My B&C Gypsy Wife / Beauties Pageant 20

Here are a handful of many filler blocks for this project.

Soon after I started blogging, Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife pattern became all the rage. This reaction was merited: Jen’s design is beautiful, and the bohemian feel of her original Gypsy Wife is unlike anything I had seen.

But this pattern also had a reputation. The instructions were difficult to follow, and I knew multiple quilters personally who had started a Gypsy Wife and abandoned it before finishing. Plus, it’s a big project—only a special few make more than one!—and the idea of embarking on the quilt top, let along quilting it, intimidated me.

Last month, however, Rachel Hauser (Stitched in Color) and Kelli Heath (Scrappy Violet) teamed up to host the 2019 Gypsy Wife quilt-along. I thought that the event would give me the structure I needed to complete this quilt for myself.

I decided to make an airy version of Jen’s pattern. For the blocks themselves, I am digging into my Bonnie and Camille stash, focusing on fabrics in pink, red, aqua, green, and navy. I have yet to settle on a plan for the background stripes, but I’m thinking of sewing a combination of small geometrics (maybe dots?) in neutral colors, like cream and gray. Of course, I will also use a good dose of my favorite neutral, Kona Snow.

These are the four feature blocks I completed in January.

These are four more filler blocks.

Yup, more filler blocks!

So far February has provided no time to work on this quilt, but I have high hopes that will change—after all, the month is just halfway over. ; )

Those of you with a finish to share, now’s the time. (And if you have a finished Gypsy Wife, no matter how old, we would love to see it here!) Post your project to this week’s Beauties Pageant!

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.