Modern Summery Palette | Loome Quilt

Modern, summery palette for a strip-based baby quilt. This fabric pull has watermelon vibes and can't wait to be squeezed!

Minimalist Quilt Patterns

Riane Elise Menardi is an inspiration to me. Her soothing minimalist quilts and exquisite photography—both process shots and finished quilt recording—soothe my soul. When her book Inheritance came out in 2017, I knew I was preordering it, and when she asked for pattern testers several weeks ago, I couldn’t think of a better quilter to partner with to get myself quilting again.

This year she is releasing monthly minimalist quilt patterns. So far, she has released the Sola quilt and the Harte quilt, pictured below (photo credit: Riane Menardi). See what I mean about her quilts and photography?

Sola Quilt by Riane Elise

Harte Quilt by Riane Elise

One of the next quilts in her series is the Loome Quilt, which will be released Sept 18, 2020, and I am honored to be testing the pattern before its release. Although, I can’t show you the full quilt yet, I can tell you that it is strip-based, and that Riane does a great job to provide a suggestions for where to put light/medium/dark colors to amp up the composition.

Color Palette

I opted for a summery color palette with watermelon vibes. These are some of my favorite solids that I’ve been vibing with for several years now! Pictured below (left to right):

• Swirling - from my fabric collection Coastal Orchards by Benartex Fabrics

• Empire Yellow - Art Gallery, Pure Elements solids

• Peach Sorbet - Kona Cotton

• Coral - Michael Miller, Cotton Couture solids

• Soft White - Michael Miller, Cotton Couture solids (not pictured)

As I started cutting fabric, I realized that I had one fabric too many in my palette since I was planning to use white for the background. Empire Yellow got nixed because I really wanted that peach-coral color play.

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Next Up: Strip Piecing

Just finished pinning the strips together during a Zoom call. Maybe I can sneak in some quick seams and a few more pics today! Follow other pattern testers and quilters making this quilt on Instagram with #LoomeQuilt and follow my progress @LovelyandEnough

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Modern Courthouse Quilt | featuring navy Pistachios

I can't get enough of the Modern Courthouse Baby quilt pattern. This is the fourth I have made. Someone needs to stop me. The pattern is just so perfect for highlighting a hand-printed panel while maintaining a minimal aesthetic.

This little guy was happy to be my quilt model while we were hanging out one afternoon. I mean, who wouldn't rather lay on a quilt on a warm fall day than go car shopping with mom and dad? And how perfect that he was wearing such a fun citron diaper, since I didn't manage to sneak any citron into this quilt. Pudgy thighs, stylish cloth diaper, quilt to be photographed: it was a match made in quilting heaven.

Sometimes picking out binding and backing can prove tricky, but with my hand-dandy quilt consultant (aka boyfriend) along, it went very smoothly. First, he pulled this lovely lightweight denim off the shelf at Joann that matched perfectly. Navy with a bit of a fleck, I could not have chosen better myself. Then when I sliced it up, I realized the fabric is automatically on the bias. That is what I call WINNING in the binding fabric department.

For the back, I was hoping for a grey or navy lowkey print or solid. When the quilt consultant suggested robot for his nephew's quilt, I was rather skeptical. Robots? For a minimal modern quilt? However, after circling the store a second time, I started to appreciate the minimal nature of the robots he had chosen. As you can see below, robots won.

This quilt should have arrived at is new home last week! I hope that the second little guy who gets to lie on it likes it just as much as the first.

Check out the other versions of the Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt (named by their centers):

Minty Long-legged

Citron Hortensia

Navy and Citron Hortensia

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Navy and Grey Courthouse Baby Quilt in Progress

I have found my go-to baby quilt pattern. This Spring, my Mom made a modern baby quilt that highlighted one of hand-printed fabrics, and just like that, she started an addiction. This is the third one I have made now. For the center of this modern courthouse baby quilt, I printed a panel of navy and white pistachios to pair with the bold Lotta Jansdotter stripe and solids I had chosen. The panel was a tad subtler than I intended, but I forged ahead. I am so happy with how bold and modern this one is turning out!

Check out the other versions of the Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt (named by their centers):

Minty Long-legged

Citron Hortensia

Navy and Citron Hortensia

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Finished

Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt | featuring minty Longlegged

My cousin is having a baby! We all know what that means: baby quilt time. Her nursery colors are mint and grey, and she is expecting a boy. Mint and grey boy baby quilt. Challenge accepted.

My mom (also an avid quilter) and I decided to tag team the effort. I picked out my coveted minty long-legged flamingo fabric print to use as the central print. (After all, if I will not cut into my hoarded fabric for family, is there anyone I will cut into it for?) Then my mom went to Pink Castle Fabrics to find more greys and mints. (I may have slowly siphoned them all out of her stash and into mine...)

Mom decided to pattern the quilt after our mutual quilt-design idol, Hopewell Quilts. Although Hopewell has closed their doors, you can still find many of their quilts on Pinterest and Instagram. The pattern we chose was their modern Courthouse Steps variation.

There were many iterations of color choices. Sometimes choosing just four fabrics is much harder than choosing ten! I didn't see or feel the final product until my cousin opened it at her baby shower, but backed in light gray double gauze, it's just about the softest cutest minimal modern baby quilt I've ever seen. (I, of course, am biased, but there you have it.)

I now want to make a baby quilt for every one of my hand-printed fabrics. It requires less than a fat quarter of the focal print and then can be paired with solids and low volumes from your stash or local quilting shop. Which of the prints in my shop would you like to see made into a baby quilt next?

In all honesty: I have an entire slew of photos ready to post about the second Modern Courthouse Quilt I just finished a few nights ago, but I realized that I should perhaps post the inspiration first.