Staggered Quilt {Night Quilter} Pattern Review

I’m posting about another sewing project and it isn’t even Thread Filled Thursdays! Imagine that! Today, I’m talking about the pattern – Staggered Quilt, created by Kitty Wilkin for Quilt Theory. She whipped hers up in a rainbow color scheme, and it is beautiful! Because I’m still relatively new this quilting thing, I wanted to stick with colors that I knew I liked, and knew would be forgiving either way. I still wanted to keep her aspect of having white background fabric (OY – the trials of that) and the scrappy portion of the binding on my quilt. 

I used a roll-up of the Blueberry Park fabric line by Karen Lewis that I picked up from my LQS – The Quilter’s Trunk. The background (white) is Timeless Treasures Frosting Cloud Fabric. The backing is Moda Thrive in Geo Pearls Composed. I bound it off with Stoff fabric in Teal. It’s SO convenient and SO tempting to have a local quilt shop ten minutes away from me. It helps when I’m having trouble finding a fabric that matches what I’m making, and when I need help basting a quilt (thanks Anita!) properly! 

Anyway, this quilt looks simple, no? Well, it is – full disclosure. I just made it more difficult in the way that I chose to quilt it up. I used 3/4 inch seams to quilt both vertically and horizontally down the staggered portions of the quilt. MY GOD IN HEAVEN DON’T EVER DO THAT! It’s takes FOREVER! By the time I got to the outer columns, I set my seam gauge to 1 inch, and smelled sweet victory. 

This quilt also took a bit more fabric than I anticipated and when it comes to cost, I would say that I probably spent a little over $125 on this quilt, and that’s normal just so you know. That’s top, batting, backing, binding and thread. The time that I put into it is what the real cost was. I find that it isn’t until I enter into a craft full force that I realize just how time consuming it is, and WHY quilts are such a valuable product. If someone has given you a quilt, they REALLY love you. I’m not even joking. 

I started the quilt on November 19th, and finished it (binding) this morning. I do need to throw it in the was so that it can be given to the recipient. Hopefully they like it as much as I do. Cutting and sewing the quilt top was a breeze. Maybe three hours all together. It was the actual basting and quilting that made me feel as if I should rethink my entire short quilting career. With that close seam quilting that I did, it’s most certainly a dense quilt and feels heavier than the Ribbon Box Quilt that I did last month. Overall, I love the look and feel of it. Washing it made it softer, and it looks thin, but it’s SO WARM! 

You’ll also notice that I finished the quilt with a bit of binding in the alternating colors to mirror the quilt top. This idea comes directly from the pattern writer herself and may end up making its way into another quilt binding in the near future. It’s nice to be able to wander around the internet and see what quilt designers are up to. Given that this is from Quilt Theory, the quilts are meant to be easy enough for new-ish quilters to attempt, and the bright colors that are used always catch my eye. 

So. Let me know how you think I did. I’m looking forward to next year, and being able to complete more than just four quilts. I feel like I have a better knowledge of piecing, and I want to even get into paper piecing so that I can do intricate designs and whatnot. I’m so excited! Until Thread Filled Thursdays, see you later!