Custom Van Quilt: minimal, monochrome, and …ambidextrous?

I had a unique request (my favorite kind) to make a custom quilt for a custom van, perfect for road trips. The customer wanted something bold and modern, sleek and minimalist, with zero color, and no white, please.

After presenting some grayscale design options, it was too hard to choose between classic and classy monochromatic flying geese (triangles) and the bold statement of a giant graphic X.

So we chose both.

A double Sided Quilt: Two Designs, One Statement Piece

Instead of picking just one layout, we leaned into indecision and made the quilt reversible, a flock of geese on one side, a striking X on the other. Like a mullet quilt, but with a party in the front and a different, but clearly related, party on the back. Two simultaneous parties, to which they RSVP-ed YES.

Designing two strong compositions that worked together but didn’t compete was a challenge, and that was just the beginning.

The Color Challenge: Gray on Gray on Gray

This was a challenge for a lot of different quilty reasons, but the biggest challenge for me personally was the color palette: gray, dark gray, darker gray, and black.

I'm a fan of color. ALL the colors. As many colors as will fit. But I gotta admit, the monochrome looks cool. Working within such tight parameters stretched my creative muscles, and now they’re even stronger.

The minimalist vibe feels sophisticated and tailored, perfect for the aesthetic of a sleek, modern customized Sprinter van.

And it’s not like I just had gray and black to work with. I had a whole bunch of lovely options. There was graphite, charcoal, pewter, metal, and don’t forget light gray and fog!

A Rainbow of Gray: Adding interest with Texture

With no bright colors or exciting prints to play with, I focused on tone and texture. I used mostly Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids, which have a lovely smooth finish, due to their tight weave. They’re as smooth as a cotton lawn, but the same weight as other quilting cottons.

I added some visual depth with Peppered Cottons by Studio E, which are yarn-dyed so they have a subtle cross-weave texture (pictured below in Charcoal and Deep Space).

And because I couldn't resist including a little touch of rainbow, I added a rainbow of gray into the binding. Just on one little 6 inch section, like the quilt is wearing a little accessory, maybe a wristband or a little ear cuff. Whichever one says ‘party ready’.

Reversible Quilt Challenges

If you’re a quilter, you might be wondering how one bastes and quilts a double sided quilt. I’ll admit, that was a challenge that I hadn’t fully anticipated, and one that admirers of the finished product would probably not notice or appreciate.

These minimal design enthusiasts were definitely wanting classic straight line quilting on their grayscale goddess (their monochrome majesty?). But how to align the horizontal quilting lines with the decidedly diagonal lines of the X side of the quilt?

This took some ingenuity with basting the geese half of the quilt onto the batting, then carefully trimming one corner and long side of the batting, so that I could line up the X side of the quilt relatively parallel to the geese side (sorry I didn’t take any pictures of this process, but frankly it wasn’t very photogenic).

If you were to pull out a protractor, you might spot some skewed angles, but as this quilt gets softer and crinklier with use, any angular discrepancies will become even less noticeable.

The Photo Shoot: Life O’ the Party

To celebrate this quilt’s bold style and moody palette, I took it on a little photo shoot in front of a tribute mural of the one and only Prince, with the intro to Let’s Go Crazy across it: “Dearly Beloved”. With all that gray, black, and contrast, it felt right at home with the Purple One’s iconic vibe.

This two-sided quilt gave off serious Controversy energy, and I couldn’t help but imagine it on the road in its custom van bed, having a Little Red Corvette kind of adventure. Maybe I was a little Delirious, but as I sent it off to its new home, I thought Take Me With You! But this Hot Thing is off to see every Erotic City in America.

(And yes, if you’re wondering, I did consider naming it Gray Rain.)