Today I am sharing all about my scrappy Diamond Ripples quilt using the entire First Light line by Ruby Star Society.
When Ruby Star Society first shared their collaborative collection called First Light, I knew I had to sew with it. I LOVE yellows, peaches, corals, blacks and greys and whites. I actually made a mock up of the line in my Seeing Double pattern which was included in their marketing catalogue.
Ruby Star sent me a FQ Bundle of the entire line which includes 30 prints. I knew once I started looking at the fabric and colors that I wanted to make a Diamond Ripples. The Diamond Ripples pattern provides material requirements for either a modern solid version (all the fabric is the same in it's gradient) or a scrappy version. The pattern is constructed with the idea of creating a color ripple by playing with gradients of colors. Color 1 and 2 are the Inner Diamonds which can be a fun hit of color or part of the overall gradient. Then Colors 3 - 6 are defined as going light to dark. Here is how I laid out my colors:
I used the bottom 3 deepest pinks/corals for Color 6, then the next 3 peaches for Color 5, then the next 4 golds/yellows for Color 4 and the two brightest lime yellows for Color 3. Colors 1 and 2 got one of the soft pink FQs. Then, I used the rest of the neutrals for background fabric (including the 2 in the upper right corner). Then the last 4 FQs were all black and I used those for binding.
For the background FQs, I sort of dissected the pattern and made sure that the darkest of the background FQs was paired with the lightest of the HST colors. So I started cutting with the darkest background FQs first, to get to the number of squares I needed to make those HSTs and the regular squares per block. It may sound confusing here but if you have the pattern, I promise it will make sense. :)
I had so much fun pairing these fabrics together and making HSTs. You can see the gradient in the stack of trimmed HSTs.
Once all the HSTs were trimmed, it was time to play with each block. I just made my stacks of HST by their color number and picked where each one would go in each block. I wasn't too picky about if fabrics repeat or not in a single block.
It is fun to see the darkest background with the lightest color and then the lightest background with the darkest color. I was also working on my Christmas Rosecity quilt at the same time as this and so you see both on my design wall.
I will say this quilt was one of the harder ones for me to photograph. It's like my camera couldn't pick up all the detail without overexposing the image. It was also to read the cool or warm tones. I drove myself crazy trying to get accurate colors.
The prints are so cute. I love the small flowers, little blouses, dots, roses, lines. I really really love this collection of fabric. And it is fun to see each designer's style in this collaborative collection.
I sent this quilt off to Karlee of SewInspired2Day here in the Portland, OR area. She has always been so accommodating and quick! I knew I wanted the pantograph called Starlight. I've used it before and it is one of my top 15 favorite pantos!
I backed the quilt in a solid coral I had on hand and then the black binding is scrappy and beautiful. I love how the texture of the quilting turned out, it makes it sparkle.
Amy was able to accurately capture the colors because she is amazing and has a way better camera. And knows how to use her camera. ha.
There we have it! My finished Scrappy Diamond Ripples using First Light. All from the single FQ Bundle. Don't forget you can grab a Diamond Ripples in my shop. Happy sewing!
