12 Jan Sew Solid Sunday #1

Welcome to the first Sew Solid Sunday!  I love, love, love working with solids.  I know there are some of you out there who love them too, but there are also some who’d like to give them a try, but just can’t quite make the jump from their beloved prints.  I’m hoping Sew Solid Sunday will give everyone some ideas and inspiration.

So here’s what I am planning: a Sew Solid Sunday post the second Sunday of every month (all that alliteration should help you remember which week 😉 ) featuring a project done in solids; a linky party where you can link to a blog post you’ve done since the last SSS featuring a project made with solid fabrics; a little giveaway for those who join the linky party; and maybe some tutorials.  What do you think?  What would you like to see?

On to the first project!  The #economyblockalong over on Instagram (and Flickr) grabbed my attention and I just had to join in.

An economy of red

A lot of people are doing adorable blocks with fussy cut centers, but I wanted to play with solids.  I used Rita’s tutorial to make 16 blocks that finish at 5″ – perfect for a 20″ pillow.  My house could really use some new pillows, so I chose an aqua-ish theme with a few red accents.  Specifically, the colors I used are Robert Kaufman Kona solids in seafoam, dusty blue, azure, bahama blue, white, snow, bone, eggshell, chinese red and poppy.  I used my usual process of laying out all the pieces randomly and then adjusting a bit from there.  With the trimming required, I wouldn’t call this a fast project, but with 16 blocks it wasn’t too slow either.

For the quilting, I treated the whole top as one economy block and quilted a square spiral in the center square, triangular spirals in the second layer and straight lines in the outer triangles.  I finished the back with a hidden zipper using my tutorial from the Linked Pillow Along and added the binding.