Friday, April 17, 2026

Billows

It feels like my Pantone challenge entry has definitely been a journey, but it's done now!

Choosing fabrics was the easiest part. Once that was set, I decided to make a bunch of slice-and-shift blocks, as that at least was easy to get started on while I was on retreat.


I'd originally hoped to include some Essex Homespun Yarn Dyed in Natural scraps, but turned out that not many were a usable size, but I did use a handful. I also began incorporating a colored print - an unidentified orange-ish elongated grid that I'd gotten in a FabricBubb scrap bundle.



Once I was home, I made even more blocks, then got them all up on the design wall to see what I had to work with.



After sharing on Insta, it was suggested that I rotate the whole thing, so after removing all the blocks from the wall, I slowly began to rearrange the blocks into a real layout, including the rotation. In piecing it all together, I added some filler blocks with larger/longer pieces of that striped fabric. Once squared up, I had a quilt top that was 45" x 47".



You can see the entire process of creating a pieced quilt back in Making a Pieced Quilt Back, but basically, I went from this....


to this....




For batting, I used a leftover piece of Quilter's Dream Select, a little lighter in weight than my normal Warm and White. For quilting, I chose to use the Tower of Triangles design from Jacquie Gering's WALK. I'd used it once before, and though a bit time-consuming and involving a lot of reverse-motion quilting, I liked the unique shapes it created across the quilt. For thread, I used Aurifil 50wt 2021 [Natural White], keeping things as light as possible, but not stark.



To finish, I used the last of my Cloud Dancer, Cotton Couture Soft White, for binding; and the quilt, which I've named Billows, measures 43" x 47". The 2026 Pantone Quilt Challenge l
inkup will be open April 20-27, and you can bet I'll be there.

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