In the beginning

While working on the monochromatic minimalist quilt, I must have been subconsciously sending a message into the universe to send me the exact opposite of that palette to me somehow. And it worked. And now the very next piece I’m tasked with creating contains no part of the grayscale. I have put away my black, pewter, and charcoal solids and am now completely buried in saturated color prints in 24 hues and a large number of yellow stars.  

I have never been a fan of batik fabric until I started sourcing materials for this order, and came across the Modern Handcrafted batiks and indigos from Alison Glass and the modern Indah Batiks from Me + You for Hoffman fabrics. They’re perfect. And gorgeous. And soft and reversible and add so much dimension to the piece. 

I would never have picked this pattern for myself, but I am so glad it was chosen because I am learning so much about color to get the gentle gradient right, and my quilt math is out of control to enlarge it to the requested California king size.  

Here is the first panel completed. This will be a rather ample quilt, lots of overhang, and so this panel makes up only about a tenth (maybe an eighth?) of the final product. You can see why I have dubbed it #rainbowmagnumopus on instagram, and why I simply refer to it as the monster or the behemoth, in everyday conversation.  

here it is with the pattern cover so you can get a taste of what the final layout looks like.