quilted with the "Midnight Sparkle" pantograph from Urban Elementz (like the last 3 or 4 quilts that I've had quilted). I'll add - YES - those sparkles or stars are part of the quilting design. I did not add those myself. (I've gotten that question a few times already!)

The fabric that I used to bind the quilt is a pink and white bias candy stripe from Bonnie & Camille.  Try finding it here.

Quick Quilt Stats:
This design is a free scrappy pattern for those who subscribe to my newsletter. My version is made mostly of scraps, though I did have to cut some white-on-white squares from stash to make the background.  This guy finishes 62" by 74" and makes a nice throw size. I do still use Warm & White batting when I back a quilt with Minky. That combination makes for a nice thick fuzzy warm winter quilt.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Holidays to Everyone!

In August 2018, I ordered this fun (above), colorful bundle of Kona fabrics from Stash Fabrics in preparation for a class with Tara Faughnan at Sewtopia Milwaukee.  We were going to be learning her "Diamonds Quilt" pattern and I wanted mine to be bright and fun - and super colorful!
(See the end of this post for the list of Kona colors that I ordered from Stash Fabrics).

I pulled a few more yellows, pinks, purples, reds and oranges from my stash and ended up with this bundle for the quilt. I was working with the idea of warm, summery, tangy sherbet tones for my inspiration.
Making a triangle (or diamond) quilt had been on my mental "to try" list for a bit, but I was a little nervous to try piecing an entire quilt full of triangles with bias edges.  Tara's pattern uses freezer-paper piecing to ensure that those bias edges don't stretch, and points line up and aren't cut off. It was my first time working with freezer paper for piecing and it was a slick way to piece.

To make my "blocks" (partial rows really) for this quilt I didn't pre-plan color combos. I pulled from my pile of fabrics and made color decisions as I worked along.  When I ran out of a certain color I went back to my stash and pulled a similar colored fabric, or sometimes introduced new ones. In the picture of my "final" fabric pull above, there are over 30 colors of fabrics. However I'm betting that there might be closer to 40 different colors of fabrics in this quilt.  I'm calling it my "Colorful Diamonds Quilt."

I decided to hand-quilt this quilt and had my long-arm quilter "baste" it for me with straight lines.
For some of my hand-quilting lines, I ripped out the basting stitches and hand-quilted following the stitch holes.  For the rest of my quilting, I measured from the basting lines and laid down strips of masking tape to follow along as a guide.  Having the quilt basted on a long-arm made it a lot easier than than pin- basting and marking the whole quilt with straight lines! 

I used Hobbs Tuscany wool batting for this quilt and backed it in a sour Michael Miller green solid fabric. You guys - it was like butter to quilt. The needle glided through each stitch so easily!  Now it is so light, soft and cushy.
When I got to choosing binding fabric for this quilt, I ended up going with a solid red.  I love the end result, but I've decided that this is more of a bright Christmas quilt (not a summery sherbet quilt).

I made my quilt a little bigger than the quilt in Tara's pattern, so it finishes at 70" x 72".
To see more of my work-in-progress pictures, check out #colorfuldiamondsquilt.
Thanks for reading along, and here is the list of the 12 original Kona solids that I bought from Stash Fabrics. Do you know that they carry every Kona color??
Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Color Names:
Palm
Artichoke
Peapod
Oasis
Punch
Mediterranean
Ivory
Pomegranate
School Bus
Salmon
Grass Green
Smoke