Threequel

It feels great to have another quilt finish before the summer is quite over here in the Pacific Northwest. My third plaid-ish quilt (see Scrap-ish Plaid-ish and Twofold), the Mini Plaid-ish quilt pattern is also the creation of Erica/@kitchentablequilting, and is a free tutorial that uses several different scrap sizes. 

The Mini Plaid-ish is basically a smaller version of the original Plaid-ish, which was 64" x 82". The mini is 58" x 66". And just for reference, the Plaid-ish2, which is similar yet different from those two, is 69" x 86". So yeah, the mini is definitely the smallest of the three, but still a very nice lap-size. I'm more than pleased I was able to create my quilt top entirely from scraps from the scrap basket. Where Erica did not repeat fabrics in her version, my goal was strictly to use the scraps, and there are definitely some repeated prints, and I'm ok with that.

Cutting the scraps for a quilt like this is no-doubt the most tedious part, with the smallest pieces measuring 1.5" square.... smaller than I usually choose to work with. But there was really never any doubt in my mind that I'd make this third plaid-ish version. By now, it's tradition. haha

Rather than over-worry about value, I focused on choosing 'light' fabrics that were low-volumes, 'medium' fabrics that were pretty much any non-neutral color, and 'darks' that were primarily black or gray. Erica said, "even if your values aren't perfect your quilt will turn out great." and I trusted that to be true. And I do see that the plaid in my finished quilt top may not be quite as pronounced as others, but I'm totally fine with it. I let my scraps speak, and that was my goal.

For the quilt backing I combined a mix of Denyse Schmidt fabrics that I'd long had stashed. And wouldn't you know, I had just enough of the trimmings to make a scrappy binding from them. A few of the prints can also be found in the quilt top, though I don't think all. Still, it was a satisfying choice.

For quilting, I went with an uneven grid, which I'd done on the original with good result. I stitched along with seams for some lines, and marked others with my hera marker. It was all quite stress-free quilting, for which I was grateful. Now, whenever I quilt a grid, I use Erica's method: from center out to the right, then rotate 90-degrees, and repeat, etc. etc. It works so well, and I really like how the grid quilting suits the quilt design.  Probably the biggest surprise might be that I used Aurifil 40wt 1148 [Light Jade] thread for quilting. While piecing the blocks into a top, I'd felt like there was a lot of pink in the mix. But when I started considering quilting thread choices, that jade just really worked. Plus it was fun! I like to think by using it and the binding which has plenty of teal and green in it, I've changed the focus somewhat from the pink to the cooler colors I prefer. That part could be wishful thinking on my part but let's go with it, ok?

So anyway, this was a satisfying finish. I expect this quilt will be used around the house as we head into fall.