December 08, 2015

Jewel Box Wedding Quilt

Now that my brother, Adam, and sister-in-law, Sandrine, have received their quilt, I can finally share it here!
I debated for a long time what pattern I wanted to use for their quilt. Then Lee, of Freshly Pieced, posted a tutorial for a Jewel Box baby quilt, which I loved. I upsized it from Lee's 4 block x 4 block layout to an 8 x 9 layout and ordered Kona solids for the top.

While we were in Nova Scotia last Christmas, Mom, Sandrine and I went fabric shopping. Sandrine was constantly drawn to quilts made in autumn colours, and was also wearing a scarf in those colours, so I chose red, orange, yellow, green and black for their quilt.

What amazes me about this quilt is that no one would ever guess it is exactly half black.Every single coloured piece is paired with a matching black piece, and yet the black seems to take up so much less of the quilt. Those bright colours really do pop, don't they?

The quilting took me a long time, mostly because I kept putting it aside to work on other, smaller, things. That's the problem with making a quilt for a wedding gift after the wedding...there's no deadline! However, I will point out that we are still in the same calendar year that the wedding was in, so I'm declaring it done on time :)

I quilted the triangles first and had a lot of fun with this design. I marked the center point of the long side of each triangle and then just freehanded the design. That means no two are exactly alike, but they seem to work okay as a whole.
Pardon these linty pictures...that Kona black really shows up every little bit of fluff!
I had no idea how I would quilt the black part of the quilt, so next I started in on the green squares. I tried quilting these in lines as long as I could manage without needing to stop and start again, so these quilted up really quickly. Again, no two squares look exactly the same.
One evening, when I finished a long line of the green squares, I laid the quilt out on the floor to see how much I had left to go and where I wanted to start the next line. I was pleasantly surprised to find I was almost finished. I also really liked how the back of the quilt looked with the black not quilted at all.
I stared at it for a long time, wondering if I needed to quilt the black, and if so, how I would quilt it. Eventually I decided I'd leave the black plain, so instead of being about halfway through the quilting, I suddenly found myself almost finished! That's one way to finish quickly!

As always, I love the look of the back!
This is another finish for my Quarter 4 list for the year (after this quilt made an appearance on three lists!). So far I've finished three of the five things on that list, so I feel like I'm doing pretty well.

Adam and Sandrine, here's hoping you have many, many years to read, watch movies and nap under your quilt! We love you both!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social, NTT, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday.

17 comments:

  1. This is just gorgeous! It is funny to realize that exactly half the fabrics are black. It doesn't seem at all dark!

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  2. Your quilting looks great! I love the colors with the black background, I hadn't thought to make one with black.

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  3. I totally stared at the quilt; you are right that I would never guess it is half black - how cool! Congratulations on getting this quilt finished and gifted; I hope they love it.

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  4. Oh, its stunning! I agree, the bright colors do stand out against the black, making the black look less prominent. I think those were perfect color choices. The quilting is fabulous to - I'm amazed you made the quilting on the triangles so symmetrical freehand. Beautiful!

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  5. Amazing! I love the colours. It doesn't seem possible that half is black -- you barely notice it with all the great colours. Great finish.

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  6. I love your quilt, and that's it such a play with colour, beautiful quilting!

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  7. This looks stunning on a black background, and when I compared this to your orginial link, I almost didn't recognize it! What a lovely present for your brother and his wife... I'm sure that they are over the moon thrilled about it! The quilting looks very nice, and it was a good choice to not quilt the black.

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  8. Bravo Leanne! This is such a beautiful quilt. I love the way those brights look against the black background. And the quilting is simply perfect! Just gorgeous!

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  9. Very striking quilt--I know they will love it!

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  10. Woo hoo! Great finish, Leanne! I'm sure your brother and SIL will love it. Such bright fun colours pop wonderfully against the black.

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  11. The colors really do pop against the black. I was surprised with your observation about it being half black and started running through (in my mind) how each of the colors would be added... and of course, you're right. That's so cool how the finished product is more than the sum of its parts.

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  12. A beautiful wedding quilt Leanne! The colors you combined are gorgeous! I love autumn. And the quilting looks just perfect!

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  13. A lovely quilt with great colour choices. The black is what makes them pop so well and the quilting is great too, I enjoy that kind of quilting myself.

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  14. This is awesome! What an amazing gift. :-)

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  15. Goodness, Leanne, that is one gorgeous quilt! Whoop whoop!!

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  16. I can attest that it looks even better in reality. Thank you so much Leanne, such a gorgeous gift you made!! Cheers Adam and Sandrine

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  17. You are right. It doesn't look 50% black. I love how the bright colors pop and show off your quilting.

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