Carousel Quilt

Done! Yay. I absolutely adore this quilt. It measure 66″ x 75″. Perfect size for a tea party, a picnic at the beach and a nap on the couch (it easily stretches from chin to toes).

If you’re not familiar with this latest collection by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit I’ll share some details. It’s home dec weight cotton, 54″ in length. The 6 ‘blocks’ in the middle of this quilt are a good old fashioned cheater print called Patchwork Promenade. The panel is one yard of fabric that features 6 classic Denyse Schmidt blocks printed on the fabric. I had a friend come by the other day, even looking at the quilt top up close she couldn’t figure out where my piecing began and the cheater print ended.

I’m really excited to offer this pattern as a free download. The design is based on using 54″ length strips which makes cutting and piecing an easy afternoon project. It’s a jumbo log cabin. What I like about the design is that you sew the strips on in their selvage to selvage lengths and trim as you go. No precision cutting, pinning or matching of seams.

I can totally see making this with any of the new home decor weight collections. While this quilt uses the DSQ cheater print panel as the center, any 1 yard cut of 54″ fabric can be put there. That’s exactly what I’m going to be trying out over the coming weeks.

It also occurred to me that you could easily turn this into a Twin size bed quilt by adding one more 10″ strip across the bottom which would make this quilt 66″ x 85″.

I used Kona Cotton Curry for the binding. I’ve never done a solid binding before. I felt the top had so much going on I wanted something to tone it down and bring it together. I’m really happy with the Curry color, it works nicely against the blue back as well as the front.

I’ve put together a kit for this exact quilt top in the shop. You’ll need to provide your own backing, binding and batting materials.

Have fun!

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And for the ultra-observant crowd: there’s a little strip of Ribbon Floral fabric visible on the upper left hand side of the cheater print. Remember how I said I was keeping a panel for myself when this fabric first came in? Well I didn’t. Instead I sold the one I had held back for myself and kept the last one on the bolt, the one that was missing a 2″ sliver right there. I’m really happy about being able to selvage that panel and make such a fabulous quilt with it.