To recap, I curated the Rejoice quilt in early 2022 and announced it in October 2022 and it finally shipped to us very end of 2022. I have shared about my Rejoice Sienna Burst quilt and my Rejoice Nova Star quilt. The Rejoice FQ Bundle includes 20 Kona Cotton solids and is one of the happiest, most cheerful bundles I've ever curated.
I immediately knew I wanted to use the Meadowland Quilt Pattern to showcase this new color palette. A few reasons why are:
1. I love making the Meadowland Quilt Pattern.
2. The pattern is written to use 20 FQs so I didn't have to do anything special to adjust the material requirements to fit the bundle.
3. I love how the Meadowland pattern showcases larger cuts of fabric as well as mix + matches them all together. A swirl of beauty!
4. It is a fast make and I was on a time crunch.
When deciding on what background fabric I wanted to use for the quilt top, I knew I wanted to stick with the creative challenge of using a non-white color. I share more about this idea in the previous Rejoice blogposts. But, having used some very saturated background colors - Kona Glacier, Waterfall, + Spice, I knew I wanted a more subtle background. I decided to go with my favorite "neutral but not white" color of Kona Lingerie. It is a warm soft light blush color.
This is the one Rejoice sample I did actually sew myself. We were on a tight deadline but I kept this one for myself. I am so glad I did because it was the first time I really got to play with mixing the fabrics together. I love how the fabrics look all stacked into their like piles but then the mixing + matching that happens before sewing - it is magical.
The Meadowland blocks come together rather quickly. I took photos of my top four favorite blocks. They all have this beautiful soothing glow to them.
The blocks all came together smoothly and quickly. I think I spent maybe 15 minutes laying them out on the floor to pick their final placement in the quilt top. The two colors I was most focused on were Pepper (the dark black) and Acid Lime (neon green). They are such bold colors, I wanted to be sure they were spaced well throughout the quilt top so the eye can dance around them. And specifically, not draw the eye to harshly to one single section or point. I really like how the layout ended up.
One of the reason's Meadowland is a quick make is there is no sashing. So, when assembling the quilt top, it is fast and simple. My favorite kind of make. Also, this quilt top was SO fun to photograph. The soft rolling curves of the crinkled quilt reminds me of those wavy candies? Or just happy swirly lolly pops. So happy.
I could not stop taking photos.
These large cuts of fabrics were all four backings I choose for the Rejoice Samples. The top one is Grapemist which is what I choose to back this Meadowland in. And then we chose to bind the quilt in Bright Idea, the bottom color. Yummy.
We drove around Portland trying to find a fun outdoor wall to snap some full photos in. We found this deep blue wall but the lighting was hard here and then we found this amazing graffiti wall, actually part of the buildings decor and boom, perfect match!
My friend Emily of So Sunny Quilts longarm quilted each of our Rejoice samples. For Meadowland, I knew right away what pantograph I wanted to use. I have been pretty enamored with Moon Phases. I think this is our third or fourth quilt recently made using it. It is a curved and small repetitive pantograph. I love the density and the texture.
If you didn't know, we flew to Hawaii in summer 2022 to visit friends but also to get these photos taken with our longtime photographer, Amy. Amy and her family moved to Hawaii this past year and I really wanted her to photograph this project for me. So all of these finished quilt photos were taken in Oahu. To be back there now, heaven.
GASP. The texture is perfection. Oh also! We used a soft lavender colored thread and it really is gorgeous.
I just can't get over this texture and feel. And Amy even said she couldn't stop photographing this quilt. I came out of this project with Meadowland having the most images ha! I see why though.
I specifically picked this hotel and this room for the photoshoot environment. The bold leaf wallpaper is super fun and happy. We really enjoyed staying here.
After we did our photoshoot in the hotel room, we drove to a gorgeous rocky beach with big waves. We stopped and bought Thai food and our families ate together and played in the sand and the water. Amy and I spent time with each Rejoice sample and took photos. When we started shooting this Meadowland quilt, the wind picked up like CRAZY. It was nuts. And this was Amy's first time seeing how difficult "quilts in the wild could be". I was laughing at how ridiculous it was.
We found some small hidden little leafy alcoves to take some full photos in; hoping to barricade the quilt from the wind.
We next had a little Hawaiian picnic. Amy bought candy colored cakes and fruit and flowers from a local market.
The Rejoice Meadowland was my 12th Meadowland and it may be my favorite. I adore her.
