I am back with another Peanut Butter Quilt make! Earlier this year I wrote and released a FREE quilt pattern called the Peanut Butter Quilt. It is named after Alysson's dog and only because I couldn't think of a different name. :) And after we launched this pattern, we hosted a casual Sew Along as well. But before we jump into this quilt, here are some links to grab the pattern and read about the other two quilts we've made!
For the Peanut Butter SAL, I wanted to make another scrappy style quilt but in a very different color way. The first scrappy PB Quilt had low volume large squares with bright smaller strips and small squares. So I essentially did the inverse, I wanted low volume small strips with darker larger squares. And then the small squares are all a variety of acid lime color fabrics.
Also, as I was thinking of what type of colors I wanted, I started to think about making this quilt for Everett as a surprise. I made him a bed quilt when he was about three or four and he has been asking for a new one for about a year. So that's when I shifted gears to focus on blues and deep greens and see what unfolded as I started going through my stash.
Oh that is such a yummy stack of fabrics. Because I was pulling from my stash, I went into this not really knowing how many squares I would cut from each fabric. Some of these fabrics are like 8" x 9" and some are FQs, some are half yards, etc. So it really was just getting to the total number of 5" squares needed more than an equal number of each fabric.
Also, the low volume stack I used in this quilt for the strips, is the same stack of fabric I used for the big squares in the other scrappy PB. So, here are all my fabrics cut out and organized.
At this point, I started chain piecing my cut fabrics together. One of my favorite things about the PB quilt is the rhythmic therapy it provides. I love being able to listen to music, watch a show or sit in silence and mindless move my hands. Well not completely mindless because sewing machines can be powerful - gotta protect those fingers! But, there is a good amount of chain piecing and I love that.
You assemble this quilt in sections - making Peanut Butter blocks and then sashing units and then sew it into quadrants. Every single seam is pressed to the side. It is nesting heaven! For this first round, I sewed half of my 5" squares to the low volume strips. Then I pressed all those seams before adding the second half of my 5" squares.
Now I added the rest of my 5" squares to make "square/strip/square" units.
Now, it's time to make all of the sashing units which are "strip/small square/strip". It's the same type of chain piecing, where I add one square to half of the strips, then press and then add the second half of the strips to the other side of the square.
Here are all my striped pieced units together. So now to create a PB block, you sew 2 of the larger square units to either side of one of the sashing units. You will have lots of extra sashing units at this phase that get attached during the quadrant assembly.
And you can see in the stacks that for each unit, we pressed towards the strip pieces. This is what creates the nested seams throughout the quilt top.
I realize now that I didn't take a single photo of one PB block. Woops! I did however get on an Instagram Live each week of the SAL and you can watch me walk through weekly how I created this quilt top.
Welp, here is the finished quilt top!! I super duper love this. It has some prints I have kept for years and years. And I used a mix of geometric prints, animal prints, stripes and plaids. I love the little red tigers that pop up on the low volume strips. So happy with it's depth of color but still its playfulness.
I decided to let Everett choose the fabric he wanted for the backing and have some say on the pantograph used for the quilting. He immediately said he wanted the soft cozy backing that I used on the Sidewalk Chalk Quilt I made him years ago. I let him pick the color and he chose a gorgeous teal Cuddle. I also was able to buy 90" wide so I didn't have to piece any seam for the backing. And for the pantograph, I showed him some of my favorite and he said he liked the idea of a flame vibe. We ended up going with Time Warp and it turned out so good. The texture is AMAZING. Emily of So Sunny Quilts recommended not doing the quilting as dense as I typically want but it makes the cuddle backing less drape-y and soft. So we did a slightly larger repeat and it turned out wonderful.
I bound the quilt with a classic black and white stripe and then added a small pop of an Acid Lime Add It Up. Also, the thread we used is blue! BLUE THREAD! It is so fun on this quilt top and blends into the minky so well on the back.
I snapped some photos of his bed with the new quilt on it. It is 75% stuffed animals and only 25% for sleeping. ha!
And you can see in the stacks that for each unit, we pressed towards the strip pieces. This is what creates the nested seams throughout the quilt top.
