Melissa continues to be busy with her quilting and has brought me another of her quilts. This one is Wild By Nature Stepping Stones.With an inspired throw pillow she found on Pinterest and not a pattern to follow, Melissa sat down with graph papered designed this one. The pattern was easy enough to figure out. She simply cut white on white yardage to 2 1/2 by 5 inch strips and sewed them onto 5 inch charms. The charms and the accent piece are laid opposite each other to make strips. Then a 2 1/2 inch strip is added between the charm strip. She also tells me, “I have been inspired by another quilter to sit down and put my self-designed quilt patterns down on paper and with her help will develop a pattern. I am hoping one my kiddos go back to school, I can take the time to develop patterns for three quilts I have recently made.”

The fabric she choose is from Maywood Studios, Wild By Nature collection. Melissa said, “The bright, beautiful fabric collection caught my eye. It took me a little time to figure out if I wanted to use a white on white fabric or a tonal colored fabric. I Love simple white on white fabrics and used a Riley Blake, Snow white on whiteI keep in my stash to use with these colorful and beautiful charm blocks.”

Here is a photo of the back of her quilt top as all of her tops come to me with the seams pressed open. If I remember correctly, she prefers to do it this way because the top lays flatter rather than all seams pressed one way and this is the way she has always done it. It must be working for her, because she does a beautiful job of matching up her seams!

I asked her if the fabric and the pattern she choose for the quilt work well together? Melissa said, “These beautiful bright fabrics stand on their own, so I paired it up with the staple white. A lot of times, I buy fabric and then wait for a pattern to find the fabric. This poses a problem most of the time, because I usually run out of fabric before I am done making the quilt.”

When I asked her about a quilting pattern, she said, “I didn’t come with a specific pantograph or thread color in mind, just like with my Tula Pink quilt, we went off the grid and decided to use a simple pantograph with a colored thread. I love how this longarm design offsets the whimsical bright fabric” When working with Melissa we laid out several colors of thread, the obvious choice for most customers would be a white, but she picked yellow and doesn’t it look lovely!
The pantograph is Figure 8 and I quilted it in a vertical design. The design and thread she choose, ties the quilt together very nicely.
If you remember from other posts, Melissa is a busy Mother and a farm wife, so she usually asks me to bind her quilts by machine for her. I am happy to do this, so when she picks this one up, it is ready to be given to her sister-in-law as a house warming gift.
Let me know what you think about using a colored thread for quilting on white fabric?
Also, what suggestions would you give Melissa for writing her own quilt patterns? Let’s help her out and make it as easy for her as possible and then we can make quilt like hers!