Me? I'm Amy and I'm a turquoise/mint/light blue or really any shade of blue kinda girl! If you've ever read my blog or seen my Instagram feed (@amylouwhosews), this will not be a surprise to you at all! I love the calmness the color blue invokes - the sea, the sky, nature in general.
I really don't consider myself a big quilter. I've been sewing since I was young, but started out making clothing. I quilted a bit with my mom and have made a few over the years - but find I'm not super patient with the process! Bags, zippies and clothing come together so much quicker! However, I do love quilts! And I've always admired triangle quilts made with solids. So when RJR asked for people interested in doing something for their #whatshadeareyou feature I had the perfect idea in mind. I'm really happy to share it with you!
My brother has a new house out on the Chesapeake Bay. From their back porch they have a gorgeous view of the green grass, gray boulders at the shoreline, and the aqua bay melding into the horizon of the darker blue sky. I tried to capture that in the colors I chose to represent each part of the view. And also capture the calm and peaceful feeling of standing at the water's edge.
I was hoping to get out there to take a photo in the same location but I wasn't able to make it work. Instead I went to a nearby park with water views of a creek off the Potomac and a rock quarry where stones were cut and hauled up river to build the U.S. Capitol building! How cool is that!? We had a fun time on our hike/photo session. We got some funny looks though!
Props to my friend who climbed up there to hold the quilt up!
Now, back to the quilt...
Since I had never made a triangle quilt I followed cutting and sewing instructions from the pattern Kwik Hexie Links by Karie of Two Kwik Quilters (IG: @karie_twokwikquilters). I was able to use her coloring sheet in the pattern to figure out how many triangles of each color I was going to use and design my own color pattern.
Initially, I was going to just do one section of each color, but when I got the green and the grey sections sewn together the line was too stark. So I went back and sewed another row of triangles together mixing the lighter greens and grays to have colors fade a little into each other. I then repeated the same thing to mesh together the gray and aqua, then aqua and darker blues. I love the ombre-esque feeling it has. This really ended up being a hybrid planned/improv quilt. I tried not to overthink the placement within each section and it worked out better than I could have imagined!
My talented friend Becky (IG: @sarcasticquilter) echoed the idea of the view with her quilting of cloudy shapes in the sky and waves in the water,
blades of grass in the green and rock shapes in the gray. She did exactly what I was hoping for!
The RJR Supreme Cotton solid colors I used for each section are as follows:
Blues
313 carolina
296 electric blue
280 night
126 royal blue
Aquas
400 jam jar
391 robins egg
294 cove
274 riviera
328 bora bora
Grays
319 overcast
283 on the rocks
125 silver
341 stormy night
Greens
249 sprout
347 grass is always greener
127 kelly green
405 spring
408 leaf
I used Dandelion XOXO for the binding and Bluebird Dottie for the backing both from Cotton + Steel basics.
Going with my nature theme I thought the yellow for sunshine would provide the perfect pop. And I couldn't pass up that gorgeous minty basics print for the back!!
It was fun to realize while shooting the photos that the gray section matched the weathered boardwalk, bridges and bark on the trees - not to mention the big rocks!
I really loved working with these fabrics to create something that I am really proud of. In fact this is probably the most proud I've been of any quilt project I've ever made! I can't wait to gift it. And then make another one for myself! Thanks so much to RJR Fabrics for their generosity and opportunity to make and share this with you! Find me on Instagram @amylouwhosews!
2 crafty mcCrafters commented:
This is really lovely! We love similar colors for sure! I really appreciated all your wonderful photos too!
I loved watching this develop at stash bash! Every time you finished a section, your smile became broader! That shows that when you are using fabrics and colors you love, the project is way more fun to do. And what a stunning result!
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