petal patch quilt

This quilt is all for me...

or so I tell myself.  My youngest has already claimed this as his own. The good news, though, is that it's too heavy for him to carry around.

Living in a house filled with boys doesn't give me much chance for pinks and pretty flowers.  Not that I was ever really into either of those things, but after you've been surrounded by dirt and weird smells for a while, you start to crave the prettier things.

I picked up a charm pack of Puttin on the Ritz at my local quilt shop because I love the combination of pale pinks, light blues, and soft grays.  For the center and corner blocks, I used the disappearing 9 patch technique but added a little sashing in the middle.  To offset the subtle colors in the charm pack, I added a bold red to the corner blocks and a bright green dot fabric to the center.

On the other blocks, I used scraps to create a petal design.  Once I was happy with the design, I used the first one as a template for the others and just rotated the blocks.  I love the fun and vibrant colors in these petals.  If I was going to make this quilt again, I would use the same type of bold colors on the patchwork blocks to give it even more color.

Deciding on the quilting technique was easy this time.  I knew I wanted to draw attention to the petals using a growing outline design (I outlined the petals over and over again moving further out each time).  Then to mimic the petals, I used a meandering petal design on the patchwork blocks to help them blend into the backgroun and bring even more attention to the petal blocks.

I finished the quilt top with a gorgeous pink flower print border.  I found this at JoAnn's and now I wish I would have bought more.  It's a perfect pink color for me . . . not too bright and not too pink.

For the binding, I chose a gray dot fabric.  I almost when with blue to try to offset the pink and bring out the blues in the quilt, but I am so glad that I changed to gray.  The gray allows the focus to remain on the quilt top and doesn't steal away any attention.  Plus, dots are my favorite print for binding.

This quilt has already nursed me through a terrible ear infection, so it's definitely a keeper.

Here is what happens when you face the wrong way during the photo shoot.  But what a cute little bugger trying to help me hold up the quilt.

This quilt measures 55 inches by 51 inches.