The Meadowland 2020 Spring QAL is all wrapped up now and I am sharing all the photos of this quilt! I still can't believe over 2,500+ people AGAIN (a few hundred more last year) sewed along with me to make a Meadowland quilt at the beginning of the year. The success of Meadowland just blows my mind over and over and over. And it continues to be my best selling pattern and the pattern that brings new people to me. It is the gateway pattern to all of Then Came June patterns. ha!
For this Meadowland quilt I wanted to do a FQ version and wanted something super bright, colorful and playful. I worked with Kristina of Fabric Bubb to build this palette out. The bundle has sold so well that there have been multiple variations of the bundle and keeps selling out. Right now it is sold out but there are TONS of beautiful bundles on their site.
My inspiration for this palette was to use those amazing Lindley Lawns (the floral print) from Ruby Star Society. I wanted all 4 color ways in it and just built out the palette in other RSS basics and small scale prints to get to the full 20 FQs.
Because I had lots of other projects to work on this Spring, I made sure to actually be AHEAD of the QAL this time. It is so nice to be prepared and ahead of the whole thing and makes hosting a lot smoother. I jumped right into cutting my fabric the second I got the bundle in the mail.
Sometimes when I mix and match, I am intentional about the initial lay out and sometimes I just do it willy nilly and go for it. This round, I ended up laying it out as I thought I'd like the final blocks to be when mixing and matching. It helps me overall see the balance I am creating.
One of my favorite things about making a block based quilt is you get little stacks of fabric that you can work through at your own pace. It is easier to organize and pull out one little stack at a time. And for me, it is like a fun check list - I made 1 block! woo! Wow, I just worked through 5 blocks! Something about it gives me tangibility that I really crave in my day to day.
I mean this yellow is ammmmmazzzinngggg. For the QAL, once we were sewing, we were making 5 blocks a week. The variety that comes out of 5 blocks each week is really intriguing and exciting!
Can you tell that I took the first 3 photos on the same time and day? And the last one on a different time and day? haha The light differences are crazy. I really try to keep my photography consistent but sometimes it doesn't work out exactly as I'd like. Still! Such pretty blocks!
Once all 20 blocks were done, it was time to lay them all out and see how it looked. After 20 minutes of just arranging them however I wanted, I went back to square one and looked at my photos of my cut fabrics laid on the table. I then arranged them according to that and it felt way more balanced.
Once the top was all together, we hopped in the car and drove to find a fun wall to take full quilt photos. We ended up stopping at a neighborhood brewing barn. White door with red barn walls. Love it!
Once the QAL was over, I just folded up this quilt top and moved onto the next project. Since this was my 11th Meadowland, I didn't feel this big rush to get it finished because I didn't even know what I was going to do with it. But when I decided to do a Spring Quilt sale, I sent this off for quilting.
Michelle of Mariposa Quilting is a Portland local and does amazing free motion quilting! I told her I thought feathery kinda Paisley would be really fun on this top. She did not disappoint!
I backed this quilt in Kona Bubblegum and bound it in Kona Bright Idea. So happy!
I ended up selling this quilt during the Spring Quilt Sale and I am so happy it is going to be loved and used. Otherwise it would probably just stay on my quilt ladder collecting dust ha!
This is definitely probably the happiest Meadowland I have ever made.
