The Meadowland Quilt Pattern is available now!!
You guys!! It is here. The day I have been anxiously awaiting and the day plenty of you have nag and nag and nagged me to move closer. haha I am so happy with all the excitement around this pattern!
The Meadowland Quilt pattern started with this stack of fabric. It is a mix of all Cotton + Steel fabrics from my stash and a few Kona Cotton solids too.
I took a little break from work for about a week in late April. But a "break" from work usually means I end up designing a ton of new ideas. Designing is how I relax and decompress but it's kinda of a silly circle because then I want to make and create and then I have made more work for myself. But this little "break" is when I designed the Meadowland idea.
I love that there is no sashing in this pattern. At this time in my life (then and now), I just wanted an easy sew. Make blocks and then put them together. I also really wanted to create a pattern that used flying geese blocks. I made my first flying geese quilt earlier this year - you can read about that process here.
This pattern utilizes the "No-Waste Method" of flying geese which means you make 4 flying geese blocks at a time. AND you don't have any wasted tiny triangles at the end (I hate those). The other requirement for this idea was to be able to use my stash and scraps only. I love the creative process of mix and match and just working block by block. It is not always how I work but I usually find myself wanting this process after I have had a more planned out quilt before.
I really really enjoyed making this quilt and the blocks came together SO quickly. I was taping them up on my kitchen wall as I made each new block and seeing it come to life made it even more fun putting together future block fabric combinations.
Once I had this quilt top done, I kept feeling I needed to take it outside somewhere to do quilts in the wild photos. And my husband had just taken our son camping for one night along the Columbia Gorge. He texted me this photo and said "I gotta bring you back here".
And I was like YEP! YEP! YEP! YOU MUST TAKE ME THERE. So of course, I finished this top that weekend and I had the crazy idea to suggest us go for sunrise on the following Monday morning. Granted, my husband had to also go to work all Monday. I texted him saying "what if we took this quilt for sunrise photos to Rowena point Monday morning? we'd have to leave at 4:30am?" His response... "sure". I LOVE THAT MAN. His joke is that he will willingly do anything that makes his life harder. haha
So, Monday morning came, I woke him and my son up at 4:15am and I made coffee and we hit the road. I prayed that the clouds would clear and the 70 minute drive and early rise would be worth it.
It did not disappoint. We were the only ones at this field, watching the world wake up.
The sun was so beautiful, the air was crisp and the wind was a little out of control. Getting any flat full shots was hard but also I think it highlights the beauty of the landscape, the wildflowers and the easy of the quilt top.
The light casting shadows and light on the hills of the Gorge was breath taking. And I still can't believe there wasn't another soul on this meadow mountain top when we were there. We also got all of these photos within about a 10-15 minute window before the sun fully came over the mountain and would have been too blinding to take good photos.
We left the field, stopped in the town of Hood River, got another coffee and made our way back to Portland. Luke got to work on time, we were all exhausted but I felt so alive. Mornings are my favorite.
Once I got home, I knew I had to turn this quilt into a pattern for this summer. And I knew I could make multiple sizes and material choices available, not only scrappy instructions. But first, I needed to get this quilted.
I gave this to my girl Michelle of Mariposa Quilting here in Portland, OR. I love her style of quilting, all free motion and she love dense quilting, as do I! She showed me this Oyster pattern she had done once before on a different quilt and I loved how playful and meandering it is.
I scheduled another studio photoshoot with Amy, my friend and talented photographer, at my favorite studio - Beast Daylight Studios in SE Portland. I got to pretend I am a quilt model again and this session, I brought Everett with me too - you'll see a lot him in the other blogpost about the Kona Cotton Meadowland.
I am obsessed with the light this studio gets. And of course the photos Amy got are STELLAR.
We rolled out this temporary painted "wall" to try a deep saturated backdrop and the photos make the quilt top even more! I love this deep teal blue.
The Meadowland Quilt Pattern comes in SIX sizes ranging from 48" x 48" small throw to a large 80" x 96" bed size quilt. I also give material requirements for using FQs or 1/2 yard cuts of fabric. And inside the pattern, I give suggestions on how to make a scrappy version like this one using your stash only! Meadowland is by far my most versatile quilt pattern and the one I cannot stop making.
I also wrote a blogpost about my solid Meadowland quilt I used for my cover sample. And yes, that post will have the same amount or MORE photos than this one. haha Good luck!!
