A few weeks ago Sara at SewSweetness announced a quilt sew-along using the Tessellation Quilt pattern by Alison Glass and Nydia Kehnle. I’ve mostly avoided quilting because it seemed like a huge time commitment. I figured I would get started and end up with half a quilt in a pile in the corner that would never be finished.

The sew-along provided some motivation for me to finish and it was fun to watch everyone else’s quilts come together as I watched their instagram feeds. (#tessellationsal) I also really enjoyed learning to put together the quilt using paper piecing. It was much more enjoyable than cutting out pieces so precisely.

I have finished my quilt top, and now I have the backing and quilting to look forward to. I haven’t chosen a backing fabric yet, though I’m leaning toward a solid fabric with a stripe of scraps across the back. I also like the idea of hand quilting it along the diagonal lines.

For the fabric lovers, I have used 2 bundles of Anna Maria Horner fabric from her Dowry and Pretty Potent lines, mixed with a bundle of Cotton & Steel basics in Splash. The quilt pattern called for more solid prints, but I decided that I wanted something more cozy for the living room. I would love to try making this again with solid fabrics and playing with the color placement a bit more. You could really make some amazing effects with the blocks placed in different places or with the color fading into another color.

I did not plan my blocks ahead of time. I tried to use the fabrics equally but used similar ideas for each block. For example, my “C” blocks all have the same fabric on both sides creating a “sandwich”. The “D” blocks all fade from lighter to darker. I tried to make some of the blocks mostly orange, some mostly dark blue, and some mostly light blue to allow the triangle shapes to stand out among the busy prints. Winging it is probably not the best quilting strategy, but for the cozy look I wanted—random worked.

So, here is my finished Tessellation Quilt top, ready to be backed and quilted.

If you use instagram, and feel so inclined…there is a prize for the most regrammed finished quilt top picture. Please feel free to share!

What do you think? How should I quilt it?

Also linked at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.