The quilt pattern is called “Beef Cake” — it’s from the book Have Your Cake and Eat it Too by Dodi Lee Poulsen of Two Sisters at Squirrel Hollow.
Once I had the correct cutting instructions (which can now be found on their website), everything was golden. I’m not a fan of the Turning Twenty type quilts, but this particular design struck me as being much more interesting, particularly (I think) because the pieces are much smaller, and they tend to blend together much more (in MY opinion).
(And please don’t send the lynch mob after me. *I* don’t care for Turning Twenty or Yellow Brick Road. If *YOU* like those designs, then by all means, keep making them. I’m sure I do stuff that you don’t care for either).
The quilting is a variation on a design from my first Meandering Magic book. It’s called ferns, but instead of making the fern fronds touch the meandering line, these fronds don’t touch, which means each side of the line is done in a separate pass. It still goes very quickly. Even if your quilting machine starts making hideous horrible noises that make you think it is ready to die.
(It didn’t die, it just had thread wrapped around the shaft right behind the hook. Good gad, though, the sound was horrendous. I nearly cried in horror).
So there you have it. The quilt I was nearly ready to give up on, turned out to be pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself. It’s not in my normal color palette (HA! No red, white and blue!), but I like it! And I very much appreciated the personal phone call from the designer who filled me in on the situation with the cutting instructions.
One of the things I’m finding fascinating about working within the fabrics I have for sale at the shop is that while these are not the latest and greatest superstar designer fabrics, they are still pretty good-looking fabrics. They don’t have a rockstars name on the selvedge, but you know what? They make a pretty nice quilt just the same. Plus, I find I like the challenge of putting together fabric that DOESN”T all come from the same line, I think it adds a little more sparkle. But again, that’s just MY opinion.
OK, I’ve got to get working on a writing project, so I’d better sign off.
Have a lovely evening!
Suzanne
p.s. the credit for this variation on the fern design goes to my friend Terri W. I’m sorry I forgot to mention this earlier when I posted originally.
I kinda wished the backing picture could be enlarged more, I can’t quite see the quilting movements. But it really pops on the top side! 🙂
(Is this the quilting you were talking about last night in my blog comment?)
That’s a very cute quilt!
Love this pattern — I too think it has much more interest then the “standards” — maybe becuase its novel, but I think its the interplay of very long narrow pieces with small squares….
Cute quilt. I like this better than some of the others, too. Oh, and the quilting isn’t bad either 😉
The quilt *does* sparkle!
I’m not real excited about the turning twenty quilts, either. In fact, I’m tired of quilting them. This pattern looks like it could help bust some of my stash.
Love it! I had looked at that book, but decided that I didn’t need it at that time. I may have to rethink that purchase!
That looks great, Suzanne! I don’t do a lot of piecing any more so I don’t have a feeling one way or the other about T20 or YBRs but I like to quilt them and Meandering Magic is my preferred way to do it. So thank you, thank you, thank you!!
TerriW
Love the quilt Suzanne. I have never been one to get my fabrics from the same line. I have always like the variety of getting different fabrics.
I love this quilt, haven’t seen it in person yet. But it’s so cheerful looking, definitely not a dull autumn quilt. Looks great.
You really need to get that knots & bolts sign hung up. 🙂
Love the quilt! So vibrant!
I also prefer scrappy quilts that don’t come from the same line of fabric although I did just buy for a quilt that will be a gift and it will all be matchy, matchy.
I like the idea of not touching the spine, I find that I tend to get more thread build up than I like – bought some So Fine at MQS but haven’t tried it yet – that would probably help too.
oohhh – I love it! But with the name I was expecting to see “construction men” in the quilt. LOL