I Can't Believe I Made A Chevron Quilt!

The most popular thing in home decorating these days seems to be chevron.  I firmly dislike the pattern and most especially dislike it when it's aqua or fluorescent pink or dreaded yellow.  I have no idea why I feel so strongly about it, I just do.

I have always said I'd never do anything in chevron.

And then I saw a quilt that someone did in a chevron but for some reason, it really caught my eye.  It was just two colors and one was a print and it didn't scream LOOK AT ME, I.AM.CHEVRON like all of the other things I had seen have always done.

I needed a pattern for a baby quilt that was different from what I usually do.  I decided I didn't want to do anything with applique.  A plain old log cabin just wasn't going to do it.

And then I thought perhaps I could do that lime green/print combo I had seen on the one chevron I enjoyed.  I didn't really want to do lime green but I thought pink and brown would be divine.

And then I realized I had no idea how to go about doing a chevron.  I thought it might be based on a log cabin idea but I couldn't really wrap my head around it.

So I googled free chevron quilt pattern and found Riley Blake Designs.  I had to laugh when I realized what site I was on  because recently, my sister received some fabric from Riley Blake, and it was a total coincidence that I was on that site!

I started wandering around the site, looking at the free patterns and nothing was doing it for me.  I was getting pretty far down and almost gave up when I saw this.  It's called Road Map and  I thought it would be perfect.

Where I was originally going to just use a pink and a brown, I somehow ended up with 3 browns and 2 pinks and 2 whites.

What got this whole thing started was this pink and brown print.  I was going to just use a pink to offset it and make it with just those two colors.

The pattern gave great yardage requirements but because I was using all scraps, I could not do the math.  At. All.  So I started looking around for what I had.  The way the pattern goes, you don't use the same exact fabric through the whole chevron.  So, for example, where you see the long pink chevron, there would be one pink and then going the next way would be another pink and so on in a somewhat random fashion.  I like the idea, but couldn't really do it.

So, I did each chevron as its own scheme.

I also though that the white would be a good way to break things up and I am REALLY glad I did it.  It's for a baby and I think just pink and brown would be a little too over the top.

Normally, I do all rainbow colors for baby quilts.  Lots of primary colors screaming their loudness.  I realize that I am about 3 years behind the suave baby trend of using these colors (or mint and brown or blue and brown) and that's about when I bought the pink and brown print that was my original fabric.  But, she's a baby.  She probably won't care.

Putting this quilt together was such a breeze.  The pattern literally says sew your strips together, cut  and refer to the picture for placement!  It was the easiest thing I've done.

And I decided to tie it.  I'm fed up with the way I do quilt as you go.  It keeps ending up bulkier than I want.  Tieing is what I always did, so I'm back to that for a while.

I wanted to put something slightly juvenile on the back, so I went with a butterfly print.  I was hoping I would not have to actually buy anything to make this as I have plenty of fabric stashed and I had already bought a lot of batting.  I had about 1 foot too little of the fabric I wanted to use.  For a minute, I thought I might just use two fabrics on the back, but I wanted to wrap the edges up from the back and I don't like it when there are two fabrics involved.

I had the most bizarre discussion at Joann Fabrics with an employee who wanted to help me as I was picking out this fabric.  She has been there forever and will help if I ask, but no one in the store is overly ready to help.  She ran up to me and was cooing and oooing and I was like WTF?  She wanted to see the quilt and then was trying to help me find a backing.  I already had my idea but she wanted to make suggestions.  She thought a chevron print on the back would be great.  I had actually just had that thought and then didn't like it but she made me look at her suggestion anyway. I really don't like service like this, unless I ask.   I decided to go with the butterflies despite her efforts.  I seriously think she thought I was someone else when she came running up that way.  But, it was 9:01am, so maybe she was still in a good mood.

Are your Joann Fabrics employees as frazzled as mine?  That place is always so unpleasant but I don't have other options unless I want to pay tons and tons of money for fabrics at a quilt shop.   I know the fabric is usually a higher quality at quilt shops, but I just want to throw up at their prices.

Once I decided how I wanted to tie it, it went pretty fast.  I tied the "top" points on each of the zigzags.  Otherwise, there were too many open spots.  Then I wrapped up the edges and sewed them to the top of the quilt.

I will absolutely make this pattern again.  I actually want to do a navy, white and turquoise.  I have no idea where that's coming from but it's calling to me.  The nice thing about this is that you can keep going or stop whenever you're ready.  I made mine about 3 rows shorter than the pattern but I like it.  It's mostly square this way.

I suppose that there is a way to do the math so you know exactly how much you would need if you want to alter the size and actually buy fabric.  I usually don't bother with trying to do math and just go with what I have and hope it works for the best because a math problem will surely take the joy out of sewing!

Linking here:
http://www.myturnforus.com/
http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/
http://thefrugalgirls.com/2013/08/link-up-parties.html
http://mommifried.com/ladies-only-blog-share/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/08/clever-chicks-blog-hop-46-with-two.html
http://www.skiptomylou.org
http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2013/08/wednesdays-adorned-from-aboves-link.html
http://www.thewonderingbrain.com/
http://www.cherishedhandmadetreasures.com
http://www.glitterglueandpaint.com/throwback-thursday-24/