Today it is my honor to get to share my version of Blossom Chains, a quilt I made to support Cheryl Brickey’s latest book, Just One Charm Pack Quilts (affiliate link). When Cheryl (Meadow Mist Designs) was developing the concept for her book, she had the fun idea to have each quilt made in two colorways for the book to show the diversity of the patterns. It was with extreme honor that I made this version which is included as the second colorway on page 114.
Blossom Chains
For my version of Blossom Chains, I used a Flour Garden by Linzee Kull McCray for Moda Fabric charm pack, Bella Solids in White for Fabric A, and Shot Cotton in Pool by Kaffe Fassett for FreeSpirit Fabrics as the background.
Blossom Chains
I like how the dark navy binding frames the quilt well and pulls out some of the deeper navy from the prints within the quilt.
What I didn’t like, at the time, was realizing that I didn’t start my spiral quilting in the center of the quilt. Yup, you read that right: the quilting that you see here was definitely NOT my original plan. I had meant to do a single spiral starting from the center of the quilt. But I clearly wasn’t paying any attention AT ALL and marked somewhere off center… only to realize it when I quickly got to the edge of the quilt on one side and was nowhere near it on the other. Oops.
Blossom Chains
The shot cotton felt too delicate a fabric for me to rip out all of the quilting I had already done, so I opted to just keep quilting. I added another spiral. And then another. And another. In the end, I love the interference patterns that show up as secondary quilting designs from the overlapping shapes. It certainly wasn’t my intent, and I hope it doesn’t distract from Cheryl’s lovely design.
Blossom Chains – photo by C&T Publications
When Cheryl asked me if I would piece a quilt from her book, I was immediately drawn to Blossom Chains. When I received the fabric and instructions for the pattern from Cheryl last year, I spent a lot of time at my design wall looking at the layout and planning the position of each print within the overall composition. Don’t get me wrong, this pattern looks amazing fully scrappy, but with the mix of prints in the charm pack, I was able to come up with what I think is a really fun and purposeful circular layout of color. (hence my inspiration for spiral quilting starting at the center, haha).
If you have charm packs in your stash (5″ square precuts) and you’ve been wondering what to do with them, I highly encourage you to pick up Cheryl’s book, Just One Charm Pack Quilts. You can get a signed copy directly from Cheryl, or pick up a copy of the book from Amazon, from C&T Publishing (affiliate link), or check to see if your local quilt shop has it in stock!
Blossom Chains – Transparency Mockup
It’s no secret that I love transparency quilts, and one of the reasons I was so drawn to Blossom Chains is that it has the design element needed to create a transparency effect: overlapping shapes.
With Cheryl’s permission, I’ve made a mockup of Blossom Chains (using the same color palette as the quilt I made) to showcase the potential for a transparency effect. Transparency in quilts relies on two key factors: 1. overlapping shapes in a design and 2. convincing fabric selection. The video above highlights the shapes that are overlapping to come together to create the layout below.
Blossom Chains – Transparency Mockup
If you and your quilt guild are interested in learning more about transparency, it’s one of my most popular virtual lectures and workshops and I’d love the opportunity to talk more about transparency and fabric selection with you. Simply leave a comment here or send an email to yvonne(at)quiltingjetgirl(dot)com and I’ll get you all the information you need to take to your guild! For those not affiliated with a quilt guild or a guild that is not offering virtual options, I also have a wide range of transparency patterns available in my pattern shop.
Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant 139, and TGIFF.
I really like the effect you created by ordering the charms and the intersecting spirals do not distract from the design. They add more interest.
The background fabric combined with the charm pack gives a vintage feel to the quilt with a modern twist. I’d say the off-center spiral quilting was a happy accident, and I’m glad you just kept going. It reminds me of the ripple effect of raindrops!
I love this colorway, the way the colors and patterns are organized and the effect of the spirals quilted. What a happy accident!
I bought Cheryl’s book last night and was so excited to see your take on one of the patterns. Of course, you brought a fresh perspective! The transparency works so well with this pattern! As always, thanks for sharing your talent with us.
I love this version, you may have miscalculated where to start the spiral but the overlapping spirals echo the overlapping chains to me. Happy quilting!
Beautiful quilt! The background fabric is wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
This is really lovely, and though the quilting isn’t perfect in your mind, I love it just like it is!
I love your version Yvonne and the quilting is a happy accident, the overlapping and intersecting spirals look so awesome. I really like how you played with transparency in your little video, it adds a whole other layer to the quilt design. Thank you so much for being a part of the book and the hop and for all of your support throughout the years!
I agree with the others, what a happy accident… your quilting is impressive, and so effective over the whole quilt. I would have liked to compare to the original!
I admire your changing up the quilting plan to work with the wrong center. One would never know it wasn’t the plan – it looks fabulous. The showcasing of this as a transparency quilt is terrific.
I love it!! Thanks for linking up with TGIFF so we could see this awesome quilt. I am getting ready to try a transparency quilt with a spectrum of colors for our guild challenge. I am hoping I can pull of the effort.
How pretty! that darker background really makes all those colors come to the front. It seems very beachy to me…. I like it!!
Great color for the background and I love the quilting!
I was immediately drawn to how you quilted yours in the book, thinking what a cool idea to overlap those spirals! Haha that it wasn’t the plan, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention! Beautiful colours too for Cheryl’s great pattern!
I love how the overlapping quilting mimics the overlapping shapes of the piecing. Your “mistake” was a happy accident indeed! : )
This one is a beauty, Yvonne! Clearly, I have been living under a rock 🙂