Strawberry Lemonade Chevron Quilt

I am not a quilter.  I have very little patience when it comes to piecing, pressing, quilting, or binding a quilt.  I don't know what came over me, but a couple of weeks ago I had a sudden urge to make a quilt.  

I've had this fabric in my stash for over a year, and it was begging to become a quilt.  I was saving it for a little girl of my own, but I've decided that I probably won't love the fabric like I do now if I wait for a little girl to join our family.

So, I started my quilt with the faith that some little one would love it. Yesterday I received the good news that my sister will be adding a baby girl to her family in the coming year-Hooray!  I'm so excited. She'll be receiving this Strawberry Lemonade Chevron Quilt.  

It's sad when the quilt looks better rolled up than laid out.

The quilt is small, perfect for a pack and play, or for laying on the floor.  I used only materials that I had on hand.  I had a portion of a bat left over from a previous project, so that was as big as the quilt was going to be.  I'm really trying hard to use up the materials that I have. I didn't even buy new thread for this project-Booyah!



 My Accuquilt Go! Baby fabric cutter (see sidebar for more info) made this project so much easier.  I was able to cut out my triangles in no time, and the seam allowances were all included.  Very little math for me to do.

The thing that I love about this quilt is the range of temperatures within the colors.  I'm sure that most of you have some idea of what I mean when I talk about color temperature.  Red, yellow, and orange are generally considered warm colors, and blue, green, and violet cool colors.  Did you know that there are different temperatures within a color?  There are warm reds, cool reds, and reds that fall somewhere in the middle. Likewise, there are warm blues, warm violets, and greens. Color harmony is most often achieved when the colors used are all around the same relative temperature. You can pair a green and a violet together, and so long as they have the same amount of warmth they will feel harmonious.

When working with a limited color pallet it can be fun to play with temperature contrast.  For example: I have three pink fabrics within this quilt.  The backing is a middle temperature.  If you compare it with the lighter pink it seems quite warm, but when contrasted with the pink and yellow polka dots, it seems quite cool.  I wouldn't normally pair these materials together, because of the difference of relative temperature, but in a quilt like this, I think that it works quite well. I do wish that I had a cooler yellow present in this quilt, but alas, there was none in my stash.

So a bit of information: Each row of my chevron consists of 16 patterned triangles, and 16 white triangles.  I have five separate chevron rows, and my quilt ended up being 8 squares wide by 10 squares tall.  Since I'm not a quilter, I don't really know what other information to share.  The quilt was an experiment, an experiment that I hope looks better once it's washed and puckered.

I think that my need to quilt has been satisfied, and I'll probably wait another year before I tackle any other quilting projects.

Thanks for reading.