Gotham Quilts' Yuma Blog Hop!

I did it!  I am so proud of having this quilt top done.

Forgive the ugly indoor classroom photo!  I brought it to school today because our campus is gorgeous, but couldn't find anyone to help with a photo shoot during lunch!  Here, this is one from my backyard yesterday..

You know, the more I look at this, the more I like it.
I love these fabrics, and the pattern is really striking, but, if you've been following my quilt journey for any length of time, you'll know that this was a big step outside my comfort zone.   Choose only 16 fabrics.  Cut all the pieces first.  Cut triangles on the bias before sewing..  Ah.  well, when I saw Ivete and Andrea with their sample quilt at the NYC Metro Mod meeting in June, I was bitten? kissed? by this quilt.  I really wanted to give it a try.  I'll admit, it was the thrill of the Quilt Along that lured me in initially, and the promise that I could use up large amounts of stash fabric quickly..
Plus I wanted to see if I could handle the challenge.  And, so long as you don't call the quilt police, I did pretty well.

 Look look, I even got a large amount of my points to match (enough for me).

So, about the pattern..
If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it.  If you are not experienced with triangles, you will learn so much.  Go here, download it for free now.

Now, I am not a pattern follower.  While complaining about that earlier this week, a good friend said, "But you write them so well!"  and I love her for the compliment, but the truth is, I feel much more comfortable with wiggle room, with space for error and growth, happy accidents.  I'm an improv quilter through and through.  That said, we all need to push our boundaries sometimes.  And one of the reasons I felt confident to take that risk here was that Andrea Deal is an amazing technical quilter.  I trusted that if anyone could guide me through untread forest, it would be her.  I was not disappointed.

This pattern is so well written, great for a visual learner.  Everything is color coded with fabric swatches so you can get your fabrics to end up where you want them.  There are even images of what will go wrong if you don't piece your triangles correctly.  I was SO impressed to see that step!  Saving us all the trouble of making the mistake on our own (you know you were going to.. it just happens).  The blank pattern is available on the Gotham Quilts blog so you can play around and color out your ideas before cutting any fabric.  And the shop owners are so kind and attentive.  I didn't ask questions along the way, but I'm sure you could.

I should note that I lengthened the original pattern by adding rows to the top and bottom.   I like the size, but have no idea how to quilt it.  I think I'll let it sit a while and then brows the #yumaqal hashtag on instagram to see what other quilters are doing with theirs.  Suggestions welcome, of course.